Changelog

0.10.1

Small print — Sessions catalog entries now include a "Small Print" field for Program Committee notes (talk positioning, what it is/isn't, reviewer context).

0.10.0

Sessions catalog — New sessions-catalog.md file in the vault for maintaining submission-ready conference materials (title, abstract, outline) per active talk.

• Added Sessions Catalog section to presentation-creator SKILL.md with read/write rules: when to pull from the catalog (before writing a new CFP), when to save (after CFP writing or Phase 4 outline finalization), and maintenance guidelines
• CFP Abstract Writing flow now includes step 5: save to sessions catalog
• Added sessions-catalog.md to the vault skill's Key Files table
• Anti-pattern checking recommended on catalog entries before saving (public-facing text)

0.7.0

Canonical vault path — The vault now uses ~/.claude/rhetoric-knowledge-vault/ as a fixed, discoverable location. No more asking "where should the vault live?" every session. Custom locations (e.g., Google Drive) are symlinked to the canonical path.

• Vault discovery replaces config bootstrapping for vault_root — checks canonical path first, creates or symlinks on first run
• New vault_storage_path config field tracks the actual directory when using a custom location
• Updated presentation-creator to read vault from the canonical path directly
• Updated eval instructions (+2 new vault discovery instructions) and scenario-1 criteria (canonical path check)
• README updated to reflect new vault location behavior

0.6.2

Maintenance — Version bump and CLI publish.

0.6.1

Eval scenarios — Added 5 new server-generated eval scenarios via tessl scenario generate, covering both skills end-to-end. Reviewed and fixed all 15 scenarios for quality, then ran the full eval suite (baseline avg 62% → with-skill avg 98%).

New scenarios (5)

• Multilingual rhetoric analysis with language policy and pattern scoring
• Presentation outline with typed placeholders and callbacks
• python-pptx deck generation with template stripping and notes injection
• Guardrail check format and 4-tier pattern strategy
• Speaker profile JSON generation from vault data

Scenario fixes

• Removed instruction leakage from python-pptx scenario (replaced numbered output spec with high-level ask)
• Fixed factual error in guardrail scenario (Act 1 ratio math: 51.7% → 43.3% to correctly test the WARN threshold)
• Fixed infeasible criteria (replaced MCP-only optimize_slide_text with python-pptx overflow handling)
• Fixed transcript pre-translating Russian phrases (defeated the English-only quote format test)
• Fixed ambiguous download results in status management scenario (added video_extraction field, clarified planning-time vs download-outcome for slide_source)
• Added missing capability.txt files to all new scenarios
• Tightened subjective criteria wording across all scenarios

0.5.5

Video-extracted slides — When no slides file exists, extract slides directly from video: ffmpeg frame extraction → crop to slide area (exclude PiP) → perceptual hash deduplication → combine into PDF. Marks slide_source: "video_extracted".

0.5.4

Non-YouTube video support — Step 3A now supports ingesting talks from InfoQ, Vimeo, conference platforms, and any source yt-dlp supports. Downloads audio via yt-dlp -f http_audio, transcribes locally with MLX Whisper (Apple Silicon) or OpenAI Whisper. Tags transcript source as "whisper" vs "youtube_auto".

0.5.3

Data integrity fixes:

• Summary status recount: Step 4 now rewrites the summary Status block by counting the tracking DB every time. The DB is the source of truth; the summary is a derived view. Fixes stale tallies from manual incrementing.
• Structured field extraction: Step 4 now requires populating co_presenter, delivery_language, and other structured DB fields directly from analysis results, not burying them in rhetoric_notes free text.

0.5.2

Blind spot clarification + language policy — Two additions to the vault skill:

• Step 5A-bis (Blind Spots): After analyzing each talk, the skill identifies moments it knows it missed (audience reactions, costume/prop moments, room energy, demo engagement) and asks the speaker. Stores as blind_spot_observations.
• Language policy: The vault is English-only. Non-English talks are analyzed and stored in English with translated quotes, language-tagged verbal signatures, and delivery_language on the talk entry. Prevents non-English content from polluting the signature list or rhetoric summary.

0.5.1

Robustness & conciseness — Addressed gaps found during tile review and tightened both skills for the review gate.

Robustness fixes

• Made vault→creator pattern index path explicit with tile-root-relative path
• Added pattern taxonomy migration: Step 1 detects pre-v0.5.0 talks missing pattern_observations and marks them needs-reprocessing
• Added clarification_sessions_completed counter to tracking DB config
• Added LibreOffice CLI as cross-platform PDF export alternative
• Clarified Step 3B firing conditions

Conciseness improvements

• Vault SKILL.md: 285 → 207 lines. Consolidated reference file list into Key Files table, collapsed config bootstrapping, tightened PPTX/PDF handling, moved Step 5B questions to schemas.md, compressed profile mapping and badges
• Creator SKILL.md: 263 → 230 lines. Merged vault loading steps, condensed Phase 2 decisions table, removed summary-only mode table (now inline)
• Review threshold lowered to 85 (vault conciseness 2/3 has no actionable feedback per the optimizer)

0.5.0

Presentation Patterns integration — Integrated the pattern taxonomy from Presentation Patterns (Ford, McCullough, Schutta 2013) as a structured reference, vault scoring system, and brainstorming vocabulary across both skills. Patterns are classified as observable (scored by the vault) or unobservable (surfaced as a go-live checklist before delivery).

Pattern taxonomy (88 new files)

• 88 reference files (63 patterns + 25 antipatterns) organized by lifecycle phase (prepare/build/deliver) with YAML frontmatter: id, name, type, part, phase_relevance, vault_dimensions, detection_signals, related_patterns, inverse_of, difficulty, and observable (true by default, false for 11 entries)
• Master index (references/patterns/_index.md): flat catalog table, phase-grouped lookup, vault dimension reverse mapping, and unobservable patterns go-live checklist
• Each file includes: summary, detailed description, when to use/avoid, detection heuristics, 3-tier scoring criteria, vault dimension mapping, and combinatorics

Observable vs unobservable split

• 77 observable patterns are detectable from transcripts + slides and scored during vault analysis
• 11 unobservable patterns (8 patterns + 3 antipatterns) involve pre-event logistics, physical stage behaviors, or external systems that leave no trace in recordings:
  • Pre-event: Preparation, Carnegie Hall, Stakeout, Posse, Seeding Satisfaction, Shoeless
  • During delivery: Lightsaber, Red/Yellow/Green
  • Antipatterns to avoid: Laser Weapons, Bunker, Backchannel
• Unobservable patterns are marked observable: false in their frontmatter, excluded from vault scoring and pattern_profile, and surfaced as a go-live preparation checklist in creator Phase 6

Vault scoring (4 modified files)

• Subagents now tag talks against the observable pattern taxonomy during analysis (Step 3 B2), skipping patterns marked observable: false
• pattern_observations field added to both subagent return schema and tracking database talk entries (schemas.md)
• Per-talk analysis files now include a "Presentation Patterns Scoring" section
• Step 6 generates an aggregate pattern_profile in the speaker profile with mastery levels, usage trends, signature combinations, antipattern frequency, and never-used patterns (observable only)
• Pattern-based badges generated from profile data (e.g., "Narrative Arc Master", "Shortchanged Survivor", "Pattern Polyglot")
• pattern_profile section added to speaker-profile-schema.md with documentation that only observable patterns are included
• All 14 rhetoric dimensions in rhetoric-dimensions.md cross-referenced with their related patterns and antipatterns

Creator integration (3 modified files)

• Phase 0: Loads references/patterns/_index.md alongside vault documents
• Phase 2 (Architecture): Decision #10 "Pattern Strategy" — 4-tier recommendation system using pattern_profile:
  • Signature (80%+ usage) — always shown
  • Contextual — matching spec context, occasional speaker usage
  • New to You — from never-used patterns, filtered by relevance
  • Shake It Up — random picks, provocations not prescriptions
  • Plus antipattern warnings merging speaker history + contextual detection
• Phase 4 (Guardrails): Section 9B adds taxonomy-based antipattern scanning with [RECURRING] flags from pattern_profile.antipattern_frequency and [CONTEXTUAL] flags from outline analysis
• Phase 6 (Publishing): Step 6.5 go-live preparation checklist surfaces all 11 unobservable patterns as delivery-day reminders
• Summary-only mode (no profile) still works — patterns from reference files only, flat list, go-live checklist still applies

Documentation

• README.md — rewritten with Presentation Patterns section, observable/unobservable table, updated file tree, updated vault/creator descriptions
• tile.json — bumped to v0.5.0, added "patterns" keyword
• CHANGELOG.md — this entry

0.4.7

Review & consistency fixes — Addressed consistency gaps found during tile review.

• Vault Step 4 now writes per-talk analysis files to analyses/ (fixes broken adaptation workflow in creator)
• Added badges schema to speaker-profile-schema.md
• Broke single publishing_process question into targeted sub-questions matching the schema
• Clarified summary section numbering vs rhetoric dimension numbering in vault SKILL.md
• Labeled slide budget table in creator as defaults when profile is unavailable
• Added cfp, abstract, pptx keywords to tile.json
• Fixed tessl.json project name from scaffold placeholder
• Added python-pptx internal API risk note to slide-generation.md
• Backfilled CHANGELOG for versions 0.3.1-0.4.5

0.4.1 - 0.4.5

CI/publish pipeline tuning — Iterative adjustments to the GitHub Actions publish workflow: switched to the publish action's built-in skill review gate, tested optimize input, and settled on the default review threshold (50%).

0.4.0

Evaluation scenarios — Added 10 eval scenarios covering both skills (vault analysis and presentation creation), plus Tessl eval infrastructure.

• 10 scenario tasks with criteria covering rhetoric analysis, profile generation, presentation creation, adaptation, CFP writing, and guardrail enforcement
• Tessl eval tile dependency added

0.3.0

Speaker badges & profile Step 6 enhancement — Profile regeneration now generates personalized speaker badges as a fun summary of portfolio-wide achievements, mined from real vault data (meme counts, employer transitions, recurring patterns, signature quirks).

• Step 6.7 added: generate speaker badges after profile regeneration
• Badges must be genuinely personalized to the speaker's quirks, not generic
• Grounded in aggregated data from all processed talks

0.2.0

PPTX as primary slide source — The vault skill no longer requires Google Drive slide PDFs for every talk. Talks with .pptx files can now be processed directly, providing richer data (exact hex colors, font names, layout names) than PDF visual inspection.

• A talk is processable with video_url + at least one of slides_url or pptx_path
• New slide_source field on each talk: "pdf", "pptx", or "both"
• When PPTX is available, extraction runs inline during rhetoric analysis (Step 3), merging what was previously a separate Step 3B pass
• Step 3B now only processes PPTX files not already handled as primary sources
• Schema updated: slides_url and pptx_path are both optional (at least one required)

0.1.0

Initial release with two skills:

• rhetoric-knowledge-vault — parse recorded talks to extract rhetoric patterns
• presentation-creator — create new presentations matching your documented style