build-guide

Task

Generate or update a printable build guide for the project at $1 (relative path under packages/<domain>/). The guide is a Typst document plus a rendered PDF, written to <project-path>/docs/build-guide.{typ,pdf}, aimed at someone assembling and flashing the hardware from scratch.

It differs from the other doc skills by audience and format:

• wiring-doc → WIRING.md: terse pin reference for developers.
• project-readme → README.md: quick-start for the repo.
• build-guide → docs/build-guide.pdf: an at-the-bench, print-ready guide that pulls BOM + wiring + power + assembly + flash + checkout into one styled document.

Process

1. Read the project sources to gather everything the guide needs. Prefer authoritative sources over prose:

   • main/pin_config.h (or main/*.h) — authoritative GPIO / bus / channel assignments. Pin numbers come from here, not the README.
   • WIRING.md — existing wiring tables, I²C topology, power diagram.
   • README.md, CLAUDE.md — purpose, architecture, provisioning, OTA notes.
   • sdkconfig.defaults — target chip, PSRAM/flash size, brown-out, mDNS, stack sizes, console. Surface any load-bearing settings in troubleshooting.
   • justfile — real build / flash / monitor recipe names and flash offsets.
   • partitions.csv — flash layout / OTA partitions and offsets.
   • main/CMakeLists.txt — REQUIRES reveals components (camera, mdns, ota…).
   • Any schematic image under docs/schematics/images/<name>.png — embed it.

2. Identify the board and its constraints (PSRAM mode, 3.3 V-only GPIOs, native USB-Serial-JTAG vs external adapter, GPIO budget, strapping pins).

3. Write <project-path>/docs/build-guide.typ using the shared template (see below). Fill each section from real project data; omit sections the project doesn't use rather than padding with placeholders.

4. Compile the PDF and link both files from the README (see Compiling and Wiring up sections).

Using the shared template

Styling and helpers live in tools/typst/build-guide.typ so all guides look consistent and improve together. Import it and drive the document with #show: guide.with(...):

#import "../../../../tools/typst/build-guide.typ": guide, callout, htable, theme

#show: guide.with(
  title: "<project-name>",
  subtitle: "<one-line what it is>",
  intro: [ short paragraph for the title page ],
  meta: (
    ("Target MCU", [ESP32-S3 (8 MB PSRAM / flash)]),
    ("Toolchain", [ESP-IDF v5.4 (containerized)]),
  ),
  difficulty: [Intermediate · \~2–3 h],
  header-right: "<board name>",
  footer-note: [ Pin data mirrors `main/pin_config.h`, which is authoritative. ],
)

= 1 · Overview
...

The relative import path assumes the guide lives at packages/<domain>/<project>/docs/; from there ../../../../tools/typst/... reaches the template. Adjust ../ depth for other nesting.

Helpers exported by the template:

• guide(...) — page/text/heading styling + title page + table of contents. Applied via #show: guide.with(...).
• callout(title, body, kind: "info") — soft left-barred box. kind is one of info, ok, warn, danger, purple. Override with bar:/fill: colors.
• htable(cols, header, ..rows, aligns: none) — accent-header, zebra-body table. header and each row are arrays of content cells.
• theme — the color dictionary (theme.accent, theme.muted, theme.rule…).

Do not re-declare page setup, fonts, heading styles, or table colors in the project file — inherit them from the template so a future style change is a one-file edit.

Section structure

Use numbered level-1 headings so the table of contents reads as a build order. Include a section only when the project uses it:

1. Overview — what it is, architecture in 1–2 paragraphs, callouts for the headline facts (e.g. core split, "what you get").
2. Bill of Materials — htable of Qty / Component / Notes, then a short "Tools required" paragraph. Flag voltage gotchas with a warn callout.
3. System Architecture — embed the schematic via #figure(image(...)); explain the bus/topology in prose.
4. Wiring Reference — subsections of htables derived from pin_config.h: GPIO map, I²C topology, PWM/expander channel map, sensor pinouts. A project with a hardware.toml also gets generated board pinout images (docs/auto/pinouts/*.svg, from PYTHONPATH=tools python3 -m hardware.pinout <project>); embed them with #figure(image(...)) and give the project a gen-pinouts recipe the build-guide recipe depends on, as robocar-unified does. Never embed vendor pinout art or photos.
5. Power — rails, source, and a danger callout for the common-ground rule.
6. Assembly Steps — an ordered + list, power-first, ending with a pre-power-up continuity check.
7. Build & Flash — real just <module>::* recipes in a code block, flash offsets table (from justfile / partitions.csv), download-mode warn callout.
8. First Boot & Provisioning — WiFi provisioning (Improv/creds), mDNS hostname, AI backend, OTA.
9. Functional Checkout — an htable of tick-box (☐) checks vs expected results, ordered to match assembly.
10. Troubleshooting — htable of Symptom / cause & fix, seeded from the board's known failure modes and load-bearing sdkconfig settings.

End with a small muted footer line pointing at the authoritative sources (pin_config.h, any ADR) and the regenerate command.

Compiling

Typst is not part of the container toolchain. If typst is missing, install the CLI from crates.io (GitHub release binaries are blocked by the egress proxy):

CARGO_HTTP_CAINFO=/root/.ccr/ca-bundle.crt cargo install typst-cli --locked

Compile from the guide's directory with the repo root as the sandbox root so the template import and shared schematic image resolve (both live outside the project dir). Use the canonical flags — the build-guide-check.yml CI guard recompiles every guide and fails if the committed PDF differs byte-for-byte, so the PDF must be produced deterministically:

cd packages/<domain>/<project>/docs
typst compile --creation-timestamp 0 --ignore-system-fonts --root ../../../.. build-guide.typ

• --creation-timestamp 0 pins the embedded PDF timestamp; without it the file carries wall-clock time and never reproduces.
• --ignore-system-fonts embeds only Typst's bundled fonts, so glyph fallbacks are identical on every machine (otherwise Linux FreeSans vs macOS SF diverge).
• Match the Typst version the guard pins (see TYPST_VERSION in .github/workflows/build-guide-check.yml); a different compiler release produces different bytes. Install it with cargo install typst-cli --version <that-version> --locked.

Verify by rendering a page or two to PNG (--pages 1,3) and eyeballing the layout before committing.

Commit both build-guide.typ and build-guide.pdf — the PDF is the deliverable and lets people use the guide without installing Typst.

Wiring up the README

Add a short "Printable build guide" section to the project README.md linking docs/build-guide.typ and docs/build-guide.pdf, plus the regenerate command.

Style rules

• Authoritative pins — every pin, address, channel, and offset comes from source (pin_config.h, partitions.csv, justfile). If source and prose disagree, trust source and flag it.
• Fill, don't pad — omit sections the project doesn't use. A tight 6-page guide beats a padded 12-page one.
• One style, one file — never copy the template's styling into the project guide; import it. Improvements go in tools/typst/build-guide.typ.
• Callouts for hazards — voltage mismatches, common-ground, PSRAM mode, download-mode go in warn/danger callouts, not buried in prose.
• Keep meta honest — read sdkconfig.defaults and the justfile for the meta box; don't invent toolchain versions.
• Never print the firmware version — the template's version: parameter exists but must stay unset, and nothing generated into docs/auto/ may read version.txt. release-please bumps version.txt without touching any of the drift guard's trigger paths, so the committed PDF silently goes stale, and regenerating it is a docs: commit that mints the next release — a loop that never converges. Cite version.txt as the source of truth by name if the guide needs to; never interpolate its contents. See issue #439.