AGENTS.md

Authoring guidance for keeping the slide deck consistent, accessible, and on-message.

Purpose

Maintain the CivicActions deck voice: technical, urgent, empowering, open-source-forward.
Keep the conflict/hero/twist arc: cleanup vs authoring, villain = cognitive load, hero = ATAG Part B + local SLMs, twist = AI for WCAG-EM automation.
Additional arcs for the other three decks:
- Operations cadence deck: conflict = fragmented QA handoffs, villain = siloed governance, hero = shared SLM dashboards, twist = community-driven automation that previews compliance before formal reviews.
- Platform rollout deck: conflict = compliance backlog vs rapid feature work, villain = fear of audit-triggering surprises, hero = CivicActions + open-source tooling that codifies ATAG/WCAG guidance, twist = lightweight AI assistants that keep stakeholders aligned in real time.
- Innovation lab deck: conflict = experimentation vs enterprise confidence, villain = opaque assessments and manual scorecards, hero = transparent, open-source-ready ATAG Part B playbooks, twist = AI-powered WCAG-EM scaffolds that keep labs accountable without blocking discovery.

Slides use <section class="slide">; title slide uses class="slide cover clear".
Speaker notes follow immediately with <section class="comment">.
Incremental bullets use <ul class="emerge"> and class="next" where needed.
Big pivot uses <p class="shout">.
Side-by-side content uses <div class="columns"> with child blocks.
Keep <div class="progress"></div> and <div class="clock"></div> in place for timing.
Cover slide should include a subtitle, speaker line (name + affiliation), event line (venue + date/time with time zone), and a note block that lists the event URL(s), slide link, and the hook for the talk.
Keep the aria-live region that announces exit from slide mode; it supports screen reader users.
Include a Resources slide near the end and keep a final Questions slide with contact links and a QR placeholder when possible.

Keep headings in order (no skipped levels); one h1 on the cover, h2 per slide.
Use clear, descriptive link text; avoid “click here.” Include alt text when adding images/QRs.
Avoid jargon without context; prefer plain language nudges inline.
Spell out acronyms.
Only one notes block per slide: keep a single class="note"/class="notes" element in each slide section.
Prefer literal characters; keep HTML entities only where required for HTML (&, <, >).
Be consistent with use of “and” and “&” - default to “&” for space.
In notes, include source URLs in full (https…) and keep citations readable without relying on link previews.

Voice: direct, community-focused, pragmatic. Call out procurement/privacy realities and open-source advantages.
Emphasize author support over gatekeeping; AI as guidance, not punishment.
Reinforce that sampling/compliance is automation-friendly science, not busywork.

Never use a metaphor, simile, or figure of speech you see often in print.
Never use a long word where a short one will do.
If you can cut a word out, always cut it out.
Never use the passive where you can use the active.
Never use a foreign phrase, scientific term, or jargon if an everyday equivalent exists.
Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

Follow the CivicActions writing style guide: use welcoming plain language, minimal jargon, and explain acronyms on first use. Reference: https://guidebook.civicactions.com/en/latest/about-this-guidebook/writing-style-guide/
Use American spelling by default.
Use title case for slide headings to match the current deck style.
Bullets: no trailing periods unless the bullet is a full sentence; keep structure parallel and concise.
Write in second person when giving guidance; keep tone calm, confident, and people-first.

Body font: Nunito (sans-serif) via Google Fonts
Heading font: Merriweather (serif) via Google Fonts
Primary colors: Primary Red (#D83933), Primary Blue (#162E51), Light Blue (#73B3E7)
Accent colors: Warm Gold (#FA9441), Warm Light Gold (#FFBC78)
Grayscale: White (#FFFFFF), Gray-05 (#F0F0F0), Gray-90 (#171717), Black (#000000)
Light/Dark modes: Slides automatically switch based on system preference or .darkmode class
SVG backgrounds: Use cover-light.svg/cover-dark.svg for cover slides, slide-light.svg/slide-dark.svg for regular slides
All color combinations meet WCAG 2.2 AA contrast requirements

Keep slide count relative to the length of the presentation; maintain IDs for linking.
Do not remove shower fade-in duration=20 warn=5 hidemouse on <body> unless timing changes are requested.
If adding demos or QR codes, include alt text and a short label. Use placeholders if the asset is not yet available.
There should be a Cover slide and a final Questions slide for each presentation.

Core links: Should be in the notes or in a reference slide for each presentation.
If adding more references, prefer stable W3C or open GitHub sources; avoid proprietary gated links.

Do not apply any changes from this to the parent directory. Keep it to within the /presentations folder
Each presentation should be able to run independently, assuming access to the /presentations/ca-slides folder