DESIGN.md@plugins/nova-the-optimal-ai/skills/rupert-giles-knowledge-steward/workspace git:20261006.b177438A

Immutable. This exact content never changes and is served at /api/v1/blob/fe2199ae03b2af20.

# Giles Knowledge Atlas: design thesis and interaction model

Baseline: Giles 1.1.0 at 56e431f. Its catalog solved recognition but treated source entry selection as administrative state and concentrated a glaring cream panel. The user needed contents and useful action. This is a component update to 1.2.0: new supported reading, evidence-work and indexed-archive workflows. The Nova Emergent package release remains held for the coordinated skill batch.

Giles's fundamental job is to recover retained knowledge and turn it into source-grounded work while preserving custody, corrections and uncertainty. A conversational model can retrieve and synthesize, but a dedicated interface can keep the estate spatially visible, let a person inspect source contents directly, maintain orientation across collections, compare exact evidence and preserve a working selection beyond one conversation. Those advantages are the product's center of gravity.

The interaction model is find → read → collect → compare → annotate → compile → use. A persistent estate map and complete collection list orient retrieval; recorded subject edges establish why two stores connect. Selecting a collection immediately loads an observed overview. Named sections and file links open actual contents on one action. Breadcrumbs preserve the active route. The reading dock supports bounded text, document text and real image pixels. Personal AI Archive has a source-specific, read-only published-index adapter because its knowledge resides in indexed messages rather than folder names.

The working tray holds a purpose and exact evidence with separate annotations. Comparison places two retained quotations together. Packet compilation produces a usable Markdown artifact with task, quotations, source routes, evidence limits and interpretation clearly separated. Current verification observations expose source drift without rewriting historical evidence. Catalog maintenance and custody sit behind disclosures; their forms serve recovery and stewardship rather than dominate discovery.

Information truth: registration is not reading; file presence is not freshness; shared topics are not agreement; a PDF extraction window is not an exact quotation page; an indexed message is not the complete conversation; an imported historical quote is not automatically freshly verified. No automatic canon promotion, corpus ingestion, source editing, remote retrieval, model execution or fake semantic inference is added.

The owner accepted the improved information layout but rejected the three flat skins. The presentation repair starts with physical construction, volume, light, surface and image placement, then derives color. AFTERIMAGE ATLAS becomes a tactile scholar's desk: generated smoked-oak/leather art, engraving, indexed drawer handles, an inset medallion, thick matte folio edges and a recessed evidence blotter. Blackglass Crimson becomes a precise optical instrument: a generated thick-glass substrate, recessed map bezel, suspended slabs, localized signal light and three simultaneous estate/reader/tray bays. Mirrorloop becomes a reflective studio: generated mirror facets, an asymmetric reading plane, refracted edge thickness, grazing reflections, occlusion and a shifted evidence plane. Quiet opaque source and note interiors keep long reading independent of decorative optics.

Bloomfield's primary design dimensions guide topology, material, expression, pacing and manipulation. Actual Scrapbook pictures were viewed, including EGDOD Blackglass Crimson and Bloomfield MIRRORLOOP; their parent records and artwork remain unchanged. Three original generated bitmap assets live in workspace/assets and load through exact public HTTP routes. There is no private Scrapbook runtime dependency. The stored theme IDs atlas/circuit/relay and stable product-scoped Scrapbook identities remain compatible; visible environment labels now identify the current Blackglass Crimson and Mirrorloop applications. Prior rejected implementations remain historical evidence, not approval.

Eight estate labels use a staggered perimeter around the instrument so long collection names remain separate on compact screens. Recorded subject edges still give the relationship basis; decorative engravings and reflections imply no additional data. Keyboard focus, loading, disabled and error feedback participate in each material construction. Phone layouts stack the same working loop, preserve touch targets and reading continuity, and respect reduced motion.

Acceptance depends on executable behavior: exact route and source contents; delayed-response guards; literal Unicode/Windows-line-ending selection; source confinement; source snapshots; verified collection; atomic task persistence; separated notes; comparison; packet/download identity; historical import/export; explicit degraded states; real owner-format fixtures; runtime console/network checks; source-byte preservation; theme differentiation and desktop/phone screenshot inspection. See verification/RESULTS.md for observed evidence, not an inferred release claim.