thgtoa/docs/code/index.md

title, description, schema

title	description	schema
Content Contributions	We are the maintainers of the Hitchhiker's Guide and the PSA Matrix space.	@context @type @id name url logo sameAs https://schema.org Organization https://anonymousplanet.net/ Anonymous Planet https://anonymousplanet.net/code/ ../media/profile.png https://github.com/Anon-Planet https://opencollective.com/anonymousplanetorg

Install these before anything else.

=== "Linux / macOS"

```sh
# Python 3.11+
python3 --version

# poppler (pdftoppm) and qpdf
sudo apt install poppler-utils qpdf # Debian/Ubuntu
brew install poppler qpdf           # macOS

# GPG
sudo apt install gnupg # Debian/Ubuntu
brew install gnupg     # macOS

# Python dependencies
pip install "mkdocs-material[imaging]" pillow numpy
```

=== "Windows"

```powershell
# Python 3.11+ from https://python.org

# poppler: download from https://github.com/oschwartz10612/poppler-windows/releases
# Extract and add the bin\ folder to PATH

# qpdf: download from https://github.com/qpdf/qpdf/releases
# Extract and add the bin\ folder to PATH

# GPG: download Gpg4win from https://gpg4win.org

# Python dependencies
pip install "mkdocs-material[imaging]" pillow numpy
```

You also need Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge installed for the light-mode PDF build (headless Chromium).

You can submit bugs and feature requests with detailed information about your issue or idea:

• If you'd like to propose an addition, please follow the standards outlined here.
• If you're reporting an issue, please be sure to include the expected behaviour, the observed behaviour, and steps to reproduce the problem.
• This can require technical knowledge, but you can also get involved in conversations about bug reports and feature requests. This is a great way to get involved without getting too overwhelmed!
• Help fellow committers test recently submitted pull requests. Simply by pulling down a pull request and testing it, you can help ensure our new code contributions for stability and quality.

For those of you who are looking to add content to the guide, include the following:

• Do create a topic branch to work on instead of working directly on main. This helps to:
  • Protect the process.
  • Ensures users are aware of commits on the branch being considered for merge.
  • Allows for a location for more commits to be offered without mingling with other contributor changes.
  • Allows contributors to make progress while a PR is still being reviewed.
• Do follow the 50/72 rule for Git commit messages.
• Do write "WIP" on your PR and/or open a draft PR if submitting unfinished changes..
• Do make sure the title of a draft PR makes it immediately clear that it's a draft
• Do target your pull request to the main branch.
• Do specify a descriptive title to make searching for your pull request easier.
• Don't leave your pull request description blank.
• Don't abandon your pull request. Being responsive helps us land your changes faster.
• Don't post questions in older closed PRs.
• Do stick to the guide to find common style issues.
• Don't make mass changes (such as replacing "I" with "we") using automated search/replace functionality.
  • Search/replace doesn't understand context, and as such, will inevitably cause inconsistencies and make the guide harder to read.
  • If it's part of a larger PR, it'll also make the reviewer's life harder, as they'll have to go through manually and undo everything by hand.
  • If you're going to make mass changes, take the time to do it properly. Otherwise we'll just have to undo it anyway.
  • If your change contains backslashes (\), either escape them with another backslash (\\) or put them in a code block.

When reporting guide issues:

• Do write a detailed description of your issue and use a descriptive title.
• Do make it as detailed as possible and don't just submit 50 line changes without explaining.
• Don't file duplicate reports; search for your bug before filing a new report.
• Don't attempt to report issues on a closed PR.

Please split large sets of changes into multiple PRs. For example, a PR that adds Windows 11 support, removes Windows AME references, and fixes typos can be split into 3 PRs. This makes PRs easier to review prior to merging.

For an example of what not to do, see: https://github.com/Anon-Planet/thgtoa/pull/51. This PR contains enough changes to split into multiple smaller and individually reviewable PRs.

While a PR is being reviewed, modifications may be made to it by the reviewer prior to merging. If this is the case, a new branch will be created for the PR's review. If you would like to submit a change to a PR that is in the process of being reviewed, do not update the PR directly. This will only cause merge conflicts and delay the PR from being merged. Instead, submit your changes to the PR's review branch.

For an example of what not to do, see: https://github.com/Anon-Planet/thgtoa/pull/51. Instead of submitting changes to the PR directly, they should have been submitted as changes to the PR's associated review branch.

Thank you for taking the few moments to read this far! You're already way ahead of the curve, so keep it up!

Repository layout

.github/
  workflows/
    01-build.yml      # builds PDFs, uploads artifact
    02-sign.yml       # hashes + GPG signs, uploads signatures artifact
    03-release.yml    # publishes GitHub Release with all assets
    04-changelog.yml  # prepends a new entry to docs/changelog/index.md
    publish.yml       # deploys MkDocs site to GitHub Pages
docs/
  guide/index.md      # the guide (single Markdown file)
  changelog/          # release notes
  code/               # this page
export/               # PDF output (PDFs gitignored; .sha256, .b2sum, .asc tracked)
pgp/                  # public signing keys
scripts/
  build_guide_pdf.py  # MkDocs + Chromium PDF builder
  convert.py          # pixel-based dark mode PDF converter
  update_changelog.py # auto-generates changelog entries from git log
  setup_workflow.py   # GitHub Secrets setup assistant
  verify_pdf.py       # signature verification helper
  archived/
    tag_release.py    # ARCHIVED - GPG tag helper (not used in current flow)

Building locally

python scripts/build_guide_pdf.py --both

This builds the MkDocs site, renders it to export/thgtoa.pdf via headless Chromium, then calls scripts/convert.py to produce export/thgtoa-dark.pdf.

Flag	Effect
--both	Light PDF then dark PDF
(no flag)	Light PDF only
--dark	Dark PDF only (light PDF must already exist)

Build only the dark PDF from an existing light PDF:

python scripts/convert.py export/thgtoa.pdf export/thgtoa-dark.pdf

Options:

Flag	Default	Description
--dpi	200	Rasterization DPI. 150 = smaller file, 300 = sharper but slow
--batch-size	50	Pages per batch. Reduce if you hit OOM
--bg	1f1f31	Background colour (hex)
--text	e0e0e0	Body text colour (hex)
--link	5e8bde	Link / blue element colour (hex)

Preview the MkDocs site

mkdocs serve

Opens at http://127.0.0.1:8000.

CI/CD pipeline overview

The pipeline is fully manual after the initial build - no step automatically triggers the next. This prevents version mismatches between what was built, what was signed, and what gets released. The workflows are numbered to help guide you.

push to main  (or manual trigger)
      │
      ▼
  01-build.yml
  Builds thgtoa.pdf + thgtoa-dark.pdf.
  Uploads artifact: pdfs
  Note the run ID.
      │
      │  # manually trigger 02-sign.yml with the build run ID
      ▼
  02-sign.yml
  Downloads pdfs artifact. Hashes (SHA-256 + BLAKE2b) and GPG-signs
  all files. Commits export/ back to main. Uploads artifacts:
  signatures, pdfs-signed
  Note the run ID.
      │
      │  # manually trigger 03-release.yml with the sign run ID
      ▼
  03-release.yml
  Downloads signatures + pdfs-signed artifacts. Runs VirusTotal.
  Creates GitHub Release tagged release-YYYYMMDD-<short-sha>.
      │
      │  # manually trigger 04-changelog.yml with the version string
      ▼
  04-changelog.yml
  Runs update_changelog.py, prepends a new ## [vX.Y.Z] entry,
  commits back to main.

Each stage is independent. If signing fails (e.g. an expired/revoked key, other problems in CI), re-run only 02-sign.yml pointing at the existing build artifact - no need to rebuild the PDFs.

!!! warning "Before you push"

- Make sure the working tree is clean (`git status`)
- Run `mkdocs build` locally if you changed `docs/` to catch broken links before CI does
- If you added new footnotes, verify they have both a definition `[^N]:` and at least one inline citation `[^N]`

---

Release process

Trigger a build

Push to main - 01-build.yml runs automatically when docs/, mkdocs.yml, or scripts/ change. You can also trigger it manually from Actions → Build PDFs → Run workflow.

Once it completes successfully, note the run ID from the URL or the Actions list.

---

Sign the PDFs

Go to Actions → Sign PDFs → Run workflow.

Input	Value
build_run_id	The run ID from step 1

02-sign.yml will:

• Download the PDFs artifact from the build run
• Compute SHA-256 and BLAKE2b hashes, writing thgtoa.pdf.sha256, thgtoa.pdf.b2sum, sha256sums.txt, b2sums.txt, and the dark equivalents
• GPG-sign all PDFs and hash files, writing .asc detached signature files
• Commit the updated export/ directory back to main
• Upload two artifacts: signatures and pdfs-signed

Once it completes successfully, note the run ID.

---

Publish the release

Go to Actions → Release → Run workflow.

Input	Value
sign_run_id	The run ID from step 2
prerelease	false for a normal release

03-release.yml will:

• Download signatures and pdfs-signed artifacts from the sign run
• Upload both PDFs to VirusTotal
• Auto-generate a release tag in the format release-YYYYMMDD-<short-sha> (e.g. release-20260527-abc1234)
• Create a GitHub Release with all PDFs, hash files, and signatures attached, and the VirusTotal report URLs in the body

No version number needs to be chosen at this step - the tag is derived from the date and commit SHA, so it is always unique and always traceable.

---

Update the changelog

Go to Actions → Update Changelog → Run workflow.

Input	Value
version	The human-readable version string, e.g. v1.2.4
dry_run	true to preview without committing

04-changelog.yml runs scripts/update_changelog.py, which:

• Reads git log since the last ## [vX.Y.Z] heading in the changelog
• Categorises commits into Added / Changed / Fixed using conventional-commit prefixes
• Prepends a new ## [version] admonition block to docs/changelog/index.md
• Commits the result back to main

The version string is the only human decision in the release process. It goes into the changelog only - it does not affect the release tag.

!!! tip "Previewing the changelog entry" Run with dry_run: true first to review the generated entry before it is committed.

---

Release tag format

Release tags use the format release-YYYYMMDD-<short-sha>, for example:

release-20260527-abc1234

This format is always unique, requires no version decision at release time, and is directly traceable to the commit that was built. The version string (e.g. v1.2.4) is a separate, human-assigned label that lives only in the changelog.

---

Commit message format

All commits must follow the Conventional Commits format. This is enforced by the commitizen pre-commit hook. Not because we want to limit cooperation with others, but becasue it promotes a cleaner Changelog; we can avoid all the noise by doing this programatically.

<type>(<scope>): <description>

Accepted types and their changelog bucket:

Type	Bucket
feat, feature, add	Added
fix, bugfix, revert, security	Fixed
perf, refactor, change, chore, ci, docs, style, test, build	Changed

Examples:

feat: add dark-mode PDF export
fix(scripts): handle locked PDF on Windows
docs: update developer workflow guide
chore(ci): pin Chrome version to 120

Verifying a release

Anyone can verify the authenticity of a release download.

# Import the release signing key
gpg --import pgp/anonymousplanet-release.asc

# Verify the PDFs
gpg --verify thgtoa.pdf.asc      thgtoa.pdf
gpg --verify thgtoa-dark.pdf.asc thgtoa-dark.pdf

# Verify the hash files
gpg --verify sha256sums.txt.asc sha256sums.txt
gpg --verify b2sums.txt.asc     b2sums.txt

# Check the PDF hashes match
sha256sum -c sha256sums.txt
b2sum     -c b2sums.txt

A successful verify looks like:

gpg: Signature made Sun 31 May 2026 03:23:26 AM EDT
gpg:                using EDDSA key C3023DBEA3FB38C438BA1EEDCEC60AEDE8B992A2
gpg: Good signature from "Anonymous Planet Release Signing Key" [ultimate]
Primary key fingerprint: C302 3DBE A3FB 38C4 38BA  1EED CEC6 0AED E8B9 92A2

You can safely ignore Github, Codeberg, etc. warnings like "The email in this signature doesn’t match the committer email."

λ > git tag -v v1.2.3
object cdc54d8b3bc2b286827b23921d8d4062f85295cf
type commit
tag v1.2.3
tagger nopeitsnothing <no@anonymousplanet.net> 1780212206 -0400

v1.2.3
gpg: Signature made Sun 31 May 2026 03:23:26 AM EDT
gpg:                using EDDSA key C3023DBEA3FB38C438BA1EEDCEC60AEDE8B992A2
gpg: Good signature from "Anonymous Planet Release Signing Key" [ultimate]
Primary key fingerprint: C302 3DBE A3FB 38C4 38BA  1EED CEC6 0AED E8B9 92A2

---

Troubleshooting

cairosvg missing during MkDocs build Install the imaging extras: pip install "mkdocs-material[imaging]". Required by the social plugin.

KeyError: 'JPEG' in convert.py Pillow needs libjpeg. Reinstall after installing the system lib: sudo apt install libjpeg-dev && pip install --force-reinstall pillow.

qpdf: can't find PDF header Ensure you are on the current version of convert.py - qpdf only accepts PDF inputs, not PNG.

GPG signing fails on CI with No secret key The GPG_PRIVATE_KEY secret is missing or malformed. Re-export with gpg --armor --export-secret-keys <fingerprint> and paste the full block including header and footer lines.

GPG signing fails with Bad passphrase The GPG_PASSPHRASE secret has a trailing space or newline. Paste it again with no surrounding whitespace.

03-release.yml fails on VirusTotal The VT_API_KEY is missing, invalid, or over the rate limit (500 requests/day on the free tier). Check the secret and re-run after a few minutes.

02-sign.yml fails downloading PDF artifact The build_run_id is wrong, or the artifact has expired (90-day retention). Trigger a new build and use the fresh run ID.

Changelog already contains version X update_changelog.py will error if MANUAL_VERSION is set to a version already in the changelog. Choose the next version string.

Footnote warnings from MkDocs (link '#fnref:N' has no anchor) A footnote definition [^N]: exists without a matching inline citation. Add the citation or remove the orphaned definition.