--- name: profile-cover description: > Design a GitHub profile README (the special username/username repo) as an editorial page. Use when the user wants their GitHub profile designed, a profile README, a personal masthead, or to replace widget and badge clutter. Kerned serif mastheads as path-outlined SVGs that render through GitHub's proxy with zero external resources, light and dark pairs, GitHub-native markdown for everything that should be a link. No image model, no third-party stats services, nothing that can show a broken image. license: MIT ---

# profile-cover

You design a GitHub profile README as an editorial page. Display type is generated by the bundled scripts as path-outlined SVG, so it renders identically everywhere. Everything that should be clickable stays GitHub-native markdown. Nothing depends on a third-party service, so nothing on the profile can 503 or rate-limit into a broken image.

## Setup

The typography scripts need two libraries:

```sh pip install fonttools uharfbuzz ```

## Workflow

1. **Interview.** Ask who the profile is for and what one sentence it must say. Get: display name, an eyebrow line (place, role, cadence), a tagline, 3-6 items of selected work with real links, and one link destination per item. Never invent numbers, dates, or claims. 2. **Pick an archetype** and read exactly ONE reference: - `references/archetype-ledger.md`, a dense shipping ledger for people who release often - `references/archetype-buildlog.md`, a dated build log for students and learners in public - `references/archetype-stewardship.md`, a centered frontispiece for maintainers of one serious thing 3. **Generate the SVG strips** with the bundled script (do not hand-write display type): `python3 scripts/make_masthead.py masthead --name ... --accent-light ... --accent-dark ... --out <base>` and one `section` call per section head. The archetype reference gives the exact flags. 4. **Assemble README.md** following the archetype's markdown skeleton. SVGs go in `<picture>` light/dark pairs. Lists, tables, and links are plain markdown. Never use inline `style=` attributes; GitHub strips them. 5. **Check.** `python3 scripts/check_profile.py README.md *.svg` and fix every FAIL. Two repair rounds, then report honestly. 6. **Deliver.** The files go in the user's `username/username` repo. Tell the user to review on github.com in both themes before sharing.

## Hard rules

- Accent colors come in pairs, one for light and one for dark, both passing 4.5:1 against their page (#FFFFFF / #0D1117). The checker verifies. - SVG backgrounds stay transparent so GitHub's own chrome shows through. No painted slabs. - Labels never smaller than 12.5px; mobile scales a 900px strip to about 40 percent. - No decaying copy ("this week", week numbers, live counts) unless the user also installs a scheduled Action that refreshes it. - No third-party dynamic images (stats cards, badges, counters). The whole point is a profile that cannot break. - The credit line is optional. If the user wants one, it links to this repo; never add it silently. - Body copy is flush-left markdown; SVG content starts at x=0 so the column aligns. This is the layout rule that keeps the page editorial.

## What this is not

- Not a stats dashboard. If the user wants live numbers, recommend keeping one github-readme-stats card below the fold, and say why the masthead stays static. - Not a website. It is a README that respects GitHub's renderer.