AcademicPages Infrastructure Upgrade Phase 1 Implementation Plan

For agentic workers: REQUIRED SUB-SKILL: Use superpowers:subagent-driven-development (recommended) or superpowers:executing-plans to implement this plan task-by-task. Steps use checkbox (- [ ]) syntax for tracking.

Goal: Upgrade the site’s low-risk infrastructure against AcademicPages master 482bc2b and v0.9 while preserving content, URLs, custom styling, dashboards, and GitHub Pages compatibility.

Architecture: Selectively port independent upstream fixes into the customized Jekyll site. Keep the GitHub Pages dependency model and legacy theme/asset pipeline intact, while hardening local runtime discovery and limiting browser dependencies to their consumers.

Tech Stack: Jekyll 3.10, github-pages 232, Ruby 3.3.4, Bundler 2.5.18, Node 20, Liquid, Bash, and classic browser JavaScript.

Global Constraints

• Work only on codex/infra-sync-pass-1; do not modify master.
• Preserve the existing .RData and todo changes without editing or staging them.
• Do not stage, commit, or push without explicit user approval.
• Do not modify content collections, binary assets, generated datasets, data-generation scripts, Gemfile, Gemfile.lock, package.json, or .github/workflows/.
• Defer theme switching, Sass reorganization, JavaScript modules, npm modernization, new social integrations, Docker, CV generation, and workflow changes.

Task 1: Record the contract and runtime pins

• Update the design with the upstream commit/tag, dynamic manifest, and Bundler fallback.
• Add .ruby-version containing 3.3.4 and .node-version containing 20.
• Verify the files contain exactly the specified values.

Task 2: Harden local preview and synchronize documentation

• Make scripts/local_preview.command read the Bundler version from Gemfile.lock.
• Prefer the pinned Homebrew/PATH Bundler and allow a validated default-Bundler fallback with a warning.
• Update README.md and agents/SITE_ARCHITECTURE_SPEC_TEMPLATE.md with the runtime and fallback contract.
• Run bash -n scripts/local_preview.command and ./scripts/local_preview.command --build-only --skip-data.

Task 3: Port low-risk upstream include and dependency fixes

• Remove obsolete mobile/cleartype metadata and global Chart.js from _includes/head.html.
• Normalize the comments include and convert footer HTTP links to HTTPS.
• Load pinned Chart.js 4.4.1 only on the impact and teaching pages.
• Build and assert exact Chart.js reference counts in rendered output.

Task 4: Adopt the dynamic web manifest

• Render images/manifest.json through Jekyll using _config.yml identity fields.
• Reference the existing 192px and 512px Android Chrome icons.
• Remove the stale manifest cache suffix without changing other custom head behavior.
• Build, parse the generated JSON, and assert all required fields and icon files.

Task 5: Complete verification and handoff

• Run the full local build, rendered-output assertions, and browser checks.
• Run git diff --check and audit changed paths against the global constraints.
• Request an independent whole-branch review and address important findings.
• Ask Commit locally? (yes/no) and Push to remote? (yes/no).