---
name: create-page
description: "Use when the answer is more than a few paragraphs, or lays out steps, options, a comparison, or figures. One self-contained HTML page to scan, print, send on, or use. Forms: FAQ, timeline, how-to, checklist, itinerary, comparison, dashboard, data explorer, scorecard, brief, memo, case study, explainer, recommendation, wireframe, whiteboard, or a small working tool."
---

# Create page

One self-contained HTML file that a reader can open, keep, print, send on, and in a few cases use. Twenty-one templates cover the kinds of page people actually ask for; each names a set of slots and the intent behind each one, and all of them share the look, the method, and the refusals below.

The page is the answer. When a reply would be long, structured, or worth keeping, a page beats a wall of chat: it can be scanned, linked into, printed, and handed to someone who was not in the conversation.

## Choose the template

Read the row that fits, then read that template's `template.md` in full before writing anything. Paths are given because the file listing you were handed may be truncated: open them directly.

| Template                                                                      | Reach for it when                                                                                                                                        |
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Briefing memo                          | Something with real stakes has to be decided, and the situation, the options, and a recommendation belong on one page before anyone commits.             |
| Case study                                | A situation like the reader's played out start to finish, and the point is to learn from it or to show that an approach works.                           |
| Checklist                                  | A process is about to run where forgetting one step is expensive, and every item wants to be grouped, tickable, and printable.                           |
| Comparison matrix                  | Several options need measuring on the same attributes side by side, before deciding what matters.                                                        |
| Recommendation with criteria | The winner is wanted along with the arithmetic: named criteria, stated weights, scored options, and what would flip the answer.                          |
| Dashboard                                  | A period has ended and someone has to know how it went: the figures with what to compare them against, and the thing the headline hides.                 |
| Data explorer                               | There are more rows than anyone will read and the rows are the point: the whole set, what it turns out to say, and a grid to sort, filter and take away. |
| Explainer                                  | A mental model of a concept, a system, or a topic is needed before deciding or digging deeper.                                                           |
| FAQ                                              | The same questions keep arriving about one topic, and each wants answering once, in a block that can be found, skimmed, or sent.                         |
| How-to guide                                  | Something has to get done in order, with the tools listed, the traps marked, and a way to know when it is finished.                                      |
| Itinerary                                  | A destination and a span of days want planning into mornings, afternoons, and evenings that can be followed from a phone.                                |
| One-pager                                  | A project, a program, or a change is being proposed and needs one page that earns the next meeting.                                                      |
| Pros and cons                                | The question is torn on one option or between two, and each side deserves its strongest case, weighted for this situation.                               |
| Recommendation guide            | A product, a tool, or a vendor is being picked, and one page should name the pick and show its work.                                                     |
| Scorecard                                  | One vendor, tool, candidate, place, or plan is in front of the reader and wants grading across the dimensions that matter, evidence beside each.         |
| Should I…?                                  | A should-I, is-it-worth-it, or do-I-need question wants a plain answer that shows what it turns on.                                                      |
| Timeline                                    | Change over time is the explanation: the order of events says why things are as they are, or what happens next.                                          |
| TLDR brief                                | The research is done, and the reader wants only the takeaways, on one screen.                                                                            |
| Tool                                            | The answer is a function rather than a fact: a calculator, converter, checker or planner that opens with a real example already in it.                   |
| Whiteboard                                | The material has two dimensions of its own and an order throws them away: a wall of sorted notes, a plan of somewhere real, things placed on two axes.   |
| Wireframe                                  | An interface is being proposed or argued about, and the fastest way to settle it is a sequence of frames that each prove something.                      |

When two rows both fit, the tie-breaker is what the reader does next. A page that ends in a decision is a brief, a should-I, or a recommendation; a page that ends in an action is a how-to, a checklist, or an itinerary; a page that ends in understanding is an explainer, a timeline, or an FAQ; and a page the reader keeps open and comes back to is a tool, a whiteboard, or an explorer.

Three of these are a family of their own, in that the page does something rather than only saying something: a wireframe draws a proposed interface, a whiteboard is a surface the reader moves around, and a tool computes. On all three **the page is the thing** -- there is no prose column, no opening paragraph and no closing section, because a drawing under three paragraphs is an essay with pictures in it and the paragraphs are the part nobody wanted. A name, one line, the artifact, and a line of provenance under it. They obey every rule below, including the one about the network, and each says in its own `template.md` what that costs it.

When none of them fit, say so and write the page anyway, using the nearest template's slots as a starting point and this file's method as the rule. A page whose shape had to be invented is a better answer than the wrong template filled in obediently.

## Make the page

1. Read the chosen template's `template.md` in full, and its `idea.json` for the page's stated purpose.
2. Read the two examples in that template's `examples/` whose situation is nearest the user's. Each has a sidecar `.json` with a design note saying what that example chose and why; read the notes, not only the pages. Never take the first example as the target.
3. Write a three-line brief before any HTML: who reads this and what they will do next, the one thing the page has to settle for them, and the one distinctive move this page makes that the two examples did not.
4. Copy `starter.html` to `output/<slug>.html`, set its `instrument:idea` meta to the template's name, and paste the template's `main.html` inside `<main>`. The starter carries the tab icon, the skin, the fonts, the icon set, and the page behavior, each inside a `shell:start` … `shell:end` pair; leave those regions as they are, and everything under `<main>` is yours. Your own CSS goes in the gap the starter leaves between them.
5. Fill the slots with the research. Sections may be reordered, merged, renamed, or rebuilt, but every intent the template names must be answered somewhere on the page.
6. Check it against the refusals below and the template's own, open it, and look at it once at a laptop width. Fix what you see, then stop.

Research before you write, and write from what you found. A page whose facts came from the model rather than from a source is the failure this whole skill exists to avoid.

## What stays fixed, and what must vary

Fixed, because every page shares one look: the skin block in the starter, the type stack, the palette with brand green as the only saturated color, the spacing scale, a single self-contained file, and a provenance footer.

Free, and expected to differ between two pages made a day apart: the layout and column count, the density, the register, the components, the way a slot is realized, and any interaction, which must be progressive so the page reads with scripts off. Each template names what varies most in its own case.

The look follows the reader's system theme, and you never choose between them. Write the page once against the tokens and both come out right: a step on a ramp names distance from the paper rather than a lightness, so 25 is the faintest wash and 950 the darkest ink in either theme, and what changes is which end of the spectrum each lands on. The saturated middle, 400 through 600, holds still in both. That is the whole rule for white: it rides the middle and nowhere else, because every other step moves out from under it. Never hand-pick a ground for the page, and never write a `dark:` variant; `bg-background`, `bg-card`, `bg-muted`, `text-foreground` and `text-muted-foreground` already say what you mean. The one exception is a terminal or code listing, which is a well cut into the paper and keeps its own colors in both themes: `bg-code` with the four `text-code-*` inks.

`pnpm check:contrast` reads both palettes out of the skin and every page for what sits on what, so a page that fails WCAG AA in either theme fails the build. It is the reason nobody has to open the page twice.

The starter also carries three behaviors every page gets, and none of them need doing by hand: every external link wears the icon of the site it points at, footnote markers and their notes link both ways and light up when jumped to, and the page prints with sane margins. A page wider than a portrait sheet adds `@page { size: landscape }` in its own style block.

A page's own logic is one `<script type="module">` at the end of `<main>`, never a plain `<script>`. The starter's last script keeps a copy of the page for sharing as the parser reaches it, and a module script runs after that, so a shared copy carries the markup as written rather than as the script changed it. Module scripts do not share top-level names, so keep the logic in one, and attach listeners in it rather than through `onclick` attributes.

## Refusals

A page that could be any of the examples with the words swapped. A thing that lives at a URL named in plain text, or a link whose text describes the destination rather than naming the thing. Any image whose `src` is a URL or a relative path rather than inline data, any sibling file, and any relative fetch: the file has to open from a USB stick, arrive as an email attachment, and be served from a share host, and only one of those has an origin. A file over about 1.5 MB, or an inline image over 200 KB.

**What a page may load, and the test it has to pass.** Most pages load nothing beyond the starter's fonts, icon set and Tailwind build, and that is the right default. Where the material is a dataset rather than an argument, a page may also load one of the libraries in `check-ideas.ts`'s `ALLOWED_SOURCES`, pinned to an exact version. The test is not whether it loads, it is what happens when the load fails: **open the page with the network off and every number, name, place and finding is still there, in the HTML.** A library may add motion, precision or scale to something already on the page; it may never be the only copy of a fact. A chart carries its own table. A map's container carries its own list. A figure fetched at open carries the value it was written with, and the date. A page that goes blank, empty or meaningless offline is the refusal this rule exists for, and a template that reaches past the list has to say in its own `template.md` why its document kind needs it.

Each template adds the refusals that only bite in its own case.

## Honesty about research

Say on the page what it rests on and when it was read. Where two sources disagree, say so and say which one the page followed. Where a figure is an estimate, a quote, or a reconstruction rather than a published number, label it as one. Where the research is thin, the page says so in its footer rather than performing certainty: a thin honest page is useful, and a confident invented one is worse than nothing, because a reader will act on it.

Numbers are the easiest thing to invent and the hardest for a reader to check. A page carries a figure only when the prompt, a source, or arithmetic over shown inputs gave it. Scores use coarse scales — letters, a few dots, a word — unless every input is on the page, and never a decimal that implies precision the research does not have.

## References

Vocabulary, not layout. Read the one whose form is in play, not all of them.

- [`references/patterns.md`](/discover/create-page/references/patterns.md) — the recurring elements: kickers, status pills, step circles, icon lists, emphasis cards, code and terminal blocks, quoting, evidence footers, and how a block wider than the column behaves.
- [`references/charts.md`](/discover/create-page/references/charts.md) — stat tiles, bar rows, meters, sparklines, timeline bars, and the honesty rule for drawing a number.
- [`references/diagrams.md`](/discover/create-page/references/diagrams.md) — when HTML beats SVG, the SVG kit, swimlanes, parallel routes, and generated geometry.
- [`references/interaction.md`](/discover/create-page/references/interaction.md) — answer forms, runbook ticks, click-to-enlarge, details/summary, and the rule that interaction may orient but never gate.
- [`references/images.md`](/discover/create-page/references/images.md) — when a picture earns its place, how to size and inline one, and what to draw when there is no photo to use.

Each template also has a `patterns.md` beside it, for the vocabulary only that document kind uses.

# Timeline

One self-contained HTML page that shows change over time, for the cases where chronology is the explanation: how a law, a product, or a market got to where it is; which versions existed when; what happens in which week of a plan. It reads like the history timeline pages and roadmaps people already know from the web: a spine of dated entries, eras that group them, the few moments after which things were different, and a marker for where we are now. It is not a list of facts sorted by date, and it is not a status report; every entry says what followed from it.

Write the page for the reader's next action. A history ends in what holds today; a plan ends in what happens next and who does it; a changelog ends in the current state, so the reader can act from the last entry.

## When to reach for it

Reach for it when the user asks for a history, a timeline, a changelog, a roadmap, or a plan with dates: how EU privacy law evolved, how our pricing changed, what happens when in a hiring process, which releases shipped what. "How did we get here", "walk me through the history", "what changed when", "what happens when", and "show me the plan by week" are the phrases. Reach for it unprompted when research you have already done only makes sense in order, because the reader needs to see that one event caused the next; a paragraph of dates in the conversation is the weaker answer.

Do not reach for it when the order does not matter (a comparison, a recommendation), when there are two events rather than a sequence, when the user wants a status update on one moment rather than a span, or when the answer is a single date.

## The shape

Each slot is an intent. Answer it in whatever form suits the material.

- **Scope.** The span with its first and last date, whose story this is, and why it matters now, as three facts the reader can check before the first entry.
- **The events, dated.** Every entry carries a date at the precision the source gives (a day, a month, a year), a name, and one line on what it changed for the reader. Oldest first unless the page is a changelog read from the latest. Group into era bands when the span has chapters, and name each era for what was true during it.
- **Turning points.** The two to four entries after which things were different, called out so they are seen before the rest is read. Usually on the spine itself; a separate list only when the spine is a table or a grid.
- **Where we are now.** A marker on the spine for the present, then what holds today and what is already scheduled, with scheduled dates labeled as scheduled and drawn differently from dates that have passed.
- **Sources.** What was read, which dates come from a published text and which from memory or inference, and when the page was written, since "now" moves.

## What varies here

Free, and expected to differ between two pages made a day apart: the direction of time (a vertical spine, a horizontal span chart, weeks as columns, a table read down), whether eras are bands, chips, or column groups, the device that carries a turning point (a toned card on the spine, a marked row, a flagged cell), what the now marker looks like, the density, the type (sans for a history, serif for a plan), and any interaction, which must be progressive so the page reads with scripts off.

## Refusals

A page that could be any of the examples with the words swapped. Entries with no consequence, so the page is a list of dates. Every entry a turning point, or none. A now marker missing from a page whose span reaches the present. Scheduled dates drawn the same as dates that have passed. Eras named by their years alone. A span chart with no scale, or one that is an image rather than inline SVG. Invented precision: a day when the source gave a month, a figure the research did not carry. Every entry a bordered card.

## Honesty about research

Say on the page which dates come from a published text, which are scheduled and could move, and which are the author's reconstruction. Date the page itself, because the now marker is only right on the day it was written. When a proposal could change a date already on the spine, the entry says so rather than picking an outcome. A thin honest timeline with its gaps named is useful; a confident invented one is worse than nothing, because a reader will plan around it.