Research Journey Essay Implementation Plan

For Claude: REQUIRED SUB-SKILL: Use superpowers:executing-plans to implement this plan task-by-task.

Goal: Add a second bilingual essay adapted from the WeChat interview article and support reusable source attribution in the essay layout.

Architecture: Reuse the existing essays collection and bilingual essay layout. Extend _layouts/essay.html with an optional source block driven by front matter fields such as source_title, source_name, source_url, and source_date. Then add a new essay file whose content is lightly edited from the interview article but remains structurally faithful to the original text.

Tech Stack: Jekyll collections, Liquid, Markdown/HTML content blocks, SCSS, Python verification script

Task 1: Add failing verification for the new essay and source support

Files:

• Modify: E:/research_projects/personal/ShengrenHou.github.io/scripts/verify_public_site.py

Step 1: Write the failing test

Add checks for:

• source attribution support in _layouts/essay.html
• a new essay file for the research-journey article
• key bilingual metadata fields and source metadata in that essay file

Step 2: Run test to verify it fails

Run:

py -3 scripts/verify_public_site.py

Expected: fail because the source block and the new essay do not exist yet.

Task 2: Add reusable source attribution support

Files:

• Modify: E:/research_projects/personal/ShengrenHou.github.io/_layouts/essay.html
• Modify: E:/research_projects/personal/ShengrenHou.github.io/_sass/_founder-site.scss

Step 1: Implement minimal source support

• Add an optional source block below the essay body
• Render bilingual labels and the original source link when front matter is present

Step 2: Re-run verification

Run:

py -3 scripts/verify_public_site.py

Expected: still fail until the new essay file is added.

Task 3: Add the research-journey essay

Files:

• Create: E:/research_projects/personal/ShengrenHou.github.io/_essays/2026-03-20-research-journey-notes.md

Step 1: Add bilingual essay content

• Use a site-friendly title
• Keep the original structure with light editing
• Add bilingual metadata, bilingual body blocks, and source metadata
• Mark it as featured so it appears on the homepage

Step 2: Run final verification

Run:

py -3 scripts/verify_public_site.py
git -C E:\research_projects\personal\ShengrenHou.github.io diff --check

Expected: both commands pass.

Task 4: Deploy and confirm

Files:

• None

Step 1: Commit and push

git -C E:\research_projects\personal\ShengrenHou.github.io add .
git -C E:\research_projects\personal\ShengrenHou.github.io commit -m "feat: add research journey essay"
git -C E:\research_projects\personal\ShengrenHou.github.io push origin master

Step 2: Confirm live

• the new essay appears on /essays/
• the homepage highlights show it
• the essay page shows the source note and link