📚 Developer docs

Learn to build with it.

The BREAD stack docs mostly explain why it's built this way. This page is the other half: where to start if you want to build something with it: getting started, a hands-on tutorial, how-to guides for common tasks, the live reference, and where to look if you want to contribute.

PANTRY: the app that composes the four layers PANTRY · the app that composes the four PROOF: the AI plan board (trailhead) PROOF CRUMB: the guided-tour layer (trailhead) CRUMB MILL: the content engine (trailhead) MILL GRAIN docs: the design system + AI door GRAIN BATCH docs: the no-build substrate BATCH
Pick a layer to open its docs. BATCH and GRAIN have full doc sets; MILL, PROOF, and CRUMB open their trailheads; PANTRY is the app that composes them.
Getting started
BATCH: getting startedinstall, run, what you get out of the box: the substrate.
BATCH: architecturethe substrate's reasoning, and the single source of truth for the stack.
GRAIN: getting startedinstall, the two layers (design system vs. the AI door), the markup conventions.
GRAIN: overviewthe design system + AI layer, in one pass: two layers, one direction.
GRAIN: design systemthe look + the grade-as-signal mechanism (AI-authored stays grain, never resolves to clean).
MILL: getting startedinstall, wire a collection, and render your first markdown page: the content engine.
PROOF: getting startedinstall, mount over a plans folder, and get a kanban board on screen: the AI plan board.
CRUMB: getting startedinstall, mount over a tours folder, and start a guided tour of a live app.
PANTRY: getting startedinstall, scaffold, and run the developer cockpit over any project.
Tutorial
Build your first operable surfacea real, running example: the five pieces, in build order, ending with a checklist for adding your own verb.
How-to guides
Add a routea hand-authored page vs. a generated/API route.
Add a componentthe checklist: template, styles, catalog doc, when it needs its own AI panel.
Make a surface operablethe bare checklist: contract, markup, reasoner branch, tests, docs.
Add a RenderOp kinda new effect the dispatcher can apply: contract + ai-dispatch.js + tests.
Re-skin via tokensoverride the token slots: never edit a component's CSS to re-theme.
Consume as a dependencythe intended post-split shape: a Bun git dependency, no registry.
Static export + deployfreeze the running server to dist/: what's built today, what's still planned.
Add a collectionpush one MillCollection onto the array: routes, sitemap, and export all follow from it.
Write a tourthe tour markdown grammar: frontmatter, the ## <surface> step heading, a real worked example.
Reference
Generated referenceactions, surface kinds, render ops, the door's endpoints, and every token slot: read from the real source at request time, never hand-copied.
Component catalogevery GRAIN component, self-documenting, with a Human/AI grade toggle.
AI-INTERFACE.mdthe full contract in prose: the intent envelope, the manifest, the AI-acts protocol.
MILL: architecturethe mapping model: how a markdown node becomes a GRAIN component.
PROOF: how it worksthe plan schema, the statuses, and why the board never writes back to the files.
PANTRY: what it composeshow BATCH/GRAIN/MILL/PROOF each contribute a piece of the cockpit, route by route.
Standards
standards/ indexhow Tjakoen builds, writes, and works with AI: one line per standard.
VOICEthe writing standard: cadence, the machine-tells to avoid, the honesty clause.
FIGURESthe standard for every diagram and chart: one tokenized SVG scaffold, the mermaid-vs-SVG rule.
NOTE-STANDARDhow a note is built: frontmatter, structure, the sign-off footer, plus a reusable drafting prompt.
README-STANDARDhow a README presents itself across every repo: the title emoji, the badge row, the footer.
AI-DEVELOPMENTa portable playbook for building full stack with an AI partner.
SESSION-LOOPhow a session with an AI runs start to finish: the loop, the memory, the handoff.
LOOPone AI workflow across every repo: the work-triggered heartbeat, the thin-kit shape, the accountability contract.
CLAUDE.mdoperating rules for editing standards/ itself: keep each fact in exactly one home.
CLAUDE.starter.mdthe new-repo starter template: wire a repo into these standards from day one.
Contribute
CLAUDE.mdthe operating rules for anyone (AI or human) working in this repo.
HACKING.mdthe route → source map: "which file do I open to change X".
CONVENTIONS.mdthe build standard: layering, components, tokens, the 3-tier testing bar.
Part of tjakoen.github.io, built with itself, on the very stack it describes.

🤖 Built with Claude. I don't prompt and pray, I prompt and prove. Every commit here is co-authored with an AI, on purpose. How I actually work with AI, receipts and all →