claude-scientific-skills/docs/project/pr/pr-00000050-markdown-mermaid-skill.md

PR-00000050: feat(scientific-communication): add markdown-mermaid-writing skill

Field	Value
PR	#50 (https://github.com/K-Dense-AI/claude-scientific-skills/pull/50)
Author	Clayton Young (Boreal Bytes / Superior Byte Works, LLC)
Date	2026-02-19
Status	Open — Draft
Branch	feat/markdown-mermaid-writing-skill → main
Related issues	#50
Kanban board	feat-00000050
Deploy strategy	Standard — documentation-only addition, no code execution changes

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📋 Summary

What changed and why

This PR adds a new skill — markdown-mermaid-writing — that establishes markdown with embedded Mermaid diagrams as the default and canonical documentation format for all scientific skills. The skill ports comprehensive style guides, 24 diagram type references, and 9 document templates from the SuperiorByteWorks-LLC/agent-project project, and codifies the "source format" philosophy proposed in the K-Dense Discord on 2026-02-19.

The motivation: scientific outputs currently default to Python-generated or AI-generated images for diagrams. This PR inverts that priority — text-based Mermaid diagrams are the source of truth, downstream image generation is secondary. This gives users version-controlled, token-efficient, universally renderable documentation by default.

Impact classification

Dimension	Level	Notes
Risk	🟢 Low	New skill only — no existing files modified
Scope	Narrow	One new skill directory
Reversibility	Easily reversible	Delete the directory to revert
Security	None	Documentation only

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🔍 Changes

Change inventory

File / Area	Change type	Description
docs/project/issues/issue-00000050-markdown-mermaid-skill.md	Added	Feature request issue record
docs/project/pr/pr-00000050-markdown-mermaid-skill.md	Added	This PR record
scientific-skills/markdown-mermaid-writing/SKILL.md	Added	Main skill documentation with YAML frontmatter and philosophy
scientific-skills/markdown-mermaid-writing/references/markdown_style_guide.md	Added	Full markdown style guide (~730 lines) ported from opencode
scientific-skills/markdown-mermaid-writing/references/mermaid_style_guide.md	Added	Full mermaid style guide (~454 lines) ported from opencode
scientific-skills/markdown-mermaid-writing/references/diagrams/architecture.md	Added	Diagram type guide
scientific-skills/markdown-mermaid-writing/references/diagrams/block.md	Added	Diagram type guide
scientific-skills/markdown-mermaid-writing/references/diagrams/c4.md	Added	Diagram type guide
scientific-skills/markdown-mermaid-writing/references/diagrams/class.md	Added	Diagram type guide
scientific-skills/markdown-mermaid-writing/references/diagrams/complex_examples.md	Added	Multi-diagram composition patterns
scientific-skills/markdown-mermaid-writing/references/diagrams/er.md	Added	Diagram type guide
scientific-skills/markdown-mermaid-writing/references/diagrams/flowchart.md	Added	Diagram type guide
scientific-skills/markdown-mermaid-writing/references/diagrams/gantt.md	Added	Diagram type guide
scientific-skills/markdown-mermaid-writing/references/diagrams/git_graph.md	Added	Diagram type guide
scientific-skills/markdown-mermaid-writing/references/diagrams/kanban.md	Added	Diagram type guide
scientific-skills/markdown-mermaid-writing/references/diagrams/mindmap.md	Added	Diagram type guide
scientific-skills/markdown-mermaid-writing/references/diagrams/packet.md	Added	Diagram type guide
scientific-skills/markdown-mermaid-writing/references/diagrams/pie.md	Added	Diagram type guide
scientific-skills/markdown-mermaid-writing/references/diagrams/quadrant.md	Added	Diagram type guide
scientific-skills/markdown-mermaid-writing/references/diagrams/radar.md	Added	Diagram type guide
scientific-skills/markdown-mermaid-writing/references/diagrams/requirement.md	Added	Diagram type guide
scientific-skills/markdown-mermaid-writing/references/diagrams/sankey.md	Added	Diagram type guide
scientific-skills/markdown-mermaid-writing/references/diagrams/sequence.md	Added	Diagram type guide
scientific-skills/markdown-mermaid-writing/references/diagrams/state.md	Added	Diagram type guide
scientific-skills/markdown-mermaid-writing/references/diagrams/timeline.md	Added	Diagram type guide
scientific-skills/markdown-mermaid-writing/references/diagrams/treemap.md	Added	Diagram type guide
scientific-skills/markdown-mermaid-writing/references/diagrams/user_journey.md	Added	Diagram type guide
scientific-skills/markdown-mermaid-writing/references/diagrams/xy_chart.md	Added	Diagram type guide
scientific-skills/markdown-mermaid-writing/references/diagrams/zenuml.md	Added	Diagram type guide
scientific-skills/markdown-mermaid-writing/templates/decision_record.md	Added	Document template
scientific-skills/markdown-mermaid-writing/templates/how_to_guide.md	Added	Document template
scientific-skills/markdown-mermaid-writing/templates/issue.md	Added	Document template
scientific-skills/markdown-mermaid-writing/templates/kanban.md	Added	Document template
scientific-skills/markdown-mermaid-writing/templates/presentation.md	Added	Document template
scientific-skills/markdown-mermaid-writing/templates/project_documentation.md	Added	Document template
scientific-skills/markdown-mermaid-writing/templates/pull_request.md	Added	Document template
scientific-skills/markdown-mermaid-writing/templates/research_paper.md	Added	Document template
scientific-skills/markdown-mermaid-writing/templates/status_report.md	Added	Document template
scientific-skills/markdown-mermaid-writing/assets/examples/example-research-report.md	Added	Example demonstrating all diagram types and style rules

Architecture impact

flowchart TD
    accTitle: New Skill Position in Ecosystem
    accDescr: Shows markdown-mermaid-writing as the foundation layer that other skills build upon for documentation output

    new["📄 markdown-mermaid-writing<br/>(this PR — new skill)"]
    writing["✍️ scientific-writing"]
    lit["📚 literature-review"]
    schematics["🎨 scientific-schematics"]
    reports["📋 clinical-reports"]

    new -->|"provides style + templates"| writing
    new -->|"provides diagram standards"| lit
    new -->|"source format before AI polish"| schematics
    new -->|"provides document structure"| reports

    classDef newskill fill:#dbeafe,stroke:#2563eb,stroke-width:2px,color:#1e3a5f
    classDef existing fill:#f3f4f6,stroke:#6b7280,stroke-width:2px,color:#1f2937

    class new newskill
    class writing,lit,schematics,reports existing

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🧪 Testing

How to verify

# Check directory structure
tree scientific-skills/markdown-mermaid-writing/

# Check diagram type guide count (expect 24)
ls scientific-skills/markdown-mermaid-writing/references/diagrams/ | wc -l

# Check template count (expect 9)
ls scientific-skills/markdown-mermaid-writing/templates/ | wc -l

# Check style guide sizes
wc -l scientific-skills/markdown-mermaid-writing/references/markdown_style_guide.md
wc -l scientific-skills/markdown-mermaid-writing/references/mermaid_style_guide.md

# Verify SKILL.md has YAML frontmatter
head -10 scientific-skills/markdown-mermaid-writing/SKILL.md

Test coverage

Test type	Status	Notes
Unit tests	⬜ N/A	Documentation skill — no code
Manual testing	✅ Verified	Directory structure and file content reviewed
Format validation	✅ Verified	Markdown style guide rules applied to all docs

Edge cases considered

• Attribution headers added to all ported files — license compliance
• All Mermaid diagrams in new documents use classDef, not %%{init} — dark/light mode compatible
• accTitle + accDescr on every diagram in new documents — accessibility

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🔒 Security

Security checklist

• No secrets, credentials, API keys, or PII in the diff
• Authentication/authorization changes reviewed — N/A
• Input validation reviewed — N/A (documentation only)
• License and attribution retained — Apache-2.0, source credited

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🚀 Deployment

No deployment steps needed — documentation-only skill addition.

Rollback

git revert HEAD~[n]  # or simply delete the skill directory
rm -rf scientific-skills/markdown-mermaid-writing/

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📝 Design decisions

• "Source format" over generated images — Mermaid diagrams are text, diffable, versionable, and renderable by any markdown viewer without a build step. AI/Python images are downstream artifacts. This PR establishes that hierarchy explicitly.
• Full port of opencode style guides — Rather than a summary, the complete guides are included so agents using this skill have the full context without additional lookups. The token cost of loading this skill is offset by eliminating per-document style lookups.
• Apache-2.0 attribution preserved — All ported content retains the original license header. MIT (claude-scientific-skills) is compatible with Apache-2.0 for downstream use.

No ADR created — this is a documentation addition with no architectural tradeoff.

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🔗 References

• Issue #50 — Feature request
• opencode repository — Source of ported style guides (Apache-2.0)
• K-Dense Discord thread — Originating conversation, 2026-02-19

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Last updated: 2026-02-19