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Development Log

2026-08-13 -- UE 5.8, Unreal MCP (port 6388), Rephrased MCP toolkit

Summary: Project pin moved from UE 5.6 to 5.8 so the editor can host Unreal MCP. Team Unreal MCP port is 6388. Shipped tools/rephrased-mcp/ plus .cursor/mcp.json / .claude/mcp.json. Living docs no longer tell humans to invoke named skills; agents call MCP from AGENTS.md. Deleted mirrored skill files. Stopped tracking generated .sln, DDC chunks, and Obsidian window layout.

Files changed (high level): - Engine: Rephrased_Demo.uproject, .vsconfig, both .Target.cs, ExpandingRingActor.cpp, FireComponent.cpp, [OpenAfterPull]Build_Project.bat - Harness: tools/rephrased-mcp/, AGENTS.md, CLAUDE.md, MCP json, git hooks, .gitignore - Wiki: Setup MCP pages, onboarding/TDD/FirstDay retargeted to 5.8; weekly wiki/devlogs/2026-W33-Gabriel Li.md

Behavior changes: Editor target needs VS 2026 + MSVC 14.50. Unreal MCP only while the 5.8 editor is running. Gameplay C++ is the 5.8 FOverlapResult include plus V7 build settings.

2026-05-23 -- Wiki onboarding follow-up, GDD sync, and doc hygiene

Summary: Second-pass onboarding fixes from wiki audit: split Today is your first day across Start here and discipline tabs; expanded Engineer onboarding, Git workflow, Glossary, and Adding a subsystem; removed Audits from MkDocs nav and excluded orphan audit trees from --strict builds; added GDD Implementation status (Gate 2 build) and synced rune, interaction, and plan pages to it; added Antigravity (Gemini) under Setup; trimmed authoring document headers; replaced open-questions tables with ask-your-lead; documented lead DEVLOG.md front matter; merged same-day Change history bullets wiki-wide.

Files changed (high level): - mkdocs.yml — Audits nav removed; duplicate Setup onboarding removed; Antigravity entry; exclude_docs for wiki/Audits/** and review/** - Rephrased Wiki/ — FirstDay.md, index.md, DEVLOG.md, Rephrased_TDD.md; Engineering/Design/Art first-day and home pages; systems, authoring, plan, reference, and Setup assistant pages (see git diff for full list) - .claude/skills/wiki-doc-maintenance/SKILL.md, .agents/skills/wiki-doc-maintenance/SKILL.md — lead DEVLOG metadata and one-entry-per-date rule

Behavior changes: Documentation and navigation only.

2026-05-10 -- Engineer onboarding, self-review, quick build guide, environment skill

Summary: Added wiki/Engineering/EngineerOnboarding.md (day-one checklist, skills table, week-one onboarding links, devlogs/wiki hygiene) and wired it through Start here, Setup, Engineering nav, landing index.md, wiki/AI/Home.md, CLAUDE.md, and Claude Code first steps; replaced informal root ONBOARDING.md with a wiki pointer. Added wiki/Engineering/SelfReviewWorkflow.md, advisory scripts/git-hooks/pre-push and scripts/Install-ReviewHook.ps1, and cross-links from code-hygiene-review skills. Moved Quick_Build_Guide.txt into wiki/Engineering/QuickBuildGuide.md and updated nav/skills. Added mirrored project-environment-check skill and linked it from DeveloperSetup and assistant pages.

Behavior changes: Documentation and navigation only; advisory pre-push hook (exit 0); Build_Project.bat unchanged.

2026-05-09 -- Setup tab, AGP AI onboarding, and ChatGPT Project bundle

Summary: Renamed MkDocs AI tab to Setup, moved Developer setup out of Engineering, dropped AI — prefixes on assistant rows, and refreshed cross-links. Expanded CLAUDE.md, added mirrored Cursor/Claude skills (devlog-entry, pr-changelist-description, code-hygiene-review, asset-naming-conventions, bug-report), published Developer setup (VS 2022 + UE 5.6), nested assistant pages, wiki/AI/ChatGPTProject/ bundle for ChatGPT Projects, devlog template/README updates, and navigation wiring.

Files changed (high level): mkdocs.yml, CLAUDE.md, .cursor/skills/**, .claude/skills/**, Rephrased Wiki/wiki/Engineering/DeveloperSetup.md, wiki/Engineering/AI/*.md, wiki/AI/**, hub pages, index.md.

Behavior changes: Documentation and agent workflow only; no gameplay code changes.

Reasoning: Single tab for onboarding + tooling; downloadable ChatGPT reference Markdown for non-programmer disciplines.

2026-05-08 -- Wiki change history, full GDD, and Design/Art structure

Summary: Added wiki-doc-maintenance skill, WikiMaintenance.md, baseline ## Change history on wiki pages, and Engineering nav link. Expanded wiki/Design/GDD.md from summary into full GDD content; removed AI-authored Open questions from design pages. Added designer-facing Design wiki (pillars, rune language, systems overview, tutorialization, level template, 20-minute flow, story beats) and lightweight Art visual-direction stub; updated MkDocs Design/Art nav and hub pages.

Behavior changes: Documentation only; MkDocs exposes maintenance workflow plus Design and Art tabs.

Reasoning: Per-page change notes and weekly audits without relying on Git history alone; keep approved design knowledge editable in the wiki without publishing raw brainstorm files.

2026-05-07 -- GitHub workflow: build check only (Cloudflare hosts docs)

Summary: Replaced the workflow that called actions/deploy-pages with a CI job that only runs python -m mkdocs build --strict. Cloudflare Pages builds and publishes from Git; GitHub Pages is not used, so the deploy step was failing with 404 when Pages was off or disallowed.

Files Changed: .github/workflows/mkdocs.yml.

Behavior Changes: No GitHub Pages deployment from Actions; optional PR validation when doc paths change.

Reasoning: Avoid duplicate hosting and failing deploys when the live site is *.pages.dev.

2026-05-06 -- MkDocs publish, wiki restructure, and Obsidian spine

Summary: Added repo-root MkDocs Material site (mkdocs.yml, index.md, requirements-docs.txt, GitHub Actions workflow). Reorganized engineering docs into Rephrased Wiki/ vault with Onboarding / Systems / Reference / Authoring / Plan; cleaned TDD and wired Details links. Nested technical pages under MkDocs Engineering tab; added Design/Art hubs and Devlogs nav with Gabriel Li lead log. Fixed YAML front matter on RuneSystemCore.md and RuneActorsAndPlacement.md. Seeded earlier docs/wiki/ Obsidian spine (Home, MOC, devlogs README) and fixed Obsidian click handling on path-like inline code.

Behavior Changes: Documentation, navigation, and CI only; local preview via python -m mkdocs serve.

Reasoning: Same Markdown as the Obsidian vault in a searchable site; onboardable structure for a growing engineering team without scattering wiki pages through Source/ or Content/.

2026-04-30 -- TDD.md schedule rewrite, Blueprint authoring layer, and markdown fixes

Summary: Rewrote the Schedule section to match the Example 2 (Scarecrow) format (Key Milestones / By Milestones / By Features); added Engineering Allocation and Blueprint authoring layer as a headline feature track; updated Audio/FMOD commitments. Fixed Markdown rendering in docs/TDD.md (bold class names, internal links, spacing).

Files Changed: docs/TDD.md.

Behavior Changes: None, documentation only.

Reasoning: Milestones/Features format reads more clearly for a five-engineer team; Blueprint authoring layer is now an explicit pre-prod deliverable rather than a side project.

2026-04-29 -- Gate 2 TDD

Summary: Drafted docs/TDD.md following the USC AGP TDD template, cross-referenced against the Rephrased GDD and the four example TDDs. Captures the current engineering state and the year-ahead plan so the team has a single document to bring to Gate 2 review.

Files Changed: - docs/TDD.md -- new. Header (lead + contact), Game Summary, Platform, Engine, Technical Features (Rune core, actors, effect components, camera, memory palace, character/interaction, puzzle devices, content pipeline, audio, VFX, UI, save), Technical Development Plan, Technical Risks, Schedule in the "(Weeks to First Iteration | Weeks to Alpha | Total Weeks)" format used by the Bugnauts example.

Behavior Changes: None, documentation only.

Reasoning: Chose the AGP weeks-based schedule format over date-based because the Bugnauts TDD is the closest precedent (UE5, C++, same program). Called out two known GDD / implementation mismatches in the plan rather than hand-waving them: the click-based Interact Mode pivot (current code is physical carry) and the missing VERB+NOUN grammar path. Kept the TDD as a summary rather than re-derivation of RuneSystem_LevelDesign_TDD.md and CameraSystem.md -- it links to those for depth.

2026-04-16 -- FireComponent Niagara migration and multi-point spawn authoring

Summary: Migrated UFireComponent from Cascade to Niagara (UNiagaraSystem / UNiagaraFunctionLibrary). Added UFireSpawnPointComponent so designers place multiple fire anchor points; UFireComponent spawns one Niagara instance per point with root fallback when none exist.

Files Changed: - Source/Rephrased_Demo/RuneSystem/Components/FireComponent.h/.cpp - Source/Rephrased_Demo/RuneSystem/Components/FireSpawnPointComponent.h/.cpp (new)

Behavior Changes: - BP_FireComponent expects a UNiagaraSystem asset (Cascade assignments clear on load). - Multi-point fire on burnables; zero spawn points keeps legacy single-root behavior; extinguish destroys all tracked instances.

Reasoning: Niagara is the supported UE5 VFX path; scene-component spawn points give gizmo-based authoring without a transform-array UX anti-pattern.