Project Context

This is a personal academic website built on the AcademicPages template (a fork of Minimal Mistakes for Jekyll), hosted on GitHub Pages.

Owner: ECE student at UIUC. Content focus: embedded systems, hardware, robotics coursework, and personal projects.

Structure

• _config.yml — site-wide settings, author bio, social links
• _pages/ — static pages (about, cv, publications index)
• _portfolio/ — one .md per project, with YAML front matter
• _publications/, _talks/ — same pattern, one file per entry
• _data/navigation.yml — top nav bar
• _sass/, assets/css/main.scss — style overrides
• files/ — PDFs and downloadable assets
• images/ — image assets

Rules

1. Never edit theme internals. Minimal Mistakes is a remote/gem theme. All style changes go in _sass/ or assets/css/main.scss as overrides. Do not modify anything under the theme gem directory.
2. Match existing conventions. Before creating a new collection entry, read an existing file in that folder and mirror its front-matter fields and formatting exactly.
3. Front matter is not optional. Every collection item needs at minimum title, collection, permalink. Malformed YAML breaks the build silently on GitHub Pages.
4. Test before declaring done. Run bundle exec jekyll serve and confirm the build succeeds with no warnings. Report any Liquid or YAML errors.
5. Do not invent content. Do not fabricate publications, dates, metrics, affiliations, or project details. If information is missing, leave a TODO: marker and ask.
6. Small, reviewable changes. Prefer several focused edits over one large rewrite. Explain what changed and why before I commit.
7. Don’t commit or push. Leave that to me.

Commands

• Local preview: bundle exec jekyll serve
• Install deps: bundle install

Style

• Prose: plain, concise, first person. No marketing tone.
• Technical writing: specific over vague — name the chip, the protocol, the tool.
• Keep the existing color scheme unless I explicitly ask to change it.