SimpleCaci · Jul 16, 2026 · Jul 14, 2026 · Jul 14, 2026 · Jul 14, 2026 · Jul 14, 2026
diff --git a/.github/workflows/static-checks.yml b/.github/workflows/static-checks.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+name: Static checks
+
+on:
+  pull_request:
+  push:
+    branches: [main]
+
+permissions:
+  contents: read
+
+jobs:
+  validate:
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    steps:
+      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
+      - uses: actions/setup-python@v5
+        with:
+          python-version: "3.12"
+      - name: Validate pages, assets, links, and JSON
+        run: python scripts/validate_site.py
+
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
@@ -1,93 +1,51 @@
 # Personal Portfolio
 
-A personality-forward static portfolio for my projects, writing, and contact information.
+Quinton's maintained public portfolio: a handcrafted static site about applied software systems, product thinking, and learning through projects.
 
-The site uses a playful rope-and-cow visual theme while organizing project data separately from presentation code. It is intended to become the main public portfolio for SimpleCaci.
+## Direction
 
-> **Status:** active work in progress. The main pages, styling, project data, transitions, and custom cursor are present, but several sections still contain placeholder copy and links.
+The design combines a technical field notebook with a restrained rope-and-ranch motif. It keeps the original cow mascot, but core navigation and content no longer depend on a custom cursor, animation, or JavaScript.
 
-## Pages and features
+The featured work spans geospatial mission data, computer vision, desktop product design, handwriting OCR, voice interaction, and browser-based pose estimation. Project status language is intentionally specific: a repository link is not presented as a verified deployment or demo.
 
-- home page with animated hero and current-project cards
-- project gallery populated from `data/projects.json`
-- writings page
-- contact page
-- custom cursor, rope interaction, and page transitions
-- responsive CSS structure and local visual assets
+## Pages
+
+- `index.html` - homepage, selected work, method, about, and contact callout
+- `projects/` - JSON-backed project field notes with no-JavaScript and load-failure fallbacks
+- `writings/` - honest archive placeholder until finished writing exists
+- `contacts/` - verified public email and GitHub links
 
 ## Technology
 
 - semantic HTML
-- CSS
-- vanilla JavaScript
-- JSON-backed project/profile/writing data
-- static hosting compatible
-
-## Project structure
-
-```text
-index.html            home
-projects/             project gallery
-writings/             writing links
-contacts/             contact page
-data/                 profile, project, and writing content
-js/                   interactions and data rendering
-css/                  shared and page-specific styles
-assets/               icons, project art, and visual theme
-```
+- responsive CSS with custom properties
+- small progressive-enhancement JavaScript
+- JSON-backed project content
+- dependency-free static validation
 
 ## Run locally
 
-No build step is required. Use a local server so JSON requests and relative links behave consistently:
+No build step is required. Serve the repository root so JSON and relative paths behave like GitHub Pages:
 
 ```bash
 python -m http.server 8000
 ```
 
-Open [http://localhost:8000](http://localhost:8000).
-
-## Content updates
-
-Update portfolio content in:
-
-- `data/profile.json`
-- `data/projects.json`
-- `data/writings.json`
+Open <http://localhost:8000> and visit every public page.
 
-Keep claims, project status, screenshots, and links accurate. Do not add placeholder awards, metrics, or deployments.
+## Validate
 
-## Validation status
-
-No automated tests or CI workflow currently exist. Before publishing, manually check:
-
-- every navigation and project link
-- desktop and mobile layouts
-- keyboard focus and reduced-motion behavior
-- image alternative text
-- missing JSON/image failure states
-- contact details and external links
-- the site with JavaScript disabled or unavailable
-
-## Known unfinished work
+```bash
+python scripts/validate_site.py
+```
 
-- the home page contains generic introduction/project copy
-- writing entries include example placeholders
-- the contact page references an external image
-- navigation/footer sections are incomplete
-- metadata and page titles are generic
-- no deployment workflow or custom-domain documentation exists
-- the custom cursor and animation effects need accessibility fallbacks
+The script checks page structure, local links and images, alternative text, external-tab safety, obvious placeholders or encoding corruption, and the project JSON schema. GitHub Actions runs the same check for pull requests and pushes to `main`.
 
-## Roadmap
+## Deployment
 
-- replace placeholder copy with a concise developer narrative
-- feature the strongest verified projects and case studies
-- add consistent project screenshots
-- finish navigation and footer
-- add reduced-motion and keyboard-friendly behavior
-- validate and deploy the static site
-- connect the profile README to the finished portfolio
+The repository is associated with <https://simplecaci.github.io/personal-portfolio/>. Confirm the GitHub Pages source and live response after merging; the repository does not contain a custom deployment action.
 
 ## Authorship
 
 Designed and built by [SimpleCaci](https://github.com/SimpleCaci). A project license has not yet been selected.
+
diff --git a/contacts/index.html b/contacts/index.html
@@ -1,122 +1,12 @@
 <!doctype html>
 <html lang="en">
 <head>
-    <meta charset="utf-8" />
-    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1" />
-    <meta name="description" content="Contact Quinton" />
-    <title>Contact</title>
-
-    <link rel="icon" type="image/x-icon" href="../assets/icons/temp.ico" />
-
-    <!-- styles -->
-    <link rel="stylesheet" href="../css/global.css" />
-    <link rel="stylesheet" href="../css/index.css" />
-    <link rel="stylesheet" href="../css/contacts.css" />
+  <meta charset="utf-8"><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"><meta name="description" content="Contact Quinton about software projects, technical ideas, or collaboration."><meta name="theme-color" content="#f3eddf"><meta property="og:type" content="website"><meta property="og:title" content="Contact - Quinton"><meta property="og:description" content="A direct way to reach Quinton or explore his public code."><meta name="twitter:card" content="summary"><title>Contact - Quinton</title><link rel="icon" href="../assets/icons/temp.ico"><link rel="stylesheet" href="../css/global.css"><link rel="stylesheet" href="../css/contacts.css">
 </head>
-
 <body>
-<header>
-    <nav>
-        <!-- navigation -->
-    </nav>
-</header>
-
-<main>
-    <div id="cursor" aria-hidden="true"></div>
-    <div id="wipe" aria-hidden="true"></div>
-
-    <div class="top-bar-section">
-        <img
-            class="top-bar-image"
-            src="../assets/images/topImage.png"
-            alt="Top Bar Image"
-            loading="lazy"
-            decoding="async"
-        />
-        <h1 class="page-title">/CONTACT</h1>
-    </div>
-
-    <section class="contacts">
-        <h1>Reach Out</h1>
-
-        <p class="contacts-intro">
-            Minimal. Direct. Human.
-        </p>
-
-        <!-- Primary contact cards -->
-        <div class="contact-cards">
-            <div class="contact-card">
-                <div class="contact-label">email</div>
-                <a
-                    class="contact-link"
-                    href="mailto:simplesimpleemailemail@gmail.com"
-                >
-                    simplesimpleemailemail@gmail.com
-                </a>
-                <div class="contact-sub">best for collabs & opportunities</div>
-            </div>
-
-            <div class="contact-card">
-                <div class="contact-label">github</div>
-                <a
-                    class="contact-link"
-                    href="https://github.com/SimpleCaci"
-                    target="_blank"
-                    rel="noopener"
-                >
-                    github.com/SimpleCaci
-                </a>
-                <div class="contact-sub">projects, experiments, code</div>
-            </div>
-        </div>
-
-        <!-- Extra info (light, optional but nice) -->
-        <div class="contact-meta">
-            <div class="meta-item">
-                <span class="meta-title">response time</span>
-                <span class="meta-value">1–3 days</span>
-            </div>
-            <div class="meta-item">
-                <span class="meta-title">timezone</span>
-                <span class="meta-value">PST</span>
-            </div>
-            <div class="meta-item">
-                <span class="meta-title">status</span>
-                <span class="meta-value">open to ideas</span>
-            </div>
-        </div>
-
-        <!-- Personality touch -->
-        <p class="contacts-small">
-            cow-approved communication only.
-        </p>
-
-        <img
-            class="work-in-progress-image"
-            src="https://images.fineartamerica.com/images/artworkimages/mediumlarge/1/cow-eating-fresh-grass-matthias-hauser.jpg"
-            alt="Cow QA"
-            loading="lazy"
-            decoding="async"
-        />
-    </section>
-
-    <img
-        id="rope"
-        src="../assets/images/rope.png"
-        onerror="this.src='https://www.dummyimage.com/30x500/000/fff';"
-        draggable="false"
-        alt=""
-        aria-hidden="true"
-    />
-</main>
-
-<footer>
-    <!-- footer -->
-</footer>
-
-<script src="../js/transition.js" defer></script>
-<script src="../js/rope.js" defer></script>
-<script src="../js/cursor.js" defer></script>
-<script src="../js/titleAnimation.js" defer></script>
-</body>
-</html>
+  <a class="skip-link" href="#main">Skip to content</a>
+  <header class="site-header"><a class="wordmark" href="../index.html"><span class="wordmark-mark" aria-hidden="true">Q/</span><span>Quinton</span></a><nav class="desktop-nav" aria-label="Primary navigation"><a href="../index.html">Home</a><a href="../projects/index.html">Projects</a><a href="../writings/index.html">Writing</a><a href="../index.html#about">About</a><a href="./index.html" aria-current="page">Contact</a><a class="nav-github" href="https://github.com/SimpleCaci" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">GitHub ↗</a></nav><details class="mobile-nav"><summary aria-label="Open navigation">Menu</summary><nav class="mobile-nav-menu" aria-label="Mobile navigation"><a href="../index.html">Home</a><a href="../projects/index.html">Projects</a><a href="../writings/index.html">Writing</a><a href="../index.html#about">About</a><a href="./index.html" aria-current="page">Contact</a><a href="https://github.com/SimpleCaci" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">GitHub ↗</a></nav></details></header>
+  <main id="main" class="page-shell"><section class="contact-intro"><div><p class="eyebrow">Contact / Open channel</p><h1>Talk to a human, not a funnel.</h1></div><p>If you want to discuss a project, a technical idea, or something useful that should exist, email is the simplest route. Public code and experiments live on GitHub.</p></section><hr class="rope-rule"><section class="contact-layout" aria-labelledby="contact-options"><div><h2 id="contact-options" class="visually-hidden">Contact options</h2><div class="contact-list"><article class="contact-card"><h2>Email</h2><p>Best for project conversations and collaboration ideas.</p><a href="mailto:simplesimpleemailemail@gmail.com">simplesimpleemailemail@gmail.com</a></article><article class="contact-card"><h2>GitHub</h2><p>Repositories, experiments, documentation, and current technical work.</p><a href="https://github.com/SimpleCaci" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">github.com/SimpleCaci ↗</a></article></div><p class="privacy-note">This page uses only contact information that was already public in the portfolio repository. There is no tracking script or third-party contact form.</p></div><figure class="contact-mascot"><img src="../assets/images/cow.png" alt="" width="220" height="220"><figcaption>Cow-approved communication</figcaption></figure></section></main>
+  <footer class="site-footer"><p class="footer-note">Minimal. Direct. Human.</p><nav class="footer-nav" aria-label="Footer navigation"><a href="../index.html">Home</a><a href="../projects/index.html">Projects</a><a href="../writings/index.html">Writing</a><a href="./index.html">Contact</a><a href="https://github.com/SimpleCaci" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">GitHub ↗</a><span>&copy; <span data-current-year>2026</span></span></nav></footer><script src="../js/main.js" defer></script>
+</body></html>
+