Editing the wiki

Every page on this wiki is a Markdown file in the finkelsteinlab/wiki repository. Anyone in the finkelsteinlab GitHub organisation can edit it; ask the lab manager to add you.

Contents

1. Find the right page
2. Where files go
3. Edit on GitHub
4. Pictures
5. Rules for every page
6. Rules for LLM assistants

1. Find the right page

1. Search the wiki first. Improve an existing page rather than starting a second one.
2. Each page type has a guide and template:
   • Adding a protocol
   • Adding an instrument
   • Adding a recipe
   • Adding a software guide
3. Safety, getting-started, careers and lab-life pages have no fixed template. Follow the rules in section 5.

2. Where files go

Section	Folder
Getting started	src/content/docs/getting-started/
Safety	src/content/docs/safety/
Protocols	src/content/docs/protocols/<subsection>/
Recipes and buffers	src/content/docs/recipes/
Reagents and storage	src/content/docs/reagents/
Instruments	src/content/docs/instruments/
Computing and code	src/content/docs/computing/
Careers and writing	src/content/docs/careers/
Lab life	src/content/docs/lab-life/
Pictures and files	public/media/<section>/

Name a file after its title, in lowercase with hyphens: “Water Baths” becomes water-baths.md. The sidebar sorts by file name.

3. Edit on GitHub

1. To edit a page, click Edit page at the bottom.
2. To add a page, open its folder on GitHub and choose Add file > Create new file. Paste the matching guide’s template.
3. To add pictures or PDFs, open the matching public/media/ folder and choose Add file > Upload files.
4. Use the Preview tab to check the result.
5. Click Commit changes. Open a pull request if you want someone to check it first; otherwise commit directly.
6. The site rebuilds itself. Changes are live about two minutes after they reach main.

4. Pictures

A picture is worth a thousand words

A photo of the setup, the expected result, or an annotated screenshot often replaces a paragraph of instructions. Add one wherever something is easier to show than to describe.

1. Resize to at most 1600 px on the long side; keep files under 1 MB. Use JPG for photos, PNG for screenshots, SVG for diagrams.
2. Upload to public/media/<section>/ with a descriptive name, such as water-bath-display.jpg.
3. Insert it where it belongs: ![What the reader should notice.](/wiki/media/<section>/<file>)
4. Describe what matters in the square brackets; screen readers read it aloud.
5. Never photograph passwords, door codes, notebooks or personal information.

5. Rules for every page

1. Front matter holds the title. Do not add a # heading; the site prints the title.

2. Number sections ## 1. Name and subsections ### 1.1 Name. Go no deeper.

3. Put a ## Contents list first when a page has three or more sections. Link each section by its heading in lowercase, with punctuation removed and spaces as hyphens: ## 2. Operation is #2-operation.

4. Number anything done in order. Use bullets or tables for everything else.

5. Put warnings in a box: :::note, :::tip, :::caution or :::danger, closed with :::.

6. Link to other pages with site paths such as /wiki/recipes/plates/ instead of copying their content.

7. When you link a manual, datasheet or web page outside the wiki, keep the original link and save a PDF copy to public/media/archive/, then add a badge after the link:

   [Title](https://original) <a class="pdf-copy" href="/wiki/media/archive/<file>.pdf" title="Archived PDF copy">PDF</a>

   Vendor sites move; the copy keeps working.

8. No passwords, door codes, personal phone numbers or personal email addresses. Name offices and roles instead.

6. Rules for LLM assistants

These apply to every page, alongside the page-type rules.

1. Never invent facts. Every number, name, model, location and contact comes from the person or their supplied material. Write TODO: value for anything missing and say so.
2. Never delete content when restructuring a page. Move, renumber and reformat; keep every value, link and image.
3. Follow the template for the page type and the rules in section 5.
4. Ask for pictures. A picture is worth a thousand words. If one would help and none was given, add a :::note[Picture wanted] box saying what to photograph, and tell the person.
5. Open a pull request with a one-line summary and a list of TODOs and wanted pictures.