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e4ea31270f
Plain-C, dependency-free engine that produces a personalized daily Celtic Cross tarot spread and natal-chart/transit astrology reading, plus a standalone CLI (dist/deck-engine) and run.sh wrapper. Includes English/German output via a simple key=value translation format, and docs/diagrams describing the architecture and I/O.
189 lines
9.2 KiB
Markdown
189 lines
9.2 KiB
Markdown
# CLAUDE.md
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This file provides guidance to Claude Code (claude.ai/code) when working with code in this repository.
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## Project goal
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A Pebble smartwatch app that produces a daily personalized tarot (Celtic
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Cross) and astrology (natal chart + transits) reading. Currently only the
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**core engine** exists: a plain-C, dependency-free library plus a
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standalone CLI binary (`dist/deck-engine`) that can be built and run
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without any Pebble SDK or emulator. The watchapp itself (Pebble C/UI,
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resource packs) has not been started yet — the engine is deliberately
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built so it can be linked straight into it later without rework (see
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"Portability to the watch" below).
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## Build & run
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```bash
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cd engine
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make # builds dist/deck-engine, dist/img/, dist/i18n/, dist/run.sh, dist/user.properties
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make test # builds and runs engine/tests/smoke_test.c
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make clean # removes build/ and the generated binary/img/i18n (never touches dist/user.properties)
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```
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Build output goes to `dist/`, a sibling of `engine/` and `res/` (not
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inside `engine/`). There is no `make install`; `dist/` is meant to be run
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in place.
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Two ways to run a reading:
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```bash
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# 1. Direct CLI, all inputs explicit:
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dist/deck-engine --seed "2026-07-03" \
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--birth-date 1990-05-14 --birth-time 14:32 --birth-utc-offset 2 \
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--birth-lat 52.5200 --birth-lon 13.4050 \
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[--date YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM] [--format text|html] [--lang en|de] [--i18n-dir <path>]
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# 2. dist/run.sh [text|html] [lang] — wraps the binary for daily use: seed
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# and --date come from the OS clock (today's date / current UTC time),
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# birth data + default language are read from dist/user.properties
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# next to the script; the optional [lang] arg overrides that language
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# for a single run.
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```
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`dist/user.properties` is seeded once from `engine/scripts/user.properties.template`
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with placeholder values (`YOUR_BIRTH_DATE_HERE`, etc.) and is **never
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overwritten by later builds** — `run.sh` refuses to run (with a clear
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error) until the placeholders are replaced with real values.
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Run a single smoke test by editing `engine/tests/smoke_test.c`'s `main()`
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temporarily, or just read its assertions — there's no test filter flag,
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the whole suite runs in milliseconds.
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## Architecture
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```
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deck_in_a_dash/
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res/ Tarot card art (22 RWS Major Arcana JPEGs),
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Waite's "Pictorial Key to the Tarot" (PDF,
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public domain — source of all card/spread
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text), logo, research notes.
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engine/
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third_party/astronomy/ Vendored cosinekitty/astronomy C library
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(MIT, pinned commit — see VENDORED.md).
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Unmodified from upstream.
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src/
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rng.h/.c Deterministic string-seeded PRNG.
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tarot.h/.c Celtic Cross spread draw logic.
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tarot_data.c 22 cards' names/meanings + 10 position
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names/descriptions (Waite's own text).
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astro.h/.c Natal chart + daily transits.
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i18n.h/.c key=value translation catalog + English fallback.
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reading.h/.c Ties tarot + astro together; text/HTML output.
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main.c CLI entry point.
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i18n/en.lang, i18n/de.lang Translation source files, one per language.
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tests/smoke_test.c
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scripts/run.sh, scripts/user.properties.template
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Makefile
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dist/ Build output (gitignored-style; see Build & run).
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```
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### Data flow / the real API
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`reading_generate(seed, birth, utc_moment, &DailyReading)` in
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`reading.h` is the single entry point that matters — it's what the
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watchapp will call once it exists. It populates a plain struct
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(`NatalChart` + `DailyTransits` + `CelticCrossSpread`) that the caller
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walks directly to build a UI. `reading_print_text`/`reading_print_html`
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are desktop-only conveniences for inspecting a reading (used by the CLI);
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the watchapp will never call them.
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### Determinism (`rng.c`)
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The Celtic Cross draw must be exactly reproducible from a seed string, on
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any platform (including the watch's ARM core later), so `rng.c` is pure
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integer arithmetic: FNV-1a hashes the seed string, splitmix64 streams
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from it, and a partial Fisher–Yates shuffle (`tarot.c`) draws the 10
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cards plus a reversal bit per card from that same stream, in one pass.
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**Known-sharp-edge**: `rng_next_bounded`'s rejection-sampling limit must
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stay a `uint64_t`. When `bound` evenly divides 2^32 (true for `bound ==
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2`, used by every reversed-card coin flip), the true rejection threshold
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*is* 2^32, which silently truncates to 0 in a `uint32_t` and turns the
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loop into an infinite one. This exact bug shipped once already — if
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you touch this function, keep the intermediate type 64-bit.
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### Astrology (`astro.c`)
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- Bodies: Sun, Moon, Mercury–Pluto (`Body` enum in `astro.h`, prefixed
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`PLANET_*` — deliberately *not* `BODY_*`, because Astronomy Engine's
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own `astro_body_t` already defines `BODY_SUN`, `BODY_MOON`, etc., and
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both headers are included together in `astro.c`).
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- **Positions must go through `Astronomy_GeoVector` + `Astronomy_Ecliptic`,
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not `Astronomy_EclipticLongitude`.** The latter computes *heliocentric*
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longitude and outright rejects `BODY_SUN` (`ASTRO_INVALID_BODY`) —
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wrong for astrology, which needs apparent geocentric position. This
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also shipped once and was caught by the natal-Sun-sign smoke test.
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- Houses use the **Whole Sign** system (house 1 = the Ascendant's sign,
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houses follow zodiacally) — no Placidus/Koch cusp trig. Astronomy
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Engine has no Ascendant function; it's computed directly in `astro.c`
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from sidereal time + a standard low-precision obliquity polynomial +
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the RAMC/obliquity/latitude identity (Duffett-Smith & Zwart).
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- Aspects (conjunction/sextile/square/trine/opposition) use an 8° orb
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when a luminary (Sun/Moon) is involved, 6° otherwise.
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### Tarot (`tarot.c`, `tarot_data.c`)
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Only the 22 Major Arcana are modelled (`TAROT_DECK_SIZE`) — matches the
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art actually in `res/img/`. The 10 Celtic Cross positions
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(`CelticCrossPosition` in `tarot.h`) follow **Waite's own original
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drawing order** from *The Pictorial Key to the Tarot*, Part III §7 ("An
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Ancient Celtic Method of Divination"): Present → Challenge → **Crown →
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Foundation → Recent Past** → Near Future → Attitude → Environment →
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Hopes/Fears → Outcome. Note this differs from the reordering used by
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most modern tutorials (which typically put Foundation/Recent Past before
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Crown) — `res/2026_07_03_celtic_cross_spread.txt` has an example of that
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more common (but less original) ordering; don't use it as a reference for
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the position enum order. Card and position text in `tarot_data.c` is
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condensed from Waite's own wording in Part III §3 (public domain).
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### Translations (`i18n.c`, `engine/i18n/*.lang`)
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All display text (planet/sign/moon-phase/aspect names, tarot card names
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and meanings, Celtic Cross position names, and `reading.c`'s section
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headers) is looked up in a small process-global catalog loaded by
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`i18n_load(path)` from a `key=value` file, via `i18n_get(key, fallback)`.
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Every call site passes the hardcoded English string as `fallback`, so a
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missing file, a missing key, or an untranslated language degrades to
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English rather than showing a raw key or nothing — this is what lets
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`engine/i18n/de.lang` (or any future language) be filled in incrementally.
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Keys are namespaced by the *slug* tables in `tarot_data.c`/`astro.c`
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(`card.<slug>.name`, `card.<slug>.upright/reversed`,
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`position.<slug>.name/desc`, `body.<slug>`, `sign.<slug>`,
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`moonphase.<slug>`, `aspect.<slug>`), plus `ui.*` keys for `reading.c`'s
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own labels — deliberately keyed off separate slug strings rather than
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the C enum names, so renaming an enumerator can never silently break a
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`.lang` file. **To add a language**: copy `engine/i18n/en.lang` to
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`<code>.lang` in the same directory (keys must match exactly) and
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translate the values — no source changes needed, `make` picks up any
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`*.lang` file there automatically.
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`i18n_load` uses stdio (`fopen`/`fgets`), so — like `main.c` and
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`reading_print_*` — it's a desktop-only entry point; `i18n_get` itself
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is a pure fixed-size-array lookup with no heap allocation, so it's fine
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to port to the watch once it has its own (non-file-based) way to
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populate the catalog, e.g. from a compiled-in resource.
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### Portability to the watch
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`rng`, `tarot`, `tarot_data`, `astro`, `i18n_get`, and `reading_generate`
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are kept free of `stdio`/CLI assumptions specifically so they can link
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into the Pebble watchapp unchanged later. Only `reading_print_text`/
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`_html` (text formatting), `main.c` (CLI arg parsing), and `i18n_load`
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(reads a file from disk) are desktop-only and won't port as-is.
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## Licensing
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- Engine code (`engine/src/`, `engine/scripts/`, `engine/Makefile`):
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MIT, per the repo's top-level `LICENSE`.
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- `engine/third_party/astronomy/`: vendored MIT code, unmodified — see
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`VENDORED.md` for the pinned upstream commit.
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- Card/spread text in `tarot_data.c`/`engine/i18n/en.lang`: condensed
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from A. E. Waite's *The Pictorial Key to the Tarot* (1911), public
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domain.
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- `engine/i18n/de.lang`'s card/spread text is an original translation of
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that same public-domain English text, made for this project — not
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taken from any specific published German edition.
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