What's New

A running changelog of meaningful updates to the Codex. The most recent entries come first; older entries are kept for reference. For typo fixes and small content edits, see the GitLab commit log.

Volume I, Edition 2026.06 — the broad edition

A sweeping release, covering the dark-mode AA audit, the addition of comparative tooling, the long-form enrichment of the gallery, and a small library of new editorial features.

Accessibility

• Dark mode AA audit — every surface, text colour, and shadow re-tuned to clear WCAG AA in both light and dark modes. Tokens: --ink-whisper, --ink-faded, --brand-oxblood, --brand-forest, --gold lifted; surfaces widened for visual layering. (Tickets #33-#50.)
• Masthead background — replaced hardcoded rgba(245,239,227,.94) with a tokenised --masthead-bg that flips to dark in dark mode. (Ticket #33.)
• Theme-color meta — split into light + dark media queries so the browser chrome matches the page scheme. (Ticket #47.)
• Hardcoded rgba() shadows — all 16 instances replaced with --shadow-rgb-{04..86} tokens that flip to black on dark. (Ticket #45.)
• Colophon dark mode — --colophon-bg and --colophon-fg dedicated tokens; local paper remaps so all child elements get cream text. (Tickets #69-#72.)
• Empty <time> elements in the timeline — template bug where $ resolved to root context, not the iteration. Fixed with $entry := . capture. (Ticket #75.)
• ink-whisper mismatch — critical CSS synced with main CSS to #5a4e3f. (Ticket #77.)
• Corner ornament title — 'Top-Left' × 4 → generic 'Corner Ornament'. (Ticket #78.)
• Ethics section inline styles — replaced with tokenized utility classes (.eyebrow--on-oxblood, .ethics-heading, .btn--gold-on-oxblood). (Ticket #73.)

New features

• 404 page — animated flying cock, Quod periit, periit. lemma, six numbered links to the main sections. (Original.)
• Keyboard shortcuts overlay — ? opens, with two-keystroke navigation (g h / g b / g c / g t / g p / g q / g k), paragraph nav with j/k, gg/G for top/bottom, / for search, c for compare. (Original.)
• Image lightbox — click any plate in the gallery, navigate with ←/→ or the on-screen arrows. (Original.)
• Reading progress bar — gold/cinnabar gradient at the top of essay pages, percent label. (Original.)
• Taxonomy + term templates — beautiful indices for /regions/ and /series/. (Original.)
• Visual sitemap at /sitemap/ — eight numbered columns of every page in the Codex. (Original.)
• Easter egg (Konami code) — ↑↑↓↓←→←→BA opens “From the Editor’s desk” with wax seal. (Original.)
• Print stylesheet — cream paper / black ink, hides interactive chrome, reveals URLs after links, page-break rules. (Original.)
• Compare tray — click “Compare” on a breed card, choose up to four, open the side-by-side modal. (Ticket #32.)
• Custom cursors — quill, hand-antique, scroll. CSS cursor: url() only — no overlay dot, so the system cursor is preserved. (Ticket #31.)
• PWA support — /manifest.json with five shortcut links, /sw.js service worker for offline reading. (Original.)
• Editorial Standards page at /style-guide/ — methods, sources, voice, posture. (Original.)
• Glossary tooltips — 13 Latin/scientific terms auto-wrapped in <abbr> with dark tooltips. (Original.)
• Heading anchor links — ¶ glyph on hover for h2/h3, click copies the deep link to clipboard. (Original.)
• Last-updated dates on essays via last_updated frontmatter. (Original.)
• Per-section RSS feeds linked in the colophon: All, Essays, Breeds, Excerpts, Chronicle. (Original.)
• JSON-LD per section — Article, Quotation, Event, VisualArtwork, BreadcrumbList. (Original.)
• Featured Plate of the Day — rotates daily on the homepage, based on day-of-year modulo plates count. (Original.)
• Back-to-top button — appears after 40% scroll on long pages. (Original.)
• “By the same hand” widget on essays — up to 3 other essays by the same author. (Original.)

New visual content

• 4 new gallery plates — Heraldic Achievement, Mappa Mundi Gallinae (world map), Illuminated Initial G, The Pit, on Fight Day (cockpit interior).
• 2 new layout SVGs — Timeline Arc, Hero Photograph.
• Reusable closing-ornament partial — fleuron rendered before the colophon on every page, with default/chapter/plate/signature variants.
• Type specimen, color palette, ornament gallery added to /about/.

Content & editorial

• 3 essays with full long-form content — Anatomy of the Cock, The Long Tail, The Shape of Courage.
• 8 quotes with proper attribution and source citations, on the Excerpts page.
• 9 timeline entries spanning 1200 BCE to the 1940s, with era grouping (Antiquity → Modern).
• 13 breed pages with portraits, traits, origins, and ledger data.
• 8 gallery plates with editorial captions.
• Atlas of Breeds with chapter ornament, sort order, and breed grid.
• Chronicle with hero illustration, era dividers, and closing reflection.
• Codex index with featured-essay teasers and closing editorial note.
• Homepage with manifesto, featured rails, anatomy, breed preview, pullquote, world-map chapter, timeline vignette, ethics callout, and CTA.

Security & performance

• Content-Security-Policy — added via meta tag, restricts scripts to self + Matomo, blocks framing, restricts form actions to self + Formspree.
• X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff and Referrer-Policy: strict-origin-when-cross-origin.
• Permissions-Policy — disables unused features (camera, microphone, geolocation, etc.).
• GitLab Pages _headers file — for server-level header overrides in addition to meta-tag fallbacks.

Bugfixes

• Colophon background flipped to paper-vellum in light mode — root cause: local --ink-archive remap cascaded back into the colophon’s own background. Fixed with dedicated --colophon-bg / --colophon-fg tokens.
• Compare button template error — reflect.IsMap guard for weight field.
• Stray date: line in the-red-jungle-fowl body — removed.
• Glossary tooltips for 13 Latin terms with dark tooltip styling.

This page is generated by hand, not automatically. New entries are added manually after each major release.

To suggest a change or report an error, see the Editorial Standards page or open an issue on the GitLab repository.