Life Ikigai Architect

Turn the raw material of a life (notes, journals, a long conversation about purpose, or answers to a guided interview) into a life architecture: what the person loves, is good at, the world needs and will pay for; where those meet; who they are becoming; their vision, mission and values; the operating principles they choose to live by; the ecosystem they want to build; how they will sequence it; and the inner compass that keeps it honest. The output is one self-contained, animated HTML presentation that explains itself to anyone who opens it.

It works like architecture-as-code: content lives in a JSON spec, scripts/build_deck.py renders it. A spec is easy to revise as the person changes, diffable, and re-renders every animation consistently.

What you produce

Output	How	Notes
The deck	build_deck.py spec.json --out <name>.html	One file, no external scripts, works offline (Google Fonts optional). Keyboard, swipe, contents menu (M), light/dark (T), print to PDF (⎙)
The spec	spec.json beside the deck	The person’s editable source of truth. Keep it out of this skill folder: it is personal
QA screenshots	scripts/snap.py deck.html --all	Headless Chrome; ?static snapshot mode; phone sizes via an iframe

Signature visuals (all data-driven): the classic four-circle Ikigai recreated as an interactive SVG in its familiar palette (yellow love, lime skill, salmon need, mint pay, deep-green centre), with the four “near-Ikigai” warnings on dotted leader lines, and a guided tour; a vision → mission → pillars → values → identity cascade with a falling light beam; a Pañcakṛtya-style wheel; an ecosystem whose flows carry a moving packet and a live caption; roadmaps where a comet travels the track and lights each phase; a scoring heatmap you can re-rank by any lens.

Workflow

1. Gather the material before designing anything. If the person has documents (purpose conversations, Ikigai notes, journals, CVs), read them fully; they are the primary source and their words beat yours. If material is thin, run the interview in references/reflection-protocol.md in short rounds (3-5 questions at a time, never a 40-question wall). Extract into the sections listed there; note contradictions and open questions, don’t resolve them silently.
2. Synthesise with the frameworks in references/frameworks.md: four circles → overlaps and pitfalls → six dimensions → the connecting principle → archetype → vision, mission, values → operating principles → ecosystem → scoring and sequencing → roadmaps → inner compass. Use only the frameworks that fit this person. Pañcakṛtya and Iccha-Jñāna-Kriyā are one person’s devotional lens; for someone else, use their own tradition (Stoic virtues, Christian vocation, the Buddhist pāramitās, a family motto) or leave it out.
3. Draft the statements with the person, not for them. Vision, mission, Ikigai sentence and values are offered as drafts (“tentative formulation”) built from their phrases. If you can, show 2-3 options and let them choose.
4. Write the spec. Start from assets/examples/starter.json (minimal, with TODOs) or assets/examples/maya_example.json (a full 24-slide arc using every slide type). Fields: references/spec-reference.md or python scripts/build_deck.py --list-types. Follow the deck blueprint below.
5. Build: python scripts/build_deck.py life.json --out Life_Ikigai.html. The build validates first (unknown types, missing fields, undeclared chapters, triad ≠ 3 nodes, score rows of the wrong length, bad ecosystem ids).
6. Look at it, then fix it. python scripts/snap.py Life_Ikigai.html --all --out shots/ (add --theme dark, --size 390x844, --sel center for the Venn centre, and --offline when there is no network). Check: text clipped in cards, a slide whose main visual falls below the fold at 1440×900, Venn labels, the phone layout. Iterate. Never verify animations with headless “virtual time”: it doesn’t advance CSS animations, so use ?static.
7. Hand over: the deck path, the spec path, how to edit and rebuild, and what you inferred versus quoted. Offer to publish only if they want to share it: the content is personal.

Deck blueprint (the arc that makes it self-explanatory)

Chapter	Slides (type)
Opening	hero (name, one-line Ikigai, 生き甲斐) · statement (the question beneath the question) · agenda
What contribution means (optional)	cards (impact ≠ reach) · compare (world vs self evolution) · triad (will/knowledge/action) · chain (relief → empowerment)
Ikigai map	image (the classic model, if the person supplies one, credited) · venn · four cards deep-dives · petals (six dimensions) · table (interests → one principle)
Identity, vision & mission	triad (archetype) · vmv · statement (purpose, inward, generational) · trinity (+ sustainability ring)
Operating principles	wheel (their 3-8 principles) · chain (how beneficiaries become creators)
Ecosystem	cycle (the roles feeding each other) · ecosystem · cards (parts in detail, with a boundaries card) · layers (who pays vs who benefits)
Strategy	chain (sequencing) · scores · cards (north star) · compare (life architectures, one recommended)
Roadmap	roadmap ×2-4 (stages, first 90 days, contribution path, generations) · layers (three layers of a life)
Inner compass	cards tone warn (pitfalls → remedies) · table (symbolic timing, if they use it) · questions (review practice) · compare (Life A / Life B)
Close	cycle (purpose as process) · questions (contemplations) · statement (an image) · closing

Around 25-50 slides. Every slide gets a kicker (where we are), a title with one bold phrase (rendered as a gradient), an intro that tells a newcomer how to read it, and often a summary (the takeaway). That is what makes the deck understandable without a presenter.

Principles

• Their voice, first person. Write as the person (“I build…”). Quote their phrases; mark synthesis as a draft. Use the pronouns they use; otherwise write in first person or use they/them.
• Honest numbers only. Never invent scores, revenues or timelines. If they haven’t scored their ideas, ask them to, or use petals without scores rather than a fake radar.
• Boundaries are part of the design. Astrology, energy work and other symbolic systems are presented as reflective, symbolic lenses, not prediction. Anything about health stays educational and says it doesn’t replace clinicians. Don’t present diagnostic claims (iris, palm, face readings) as validated. This is reflection, not therapy: if distress shows up, be human and point to real support.
• Integrate, don’t flatter. Include the pitfalls, the trade-offs and the questions they haven’t answered. A purpose deck without its shadow side is a brochure.
• Sustainability is a design constraint. Health, relationships and joy belong in the architecture, not as an afterthought.
• Privacy. Personal specs, images and decks stay in the person’s own folder, never inside this skill. Images they supply (a reference diagram, a photo) are embedded only into their deck, with a credit line if it’s third-party.

Bundled resources

Path	What
scripts/ikigai_deck.py	Engine: 22 slide types, CSS/JS runtime, validation (build_html, load_spec, validate)
scripts/build_deck.py	CLI: spec → validated, self-contained HTML; --check, --list-types
scripts/snap.py	Headless-Chrome screenshots (?static mode, --theme, --sel, phone sizes, --offline)
references/reflection-protocol.md	Interview rounds and what to extract from documents
references/frameworks.md	The frameworks, how to fill each one, and which slide renders it
references/spec-reference.md	Every slide type and field, limits, runtime URL parameters
assets/examples/maya_example.json	Full fictional example (all slide types)
assets/examples/starter.json	Minimal starter with TODOs
assets/previews/	Screenshots of the example deck

Requirements: Python 3.9+ (standard library only). Chrome or Chromium only for snap.py.