Portal Technical Reference

“The court’s rulings are its legacy.”

The Courtroom Portal provides a front-end interface for viewing and exporting deliberation transcripts from the MORNINGSTAR courtroom system.

Features

Launch script — Interactive launcher: list transcripts, open existing HTML or export .md to HTML, open in browser
Standalone viewer — Local HTML page for browsing transcripts (best when served over HTTP)
Export script — courtroom/portal/export_transcript.py converts a single .md transcript to styled HTML (no external deps)
Optional: gitmal — Full static site generation with Dracula theme via courtroom/portal/generate.py
Personality styling — Dracula theme with color-coded personalities and vote styling
Print support — Print-friendly styles for physical documentation

Quick Start

Recommended: Use the launch script

From the project root:

./courtroom/portal/launch.sh

This will:

List all .md transcripts in courtroom/transcripts/
Let you pick one by number
Open the transcript in your default browser — using existing .html if present, otherwise exporting via courtroom/portal/export_transcript.py and then opening

If you get “permission denied”, run chmod +x courtroom/portal/launch.sh once. No other CLI or extra tools required; uses only Bash and Python 3.

Standalone viewer

Open the viewer in your browser (for full transcript loading, serve via HTTP):

# Direct open (file:// — fetch may be restricted for some transcripts)
open courtroom/portal/viewer.html

# Or serve the project and open (recommended)
python3 -m http.server 8080
# Then open http://localhost:8080/courtroom/portal/viewer.html

Generate full static site (optional, requires gitmal)

python courtroom/portal/generate.py --theme dracula
# Or with options
python courtroom/portal/generate.py --theme dracula --minify --gzip

Exporting a single transcript

Without the launch script (e.g. from scripts or CI):

# Export to courtroom/portal/exports/ (default)
python3 courtroom/portal/export_transcript.py courtroom/transcripts/2026-02-15-framework-enhancement-analysis.md

# Custom output path
python3 courtroom/portal/export_transcript.py courtroom/transcripts/2026-02-15-framework-enhancement-analysis.md -o path/to/output.html

export_transcript.py uses only the Python standard library (no pip install). Output is Dracula-themed HTML with personality and vote styling.

Transcript filename formats

Per core/case-format.md. Canonical naming:

Format	Example	Parsed as
Standard `YYYY-MM-DD-[matter-slug].md`	`2026-02-15-framework-enhancement-analysis.md`	Date: 2026-02-15, Topic: Framework Enhancement Analysis
Special Interest `YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS_special_interest_[subject].md`	`20260214_044300_special_interest_api_design.md`	Date: 2026-02-14 04:43, Topic: Special Interest: Api Design
Legacy `YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS_topic.md`	`20260214_044300_system_advancement.md`	Date: 2026-02-14 04:43 (grandfathered)

Place .md transcripts in courtroom/transcripts/. Pre-built .html files in the same directory are opened directly by the launch script (no export step).

Personality Color Scheme (Dracula Theme)

The portal uses the Dracula color palette with personality-specific colors:

Personality	Color	Hex
MORNINGSTAR (Judge)	Purple	`#bd93f9`
ARCHITECT	Cyan	`#8be9fd`
ENGINEER	Green	`#50fa7b`
DEBUGGER	Orange	`#ffb86c`
PROPHET	Pink	`#ff79c6`
SCRIBE	Gray	`#6272a4`

Vote Styling

Vote	Color	Hex
YES	Green	`#50fa7b`
NO	Red	`#ff5555`
ABSTAIN	Yellow	`#f1fa8c`

Directory Structure

From project root, the portal lives at courtroom/portal/:

courtroom/portal/
├── README.md             # This file
├── launch.sh             # Interactive launcher (recommended entry point)
├── export_transcript.py  # Single .md → HTML export (no deps)
├── viewer.html           # Standalone transcript viewer
├── dracula.css           # Dracula theme stylesheet
├── generate.py           # Optional: gitmal wrapper for full static site
├── exports/              # HTML output from launch.sh / export_transcript.py
└── output/               # Generated static site (after running generate.py)
    ├── index.html
    ├── transcripts.html
    └── courtroom/transcripts/*.html

Standalone Generator Script

The generate.py script can be run directly:

# Generate with defaults (from project root)
python courtroom/portal/generate.py

# With options
python courtroom/portal/generate.py --theme dracula --minify --gzip

# Skip gitmal, only post-process
python courtroom/portal/generate.py --skip-gitmal

Generator Options

Option	Default	Description
`--theme`, `-t`	`dracula`	Code highlighting theme
`--output`, `-o`	`courtroom/portal/output`	Output directory
`--minify`	`false`	Minify generated HTML
`--gzip`	`false`	Compress generated HTML
`--skip-gitmal`	`false`	Only run post-processing

Gitmal Requirements

The portal generator requires gitmal to be installed:

# Install gitmal
go install github.com/antonmedv/gitmal@latest

# Verify installation
gitmal --help

Gitmal generates static HTML pages with: - File trees and commit history - Syntax highlighting with customizable themes - Markdown rendering

Customization

Custom CSS

Edit courtroom/portal/dracula.css to customize the appearance. Key sections:

Base Colors - :root CSS variables
Personality Styling - .p-* classes
Vote Styling - .vote-* classes
Print Styles - @media print section

Theme Options

Available themes for gitmal (via --theme):

dracula (recommended)
github
github-dark
monokai
nord
solarized-dark

Viewing in Full Screen

Via Viewer

Open courtroom/portal/viewer.html
Select a transcript
Click “⛶ Fullscreen” button

Via Keyboard

Press F11 for native fullscreen
Press Escape to exit

Via Exported HTML

Exported HTML files include a fullscreen toggle button in the bottom-right corner.

Print / PDF Export

From Viewer

Open a transcript in the viewer
Select “Export” → “Print / PDF”
Use browser print dialog

From Command Line (macOS)

# Export to HTML first
morningstar export transcript 20260214_044300_system_advancement.md

# Convert to PDF (requires wkhtmltopdf or similar)
wkhtmltopdf courtroom/transcripts/20260214_044300_system_advancement.html output.pdf

From Quarto

# Export to QMD
morningstar export transcript 20260214_044300_system_advancement.md -f qmd

# Render with Quarto
quarto render deliberation.qmd --to pdf

Troubleshooting

“gitmal not found”

Install gitmal:

go install github.com/antonmedv/gitmal@latest

Ensure $GOPATH/bin is in your PATH.

“No transcripts found”

Ensure .md files exist in courtroom/transcripts/:

ls courtroom/transcripts/*.md

Supported names per core/case-format.md: Standard YYYY-MM-DD-[matter-slug].md or Special Interest YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS_special_interest_[subject].md (legacy YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS_topic.md grandfathered).

Transcript discovery (manifest)

Run python3 courtroom/portal/generate_manifest.py from the project root to generate courtroom/portal/transcripts_manifest.json. When the viewer is served over HTTP, it will try to load this manifest first and list all transcripts from it; otherwise it falls back to the hardcoded KNOWN_TRANSCRIPTS in viewer.html. Add new transcript filenames to KNOWN_TRANSCRIPTS when using the viewer via file://.

Viewer not loading transcripts

The viewer uses either transcripts_manifest.json (if present and served over HTTP) or the hardcoded list KNOWN_TRANSCRIPTS in viewer.html. For the best experience, serve the project over HTTP and run generate_manifest.py so the viewer discovers transcripts automatically; file:// can block fetch for local files.

CSS not applying

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