Sub-READMEs on the Adom Wiki

A sub-readme is a second Markdown doc in a wiki page's own git repo that fully documents ONE feature-set, with a short section in the main README that links to it. The main README stays the index; each sub-readme is the deep dive. Use this when a page has several distinct features and cramming them all into one README makes it a wall.

The layout

<page repo>/
  README.md              # the Overview. Holds a "Feature guides" index table linking each sub-readme
  docs/
    aps-cloud-search.md  # one sub-readme per feature-set
    schematics.md
    3d-viewer.md
    img/
      thing-1.png        # screenshots the sub-readmes reference

In the main README, one index section:

## Feature guides

| guide | what it covers |
|---|---|
| [APS cloud search](docs/aps-cloud-search.md) | Find any file in ~2s. Setup, auth, limits. |
| [Schematics](docs/schematics.md) | Open the project, drive the editor, import EAGLE. |

That is it structurally. The rest of this skill is the mechanics that are NOT obvious and WILL waste your time if you guess.

⛔ Publish with repo push, NOT the files blob API

A wiki page has two storage layers, and they are not the same store:

  • the files blob store (POST /api/v1/pages/<slug>/files), and
  • the git page repo (what the Files tab renders, and what adom-wiki repo reads/writes).

curl POST .../files returns 200 but may not update the git page repo, so your sub-readme keeps serving the OLD version even though the upload "succeeded". Always publish sub-readmes and their images through the git repo:

adom-wiki repo push adom/<slug> \
  --files README.md docs/aps-cloud-search.md docs/schematics.md docs/img/thing-1.png \
  -m "add feature sub-readmes"

Verify it landed:

adom-wiki repo show adom/<slug> docs/aps-cloud-search.md | wc -l   # is the new content there?

In the main README (and between sub-readmes), link with the relative repo path:

[APS cloud search](docs/aps-cloud-search.md)      # from the README
[2D board layout](board-layout-2d.md)             # doc-to-doc, same docs/ folder

The wiki's Markdown renderer rewrites these to the working files-viewer URL (/adom/<slug>/files/docs/aps-cloud-search.md). So:

  • Do NOT use absolute https://wiki.adom.inc/... links. Relative is correct and cleaner.
  • Do NOT "verify" a link by curling the path you think it resolves to. A naive <page>/docs/x.md 404s, but the RENDERED page emits the correct rewritten href. Curling your guessed URL will tell you it is broken when it is fine. Check the rendered <a href> (or just click it), not a constructed URL.

Images: reference them by their repo-root path

The files-viewer rewrites a relative image ref by prepending files/ to the ref exactly as written (it does NOT resolve relative to the doc's own folder). So from docs/foo.md:

you write viewer loads works if the image is at
![](docs/img/x.png) files/docs/img/x.png docs/img/x.png in the repo ✅
![](img/x.png) files/img/x.png img/x.png (usually wrong)
![](x.png) files/x.png repo root (clutters root)

Reference images by their repo-root-relative path, docs/img/x.png, and commit the image at that path. Then push both the doc and the image with repo push.

VERIFY BY LOOKING, not by curling

The meta-lesson behind every gotcha above: the wiki renders through a client SPA that rewrites links and images and serves from a specific store. A curl of a URL you constructed tests a URL the renderer never emits. To confirm a sub-readme is right:

  • open the page and look at it (screenshot / pup), or
  • read the actual rendered <a href> / <img src> and whether the image naturalWidth > 0.

Never conclude "broken" from a raw curl of a hand-built path. That single habit prevents the most common sub-readme rabbit hole.

House style

  • No em-dashes, anywhere. Run prose-lint <file>.md before publishing; fix every HARD issue.
  • Put real screenshots in the sub-readmes (see wiki-readme for image rules). A text-only sub-readme is thin.
  • Keep the main README's index short: one row per guide, a one-line "what it covers".
  • Do NOT embed the page hero in any README or sub-readme (see wiki-hero, wiki-readme).

Checklist

  1. Write docs/<topic>.md per feature-set; link images as docs/img/x.png.
  2. Add a ## Feature guides index table to the main README with relative docs/<topic>.md links.
  3. prose-lint every doc (no em-dashes / AI-tells).
  4. adom-wiki repo push adom/<slug> --files README.md docs/*.md docs/img/*.png -m "...".
  5. adom-wiki repo show to confirm the new content is in the repo.
  6. Look at the rendered page: links click through, images load. Do not curl-and-assume.