Working notes for Claude sessions

Purpose: ramp any new Claude session on this repo in under a minute. Read this first, then look at the gold-standard files below, then start work.

Who this is for

Neil “Koby” Reid — PGY-1 general surgery resident. Rotations across:

  • Baylor University Medical Center (BUMC) Dallas
  • JPS Health Network, Fort Worth
  • Baylor Scott & White Waxahachie

Cofounder of Austere Surgical LLC (that site lives in a separate repo — see github.com/austeresurgical/austeresurgical.github.io, not here). The old /austeresurgical mini-site inside this repo has been retired to redirect-only pages pointing at austeresurgical.com; leave them alone unless asked.

Weekly cadence. The pattern going forward is one focused session per week aligned with his program’s didactics. Opener will typically be something like “This week is X, saw these cases, focus on Y.” Follow the workflow at the bottom of this file.

Repo layout (the parts that matter)

Landmark/
  case-prep/surgeries/     # one file per operation
  topic-review/topics/     # one file per ABSITE-organized topic
  paper-review/papers/     # landmark trial writeups (WikiJournalClub-style)
  _templates/              # starter templates for each of the above
absite_companion_md_jekyll/  # raw PDF-extracted ABSITE material — source for topic-review polish
_layouts/landmark.html     # the single layout everything uses
assets/                    # CSS, images, PDFs

Everything user-facing uses layout: landmark in the frontmatter. The old topic-review layout was retired.

Gold-standard exemplars

When building a new page, open one of these first and match its structure. Don’t invent new patterns.

Case-prep gold standards:

  • Landmark/case-prep/surgeries/mals.md — the original canonical shape (2-approach comparison).
  • Landmark/case-prep/surgeries/inguinal-hernia.md — canonical anatomy-heavy page + must-watch video + PDF source references.
  • Landmark/case-prep/surgeries/low-anterior-resection.md — robotic-primary workflow with laparoscopic + open as shorter parallel sections; template dictation block; must-watch video.
  • Landmark/case-prep/surgeries/wedge-gastrectomy.md — robotic-primary, technique-forward (specific port map + stapler loads + closure).
  • Landmark/case-prep/surgeries/lumpectomy-slnb.md — combined-operation page with a large domain-specific deep-dive section (localization methods).

Topic-review gold standards:

  • Landmark/topic-review/topics/hernias.md — the reference structure for topic reviews.
  • Landmark/topic-review/topics/stomach.md — same structure with additional deep sections (GIST, NET) demonstrating how to extend.
  • Landmark/topic-review/topics/breast.md — same, with a domain-specific subsection pattern.

Paper-review gold standard:

  • Landmark/paper-review/papers/stitch.md — WikiJournalClub-style paper writeup.

Conventions we’ve settled on

Structure

Case-prep files, in this order:

  1. Frontmatter (layout, title, permalink, redirect_from, optionally pdf: to a source PDF).
  2. Intro blockquote (framing + primary approach + cross-links).
  3. Optional callout cards (must-watch video, VUMC suggested reading, op-note template).
  4. Procedure Snapshot (bulleted).
  5. Step Workflow — primary approach as numbered list with sub-bullets. Alternate approaches as shorter parallel sections.
  6. Rapid-Fire Questions.
  7. Critical Anatomy.
  8. Informed Consent Highlights.
  9. Post-Op Considerations.
  10. Clinical Pearls.
  11. Quick Reference Table (comparison across approaches, if relevant).
  12. Quick-Reference Cards (collapsible <details> cards with a port map / mental checklist / bail-out plan / attending prefs).
  13. Related Case Preps / Related Topic Reviews / Related Landmark Papers.
  14. Suggested Reading (VUMC etc., when applicable).
  15. References.

Topic-review files, in this order:

  1. Frontmatter.
  2. Intro blockquote.
  3. Sections by disease process — anatomy first, then walk through the differential.
  4. Rapid-Fire Questions.
  5. Quick Reference Table(s).
  6. Quick-Reference Cards.
  7. Related Case Preps.
  8. Suggested Reading.
  9. References.
  10. Figures (embedded from absite_companion_md_jekyll/images/).

Language and naming

  • “Rapid-Fire Questions” — never “Pimp Questions”. Site-wide rename already done.
  • Specimen orientation: short → superior, long → lateral. Never “12 o’clock.” Two sutures.
  • Robotic-primary when relevant, with laparoscopic + open as shorter parallel sections. Don’t repeat the whole workflow for each; just note the deltas.
  • Cross-link liberally: every case prep should point at its topic review and vice versa.

Markup / CSS patterns

  • Quick Reference Table — wrap <table class="qr-table"> in <div class="qr-table-wrap"> so it scrolls horizontally on mobile. Styles are scoped per-file (there’s no shared stylesheet). Copy the block from any polished page.
  • Quick-Reference Cards — <details class="qr-card"> inside <div class="quick-cards">, with .kv list rows. Same scoped-CSS pattern.
  • Callout cards (video, PDF, “must watch”) — inline <div> with brand colors: navy #0C2C47, green #2D5652, yellow #E2A54D, aqua #97D3CD, mint #E4F2EA, cream #FCFBF4. See any recent page for the pattern.
  • Frontmatter’s pdf: field auto-renders a green “Read More from the Source PDF” button at the top of the page. Point it at either a local /assets/pdfs/foo.pdf or an external URL (VUMC).

External resources

  • VUMC Global Surgical Atlas (www.vumc.org/global-surgical-atlas) — open-access step-level chapters (CC BY-SA 3.0). When VUMC has a relevant chapter, link it via pdf: frontmatter + an inline “Suggested Reading” callout. Never host locally — always outbound link with author attribution.
  • absite_companion_md_jekyll/*.md — the raw ABSITE-extracted markdown. Use it as source material for topic-review polish. Preserve all the clinical facts; restructure and add the polish sections above.

Deployment

  • Site is a Jekyll GitHub Pages site at nkreid.com (custom domain via CNAME).
  • Koby pushes from his Mac. The sandbox mount reflects his Mac’s git state live — git status in the sandbox is the truth.
  • Don’t append “push when ready” reminders to responses unless there’s actually something unpushed. Check git status before mentioning it.

Workflow to expect

Opener from Koby: short — “this week is X, saw these cases.”

Response pattern:

  1. Audit current state — check the relevant topic file and case-prep files. What’s polished, what’s stub, what’s raw ABSITE dump?
  2. Ask 1-2 targeted clarifying questions if the scope is unclear (specific angle he wants, which cases to prioritize, whether to leave stubs alone).
  3. Build or polish. One session = one topic review + 2-3 case preps is a reasonable weekly slice.
  4. Commit with a descriptive multi-paragraph message.
  5. Report what was done. Don’t dress it up.

When creating a new page: always open the closest gold-standard file first, mirror its structure, then vary the content. Don’t reinvent the layout.

Stubs to know about: ~30 case-prep pages are still 35-45 line templates. They can be built out over time. Full inventory can be seen with wc -l Landmark/case-prep/surgeries/*.md | sort -n.

Last updated: aligned to master 4a7b46f — after the breast rewrites, VUMC references, and short-sup / long-lat orientation standardization.