Changelog

Added

• Added a Community projects section to the docs site, with a new docs/data/community-projects.json that the homepage renders into cards. Each project is labelled community or individual in the data file, so classifying a project later is a one-word change. The section states plainly that these are independent builder- and volunteer-built projects rather than official program metrics, so a project's own figures never compete with the submission tracker. First entry: the dep-submission-pipeline capstone by kimodri.
• Added progress-snapshot.yml — hourly workflow that commits a trimmed issue snapshot to docs/data/progress-snapshot.json, so the progress dashboard no longer depends on the visitor's unauthenticated GitHub API quota (60 requests/hour/IP). Commits are skipped when the data has not changed.
• Added a Milestone Self-Check workflow to the starter kit — builders see the official structural checks on every push and can run a targeted pass/fail check for one milestone before submitting. The checker script is fetched from this repo at run time, so builder copies never drift from the central validator. Ships the "builder-side prechecks" part of #2.
• Added docs/RESOURCES.md — Philippine open data sources, general dataset catalogs, and DEP community links, linked from the root README, the six phase READMEs, and the week 2 data-discovery resources. (#3)
• Added a LinkedIn badge/CTA to the homepage Updates section so LinkedIn-sourced posts are visually distinguished from other updates, and featured the latest DEP builder cohort spotlight from LinkedIn as the top update.

Changed

• Changed the progress dashboard to render from the committed snapshot first, falling back to the live GitHub API when the snapshot is unavailable.
• Removed 18 builders still at milestone 0 from the public builder directory; the snapshot now shows the 32 builders who have progressed beyond onboarding.
• Unfeatured the Week 2 check-in update in docs/data/updates.json now that a newer post is featured.

Fixed

• extract_recheck_hash() in milestone_policy.py still required exactly 40 characters; it now accepts the same 7–40 character hashes as the recheck parsers in milestone-recheck.yml and _milestone-evaluate.yml, with a cross-reference comment so the three cannot drift silently again.
• Restored the missing 0.5.3 section on this page — it existed in CHANGELOG.md but the page had skipped it.

Changed

• Corrected the /recheck guidance across the seven issue templates, docs/FAQ.md, docs/VOLUNTEER_GUIDE.md, docs/MILESTONE_CHECKLIST.md, docs/MILESTONE_PIPELINE_MENTOR_GUIDE.md, and the starter kit README. They asked builders for a "full 40-character commit hash" even though short hashes have been accepted since 0.5.2.

Fixed

• Fixed the M2, M3, and M5 data directory checks ignoring files inside subdirectories of data/raw/ and data/processed/. Builders who group raw files by source or year no longer fail the auto-check with real data committed. (#170)

Added

• Added a CI workflow that runs the milestone script tests on pull requests touching .github/scripts/.

Fixed

• /recheck command now accepts 7-character short hashes — GitHub's default commit link format. Previously only 40-character full hashes were recognised, causing the bot to silently ignore comments.
• Updated bot reply messages to remove the "40-character hash" instruction so builders are not asked to expand GitHub's default short hash manually.

Fixed

• Added missing Changelog nav link to progress.html and ai-guide.html — all four pages now share an identical navigation bar.

Added

• New notify-reviewer.yml workflow — Discord reviewer alert now fires on the ready-for-review label event, decoupled from the evaluation pipeline.

Changed

• Discord API failure can no longer affect evaluation state — notification is isolated in its own workflow.
• milestone-repair.yml excluded-issue list moved from hardcoded Set([60]) to an auditable exclude_issues dispatch input.
• milestone-verdict.yml both verdict jobs now use a local removeLabels helper instead of repeating the try/catch loop.
• Documented _milestone-evaluate.yml monolith as intentional in CONTEXT.md — splitting deferred until volume justifies the overhead.

Fixed

• Added cross-reference comments between _milestone-evaluate.yml and milestone_policy.py so the field-extraction regex cannot drift silently between the workflow JS and the Python test suite.

Fixed

• Reviewer passed verdict no longer stripped by the bot — reviewer verdict is always final and overrides all automation guards.

Added

• Standalone changelog page at docs/changelog.html linked from the site nav.

Added

• Reusable _milestone-evaluate.yml shared workflow — all evaluation logic delegates to a single callable workflow.
• milestone-verdict.yml — triggers on label events; handles passed (closes issue, unblocks waiting next-milestone submission) and needs-improvement (normalizes state labels).
• milestone-repair.yml — maintainer-only dry-run/apply workflow for consolidating historical gate-blocked submissions in bulk.
• milestone_policy.py — pure Python policy helpers; independently testable with no GitHub API calls.
• waiting-on-prerequisite label — submissions waiting on a prerequisite stay open and are re-evaluated automatically when the gate clears.
• ready-for-review label — replaces auto-check-pending as the post-check signal for reviewers.
• late-submission label — informational metadata for submissions after the target deadline; does not block evaluation.
• Automatic duplicate detection — second issues for the same milestone are closed and the builder is directed to the canonical issue.
• /recheck <hash> command format alongside legacy bare-hash comments.
• Concurrency groups per issue to prevent race conditions.
• Pull request template and plain-language mentor pipeline guide.

Changed

• Milestone deadlines changed from hard rejection to visible late-submission indicator — late issues follow the normal review path.
• Prerequisite gates preserve submissions instead of closing them; revisions stay on the canonical issue via /recheck.
• Milestone identity now matched by GitHub login instead of repo URL — renames no longer break progression.
• passed verdict auto-closes the issue as completed and triggers re-evaluation of any waiting next-milestone submission.

Fixed

• Deadline conflict that rejected replacement issues opened after an on-time submission was auto-closed.
• Structural-check failures that prompted recheck without adding the needs-improvement label.
• Duplicate milestone attempts now directed to one canonical issue.

Added

• docs/ai-guide.html — styled standalone page for responsible AI guidance.

Changed

• Rebuilt docs/progress.html on the shared site shell (shared nav, CSS, JS assets).
• Improved accessibility: contrast ratios, keyboard navigation, ARIA labels, and form semantics across all pages.

Added

• Public builder cohort section with aggregate stats, milestone summary, and searchable builder directory powered by docs/data/builders.json.
• Milestone deadline timeline with current-date marker and Philippine-time labels.

Added

• Hard deadline enforcement via .github/milestone-deadlines.json with automatic rejection and Philippine-time deadline display.
• Deadline validation on the recheck workflow — resubmissions also check the original issue's creation date.

Fixed

• Gate URL matching — normalizes repo URLs to owner/repo so blob/tree/file URLs no longer break prerequisite checks.
• Clone URL normalization on resubmission so git clone succeeds even when the original issue body has a non-root GitHub URL.

Added

• URL pattern validation on all M0–M6 issue templates — the repo URL field rejects blob/tree/file URLs with a clear message.

Added

• enrolled-participants.json allowlist with 33 confirmed GitHub usernames for cohort 2026-A.
• Enrollment filter on Discord webhook — only enrolled participants trigger reviewer alerts in #open-builders.
• Non-Enrolled toggle on submission tracker dashboard.
• Behavioral test suite for milestone_check.py covering M0–M6 pass and fail cases.

Changed

• Cohort field on all M0–M6 issue templates changed from free-text to a dropdown with 2026-A and Open Track options.
• Rewrote starter kit README.md Step 1 with beginner-friendly GUI (Option A) and Git CLI (Option B) paths.

Fixed

• Auto-close issue on clone failure instead of prompting the builder to reopen.
• Misleading clone-error message that suggested a resubmit path that does not exist.

Added

• docs/progress.html — internal submission tracker with pending, needs-improvement, and all-submissions tables, stats cards, and milestone progress grid.
• Search, milestone filter, status filter, and sortable column headers on the tracker.
• Days-waiting column with SLA breach indicators (⚠️ 3d, 🔴 5d).
• Enrolled/All/Non-Enrolled toggle with dynamic cohort label from enrolled-participants.json.
• Mobile responsive layout for the tracker.
• Discord webhook alerts to #open-builders when all auto-checks pass on a new enrolled submission.
• Sequential milestone gate enforcement — M(n-1) must have passed before M(n) is reviewed.
• Recheck workflow (milestone-recheck.yml) triggered by builder comment.
• Volunteer profile photos (24 avatars) in the Organizing Team section.

Changed

• Updated site registration CTAs to reflect that registration is closed.

Changed

• Refreshed site styling: editorial hierarchy, canvas texture, layered card shadows, branded hero panel, and DEP logo usage.
• Replaced redundant hero fact panel with cohort-focused notes; improved output-card contrast; widened FAQ layout.

Added

• M0–M6 GitHub issue templates with auto-check-pending label on open.
• milestone-check.yml GitHub Actions workflow for automated structural checks.
• milestone_check.py with per-milestone check definitions.
• Starter kit scaffold (cohorts/starter-kit/) with README, scripts, dashboard template, and GitHub Pages workflow.
• CONTEXT.md defining domain terms and the full participant submission flow.

Changed

• Phase 3 expanded to weeks 7–12; SQL and data modeling moved from Phase 2.
• Phase 5 split into Path A (predictive/ML) and Path B (advanced EDA and stakeholder track).

Added

• Dependency-free GitHub Pages onboarding site with registration, program overview, outputs, responsible AI, organizing team, and FAQ sections.

Added

• docs/AI_GUIDE.md — cohort-facing reference for responsible AI use, example prompts, and assessment support.
• Week-specific sample AI prompts to Foundations week READMEs (weeks 1–4).

Added

• Learner support blocks across all 24 weekly curriculum files: Starter Script, How To Adapt, Definition of Done, Common Mistakes, and If You're Stuck.
• Restructured curriculum phases; populated all week READMEs with revised content, tech stack diagram, and DEP branding.