19:30: "Can we publish this and stop thinking about it tonight?"
Scene: Alex is home after work. Sam has reviewed the contribution. The group needs a shared result, not another folder of files.
Friction: repetitive publishing and uncertainty about whether work is truly done.
Surfaces: GitHub Actions, GitHub Pages, and Copilot app or web for reflection. Time: 10 minutes.
Publish your copy
- In your repository, open Settings > Pages. Select GitHub Actions as the build and deployment source. You need repository administration permissions.
- If this is a fork, enable Actions when prompted.
- Resolve review feedback and merge the pull request only after checks pass.
- Open Actions > Check and publish workshop. Inspect the check job and the
deployment job. The workflow publishes pushes to
main; pull requests are checked but not deployed. - Open the published URL from the deployment environment or Pages settings. Verify the planner, navigation, and a nested-page link in the deployed site.
If changes were already on main before enabling Pages, use Run workflow
on main or make another reviewed change to trigger deployment.
If Pages is unavailable, inspect the facilitator's deployment and verify your
local preview. Record that your own copy was not published.
Coding path
Read .github/workflows/pages.yml. Locate tests, the strict MkDocs build,
link checks, artifact upload, and the deployment permission boundary.
Optional troubleshooting: in a local working copy of mkdocs.yml, add a
navigation entry pointing to missing.md. Run python -m mkdocs build --strict,
explain the error, and remove only that temporary entry. Rebuild successfully
before committing anything. Do not manufacture a broken deployment on main.
Non-coding alternative
Check the published hub against the brief. Can a student find the guide and understand which information is fictional? Does the page make claims that were never verified? Leave actionable feedback.
Close the day
Using these completed issues, review notes, and check results, draft a short end-of-day handoff: completed work, unresolved questions, and one next action. Separate facts from assumptions. Do not claim a deployment succeeded without the deployment result.
Check the summary against actual work. Record assistance as your institution requires, then stop your Codespace.
Final checkpoint
You have one reviewed contribution and either a verified published result or an explicitly recorded publishing limitation. Explain:
- One task where Copilot reduced friction.
- One suggestion you corrected or rejected.
- One thing you learned that you can now do without Copilot.
The win is not more generated output. It is less avoidable friction and more attention left for learning.