docs(repo): shine the front door — retro banner + zero-assumptions README (Cycle 13)

[kbennett2000]

Cycle 13 — repo shine (banner + README + GitHub metadata)

The build is feature-complete; this makes the front door welcoming to a zero-assumptions audience — including non-technical, nostalgia-driven visitors who may never have heard of Microsoft Agent. Docs/README/asset only — no code change; CI stays green.

Voice/structure follow the parked Vision & docs spec (the project's north star): assume nothing; nostalgia is deletable seasoning, never the spine; tiered onboarding with the Wine/Docker voice path always off the main road.

Spec: docs/cycles/cycle-13-repo-shine.md · decision: ADR-0025

What changed

• assets/banner.svg (new) — original retro Win9x-window banner (teal desktop, raised silver chrome, navy gradient title bar, generic speech balloon). No Microsoft/L&H imagery, no character pixels (IP rule holds). Drawn sparkles (not font glyphs) + its own opaque background → crisp and light/dark-safe on GitHub.
• README.md (rewrite) — plain-language "What is this?" + MS Agent history, "Try it in 60 seconds" (docker compose up mash → localhost:8090), authentic voice as a clearly-labeled opt-in upgrade, honest "what you supply", a developer pointer + corrected createAgent snippet, and credits. Minimal honest badges (no dead npm/CI). Every later docs page is signposted (coming soon) at its canonical path, so future cycles drop pages in with zero link churn.
• docs/cycles/cycle-13-repo-shine.md (new) — the cycle, the build-now/signpost table, and the paste-ready GitHub metadata + PNG export steps.
• docs/decisions/0025-repo-front-door.md (new) — ADR for the front-door approach (sets the voice precedent for later docs cycles).

✅ Apply these GitHub settings (I can't set repo settings — please paste)

Description:

Bring Microsoft Agent characters — Genie, Merlin, Clippy & friends — back to life in any browser. A faithful, framework-agnostic revival of the late-90s desktop assistant, voice and all.

Topics (20, the gear by "About"):

microsoft-agent  msagent  clippy  genie  nostalgia  retrocomputing  90s
typescript  javascript  browser  text-to-speech  tts  sapi4  truvoice
lip-sync  animation  acs  agent-character  vintage-computing  web-speech

Social preview (optional): no SVG rasterizer was available in the sandbox (and a docs cycle won't add a dependency), so export the 1280×640 PNG yourself and upload it under Settings → General:

rsvg-convert -w 1280 -h 640 assets/banner.svg -o assets/banner-social.png
# or: npx --yes svgexport assets/banner.svg assets/banner-social.png 1280:640

Homepage: leave blank until a live demo is deployed.

Verification

• CI green: pnpm -r typecheck && pnpm -r test && pnpm lint && pnpm format (246 tests; Markdown is prettier-ignored by design, SVG skipped). No code touched.
• Reviewed by code-reviewer: scope (zero code change), IP (banner is original, no MS imagery), voice discipline (nostalgia deletes cleanly leaving the instructional spine intact), links (every docs/... either exists or is marked coming), banner robustness. One should-fix applied — the createAgent example now uses the real ArrayBuffer signature.
• Operator: open the README and confirm the banner renders crisp on light + dark; paste the description/topics; optionally export + upload the social PNG.

Out of scope (signposted only): the docs/ explainer/install/dev pages, the Playwright GIF/screenshot pipeline + gallery, community files, the hosted demo deploy.

Does not merge.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code