From note to live page

NSDF-Data student cheat-sheet · version 6, 20 October 2026

A one-page reminder. The full steps are in guide 3, writing a note and guide 4, publishing a note. Nothing is public until your lead merges your pull request (PR).

Six steps from a written note to a live page: write, commit and push, open a pull request, the check runs, your lead reviews and gives an S-number, live in about two minutes.

Blue: you. Teal: GitHub, automatically. Amber: your lead. A PR is a page on GitHub that asks to add your branch to the project.

Before you push

Your note is notes/src/your-note-name.md, your pictures are in notes/src/img/, the header is complete, and it says id: "TBD".
Every link to your code is pinned to a commit hash: not develop, master or COMMIT. Remove the template’s img/example.png line, and any <u>, <sup>, <sub> or <span> tags.
With your environment active, run python tools/check_note.py notes/src/your-note-name.md. It runs all the note checks: the structure and the pinned links must be fine, and it lists the numbers in your text that are not in your notebook’s output.

Commands, from the NSDF-Data folder, on your own branch:

git checkout student-yourname
git add notes/src/your-note-name.md notes/src/img
git status             # only your note and its pictures? no .bin files, no idx folder?
git commit -m "Add note: your title"
git push -u origin student-yourname

Then open the repository on github.com, click Compare & pull request, check that the base is develop, and click Create pull request.

If the check says… (click Details on the check to read it)

Message	What to do
`header field 'X' is missing or empty`	Fill in that line of the header.
`status must be one of ...`	Use exactly In progress, Complete or Superseded (reference/link).
`notebook link pinned to 'master'`, or `placeholder COMMIT is still in the note`	Use the real commit hash.
`raw HTML tag <u>` (or `<sup>`, `<sub>`, `<span>`)	Remove the formatting, keep the words.
`picture not found`	Check the file name, and that it is in `notes/src/img/`.

Fix it on your branch, commit and push again. The PR updates itself and the check runs again.

After that. Your lead reads the note, may comment on the PR (answer there), and gives it a note number when it is ready. About two minutes after the merge your page is live, in the Analysis Notes table on the front page, in order of its number. To change a published note, first run git switch student-yourname && git pull origin develop and check that the header still has your note number (not TBD); then commit, push and open a new PR, update the date, and never delete a note to hide a mistake.

Never work on master or develop, or commit data (.bin files, the idx folder) or other people’s notes. Stuck? Write to Anthony Villano, anthony.villano@ucdenver.edu, with the PR number, the check’s message and the step you are on.