THEORY / ATLAS

A living map of socialist thought — ideas, thinkers, texts, tendencies, debates, and the relationships between them.

This repository holds the public site, a relational content model in which relationships and sources are first-class data, the Atlas Editorial Desk — a multi-user publishing system with roles, review workflow, revisions, rich text, sources and media — and a small set of clearly marked sample records that demonstrate the system. It is built as a machine for holding the theory, not yet as the theory itself.

Quick start

npm install
npm run dev          # migrates + seeds data/atlas.db on first run, then starts http://localhost:3000
npm run corpus -- setup   # optional: load the committed research corpora (Initial Marx Corpus, Guided journeys)

data/*.db is not in Git, so a new checkout starts with the sample records only. npm run corpus -- setup imports the corpora committed under corpus/ into your database, for review in the desk: it applies migrations, imports each corpus that is not there yet (prerequisites first), submits it for review and publishes nothing. It leaves a corpus that is already present untouched, so it is safe to run again. See docs/CORPUS.md.

• Public site: http://localhost:3000
• Editorial desk: http://localhost:3000/admin. In development npm run dev creates four demo accounts, one per role — [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] — all with the password atlas-demo-2026. They are never created in production; create real accounts with npm run user:create.

Command	What it does
npm run dev / build / start	Next.js (each ensures the database exists first)
npm run typecheck	TypeScript, no emit
npm run test:e2e	Playwright suite (public site, editorial workflow, desk, mobile) against a throwaway data/test.db
npm run db:reset	Delete the local database, migrate and re-seed the samples
npm run db:migrate / db:seed / db:reindex	Individual database tasks
npm run corpus -- setup	Import the committed research corpora that this database does not have yet (unpublished, submitted for review)
npm run db:generate	Generate a migration after editing src/lib/db/schema.ts
npm run user:create -- --email … --name … --role admin	Create a desk account (prints a generated password once unless --password is given)
npm run user:list	List desk accounts

Copy .env.example to .env.local to configure the database URL and the media folder.

Deploying

1. Set DATABASE_URL (and DATABASE_AUTH_TOKEN for libSQL/Turso) and MEDIA_DIR (a persistent folder for uploads).
2. npm run build && npm start — migrations run automatically before both.
3. Create the first administrator: npm run user:create -- --email [email protected] --name "Your Name" --role admin. Administrators then manage everyone else from People in the desk.

What's here

Area	Route	Notes
Home	/	What the site is, a prominent search, Guided beside it with other ways in; the collection as a table of contents (every section at equal weight); concepts at three depths; open debates; texts and lives; Guided journeys and learning paths; the Theory Map as a plate; historical moments; method
Library	/explore	Thinkers, concepts, tendencies, debates, texts and periods, each with its own visual treatment
Theory Map	/map	The relationship map as an atlas plate: by time or by affinity, thinkers alone or with concepts or tendencies; a key and the most-connected entries
Geography	/geography	A world map of where the tradition lived and worked: birthplaces, residence, exile, political activity, where texts were written and published, events and regional influence; filters by kind of entry, kind of association and period; select a place, or trace an entry's places in order
Thinkers	/thinkers, /thinkers/[slug]	Lifespan index with tendency filters; entry with ideas, network graph, works, influences, disagreements, legacy, timeline
Concepts	/concepts, /concepts/[slug]	A–Z glossary; entry with a descending depth reader (30 seconds → 5 minutes → deep dive), primary texts, debates, related-concept constellation
Debates	/debates, /debates/[slug]	Positions side by side; compare two or more to see shared and divergent stances; arguments and counterarguments
Timeline	/timeline, /timeline/[slug]	Zoomable (century / half-century / decade) multi-lane timeline with contextual panel; vertical list on phones
Texts, tendencies	/texts…, /tendencies…	Catalogue and traditions
Guided	/guided, /guided/[slug]?step=n	Curated journeys through existing entries, one step at a time: where you are, the idea (with its depth reader), why it matters, a source excerpt, and where it leads; progress and Continue kept in the browser, and a line under the masthead leads back to the route from anywhere else on the site

Stack

• Next.js 16 (App Router, React Server Components, server actions) + TypeScript
• Tailwind CSS 4 with a project-specific token set (no default palette) and a small editorial component library
• SQLite via libSQL + Drizzle ORM. Locally a file; in production DATABASE_URL can point at a libSQL/Turso server with no code change. The schema is relational and portable to Postgres (see docs/DATA_MODEL.md).
• SQLite FTS5 for search, maintained on every write
• d3-force, run on the server, for graph layout — the client receives coordinates and renders SVG, so no physics library ships to the browser
• Fonts: Newsreader (display, reading text, quotations) and Archivo with its width axis (condensed capitals for labels and navigation; tabular figures for metadata)

Documentation

• docs/ARCHITECTURE.md — layers, data access, rendering, design system, scaling
• docs/DATA_MODEL.md — entities, relationship types, sources and citations, debates, paths
• docs/EDITORIAL.md — the editorial desk: roles, workflow, revisions, rich text, sources, media; the sample-content policy
• docs/CORPUS.md — research corpora: format, verification, import and review (npm run corpus)
• docs/corpus/initial-marx-review.md — the review queue for the Initial Marx Corpus

Content policy for this build

The Initial Marx Corpus (corpus/initial-marx/) is a researched introduction to Marx, his predecessors and the Marxism of 1890–1919. Load it with npm run corpus -- import after seeding; every entry it touches stays unpublished and awaits human review (see docs/CORPUS.md).

All seeded entries are flagged sample (is_sample) and labelled as such on the site. Summaries are brief and conventional. Only a handful of very widely reproduced quotations are included, each tied to a cited edition and flagged unverified until checked; elsewhere excerpts are references to passages, not invented text. Debate stances are editorial readings, presented descriptively.