Prove the recording environment and Git topology

[KalebCole]

Question

Which single-project recording setup, Git topology, account, streamer-mode configuration, remote, reset strategy, and backup approach can demonstrate live preview, commit, and push without branch switching, exposing prep assets, showing internal features, or confusing non-technical viewers? Test personal and work accounts against explicit acceptance criteria and recommend the simplest reliable setup.

[KalebCole]

Newly confirmed starting-state requirement

The upstream Episode 6 artifact is not available yet. Production has confirmed that Episode 7 should proceed by creating its own empty-blog starting state; the Episode 6 team will later match it for continuity.

Treat this as a pre-recording baseline, not an on-camera teaching step:

• Start from the canonical Jamie Rivera portfolio.
• Add the empty blog UI, blog index, post-page structure, navigation, and publishing paths needed by the approved prompts.
• Do not include a published post in the baseline.
• Freeze and validate this state before the full rehearsal.
• On camera, begin with the blog already present and create/publish Jamie's first post from the Word notes.
• Preserve a reset point so each rehearsal starts from the same empty-blog state.

The recording-environment recommendation is incomplete until it identifies where this baseline lives, how it is reset, and how the later Episode 6 artifact can match it without changing Episode 7's filmed flow.

[KalebCole]

Episode 7 empty-blog recording baseline: #35

Exact reset baseline commit: b0dd32deacbde92e03e8350478afacb6eeef59a2

This corrected baseline extends the Episode 2 portfolio merged in aab5fdf72c21520c12a435528cb2d09c28f418f1 and contains no published post. Keeping this ticket open because the remaining account, remote, and reset workflow decisions still need to be finalized.

[KalebCole]

Current merged-main smoke result

A fresh shallow clone of microsoft/student-learning-series:main passed the non-interactive baseline smoke test:

• Registered the checkout as marketplace student-learning-series in an isolated temporary COPILOT_HOME.
• Browsed exactly one plugin: resume-site-sync.
• Installed resume-site-sync@student-learning-series and confirmed its skill was discoverable.
• Uninstalled the plugin, removed the marketplace, and deleted temporary state.
• Confirmed the Episode 7 portfolio contains the homepage, empty blog index, posts-src, generated posts, posts.json, and generate_posts.py contract.
• Confirmed posts.json contains zero published posts.

This makes the project ready for an end-to-end rehearsal, not yet filming-approved. Remaining recording-environment gates:

1. Create a safe recording branch on the personal fork and verify live push permissions from the filming account.
2. Enable streamer mode and Auto model selection; confirm no internal features, work content, or saved sessions appear.
3. Run prompts 01-12 end to end, including Rubber Duck, preview, commit/push, marketplace GUI install, and resume sync.
4. Compare skill-creation prompts 06a and 06b and select one.
5. Verify a reproducible reset/fresh-clone process and capture known-good backups.