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Current Rephrased repo workflow

Source-of-truth workflow note for the Rephrased setup. Daily work is on Perforce now.

Source of truth

Daily team work happens on the USC Perforce (Helix Core) depot:

  • Perforce server: ssl:perforce.sca.usc.edu:1666
  • Workspace/client: GL_Main_PC (project under .../GL_Main_PC/261_833_8025/)
  • UE project: Rephrased.uproject
  • Canonical wiki path in the depot: Rephrased Wiki/
  • Canonical MCP toolkit path in the depot: tools/rephrased-mcp/

Git/GitHub is legacy reference only. The Rephrased-Games/Rephrased-Game git repo is where the project came from and where the live wiki still builds from (below), but new feature work, branches, commits, and pull requests are retired. Do not start work in git.

Team setup policy

Everyone installs the local toolchain once:

  • Unreal Engine 5.8
  • Visual Studio 2026 Community, stable channel
  • Repo-root .vsconfig imported in Visual Studio Installer
  • P4V (Helix Visual Client) and/or the p4 command-line client, logged in to ssl:perforce.sca.usc.edu:1666 as your USC Perforce user

No one needs VS Code unless they personally want it for a coding agent or editor. Designers and artists do not open Visual Studio day to day; it is installed so Unreal has the C++ compiler toolchain when the build script needs it.

Daily workflow

  1. Get latest — p4 sync (P4V Get Latest Revision, or MCP sync_latest). Sync before checking anything out.
  2. Run [OpenAfterPull]Build_Project.bat (once per day, or after a code sync).
  3. Start a task — MCP start_task opens a described pending changelist; set it as your current changelist in the editor.
  4. Work — the editor checks out files as you edit (exclusive lock on binary .uasset/.umap).
  5. Review — convention_check → compile → request_review (optionally p4 shelve) → PIE.
  6. Submit — MCP submit or P4V submit, after review passes.

Use [OpenAfterPull]Build_Project.bat -check for setup diagnostics. Prefer -check, not /check.

Submit discipline

Standard workflow is sync → check out → review → submit. There are no branches or pull requests.

  • Exclusive checkout on binary assets is the safety model: checking out a .uasset/.umap locks it so no one else edits it concurrently. Keep checkouts short and changelists small.
  • Review is a shelved changelist through the review gate plus a human — the Perforce equivalent of a PR.
  • Submit-time enforcement (auto-rejecting a bad submit) is a server-side Perforce trigger and needs a USC Perforce admin; until then, discipline is manual + the review gate.
  • Set p4 set P4IGNORE=.p4ignore so the depot's ignore rules keep Binaries/, Intermediate/, Saved/, and DDC out of submits. The server typemap already locks binary asset types (binary+l).

See Perforce workflow for the full week-one guide.

MCP state

Rephrased MCP lives in the depot at tools/rephrased-mcp/.

Expected tools:

  • onboarding
  • sync_latest
  • start_task
  • convention_check
  • request_review
  • submit
  • wiki_query
  • devlog

MCP is useful, but it is not the first setup blocker. Perforce access, UE 5.8, VS 2026, and the build script come first. The review key and local config must never be submitted.

First meeting priority

  1. Confirm USC Perforce access; log in to GL_Main_PC in P4V / p4.
  2. Install UE 5.8 and VS 2026 with .vsconfig.
  3. p4 sync the project.
  4. Run [OpenAfterPull]Build_Project.bat -check.
  5. Run the bat normally and open LV_2ndPlayable.
  6. Set up Rephrased MCP after project launch works.

Live wiki hosting

The live wiki is the built form of Rephrased Wiki/. Perforce is the source of truth:

  1. Documentation is edited and submitted in Perforce.
  2. A scheduled sync publishes the submitted snapshot to Rephrased-Games/Rephrased-Game on main through a squash-merged pull request.
  3. The Cloudflare Pages project rephrased-org-wiki builds main with python -m mkdocs build --strict and serves it at https://rephrased-org-wiki.pages.dev/.

Open or unsubmitted workspace edits are not published; only submitted revisions are. Source/, Content/, and Config/ stay in Perforce and are not mirrored.

  • Build config: mkdocs.yml at the repo root with docs_dir: Rephrased Wiki; dependencies in requirements-docs.txt.
  • Standalone outward mirrors (reference copies): Rephrased-Games/Rephrased-Wiki, Rephrased-Games/Rephrased-agent-toolkit.

Change history

  • 2026-09-17 — Gabriel Li — Documented the current publishing flow: submitted Perforce documentation is mirrored to GitHub main and deployed by Cloudflare Pages.

  • 2026-09-05 — Gabriel Li — Rewrote daily workflow for Perforce (sync/checkout/review/submit, exclusive locking, changelists). Source of truth is the USC Helix Core depot GL_Main_PC. MCP tool list updated to the Perforce set.

  • 2026-09-05 — Gabriel Li — Updated sandbox references to PreProShowcase (Content/Rephrased/Levels/Prepro/) after the content reorganization (PR #19).

  • 2026-08-27 - Gabriel Li - Added MCP create_branch and local hook branch guardrails; GitHub protection remains the server-side follow-up.

  • 2026-08-26 - Gabriel Li - Added Cloudflare live wiki deployment source note after org migration.
  • 2026-08-26 - Gabriel Li - Created after org migration, VS-once workflow decision, standalone repo bootstrap/sync, and first-meeting readiness work.