Conversion Rate Optimization — re-run

Date: 2026-07-09 · read-only pass over template.html, build.py (detail-page builders), b/, p/, examples/, studio.html, README.md, playbooks.json. Companion reports from today's run: FUNNEL.md (structure), SEO.md (discoverability), REVENUE.md (monetization) — cross-referenced, not duplicated.

What changed since the last run (~4 months ago)

All eight findings from the previous CRO.md shipped, and they held up. Verified in current source:

• F1 hero offer — "free & open · no signup · nothing leaves your machine" is the

hero micro-line (template.html:502). ✔

• F2 default way-in — "01 · COPY" carries a "Start here" badge, primary styling,

and its own primary CTA (:650-655). ✔

• F3 meta/OG counts — injected from source as __N_BRIEFS__/__N_PLAYBOOKS__

(:7-9, build.py:1286). ✔

• F4 JSON-LD + canonical — SoftwareApplication schema with price: 0 and

<link rel="canonical"> (:16, :19). ✔

• F5 partner CTA — "Partner with us →" exists (:741). ✔ (but see NF5)
• F6 unified start CTAs — nav "Get started" and hero primary both → #catalog

(:485, :499). ✔

• F7 hero quickstart — shipped as a one-tap "Copy your first brief" pill with

src:hero analytics (:503, JS :1679-1692). ✔ (but see NF1)

• F8 jargon — "brief" glossed inline in the hero sub (:497), "MCP (Model

Context Protocol)" spelled out (:667), "conductor" gets a tooltip (:640). ✔

The product underneath grew a whole new perimeter: 141 briefs (was 129), 35 playbooks, 141 static /b/<id> pages + 35 /p/<key> pages (now the best-indexed entry points per SEO.md), an /examples/ proof gallery, a run-replay and before/after proof section, plugin distribution as the README's "primary path," MCP prompts, a 3-question picker, repo-recommend, and a merchandised playbook storefront (badges, seasonal windows, collab/sponsored types). This re-run's theme: the landing page now converts well; the leaks moved to the side doors, the install path's second step, and a few trust details in the merchandising.

---

1 · Funnel map

---

2 · Findings

NF1 — The one-tap conversion is dressed as a footnote (lens 3: the one action / lens 1: above the fold) — lift M-H · effort S · TEST

• Location: hero quickstart pill template.html:503 — rendered hidden until JS

(:1684), styled 13px with a dashed border (:88), placed third under two full-weight buttons ("Browse the catalog", "See how it works", :499-500).

• First-time experience: the visitor's cheapest possible yes — one tap puts a

runnable brief on the clipboard — reads as an afterthought. Visual hierarchy says "browse 141 things"; value hierarchy says "just take this one."

• Fix: promote the pill to a peer of the primary CTA (solid border, same row or

directly under it), or make it the primary and demote "Browse the catalog." FUNNEL.md flags the same element structurally; the persuasion risk cuts the other way too — the catalog is the product tour — so A/B it using the existing src:hero copy event vs copy_prompt from the catalog.

NF2 — 176 side-door pages never state the offer or the risk-reversal (lens 4: trust / lens 7: offer) — lift M-H · effort S · SHIP

• Location: the /b/<id> hero CTA block (build.py:823-827 → e.g. b/47.html)

and /p/<key> conductor block. grep -c "free" b/47.html → 0; "no signup" and "nothing leaves your machine" appear nowhere; "read-only" appears only if the brief body happens to say it. The landing page's trust triad (:543-545) doesn't exist here.

• First-time experience: SEO.md shows these are the pages a cold searcher

actually lands on. They see a big "Copy this prompt" button and a wall of prompt text — with no answer to "is this free?" and "is it safe to paste this into the agent that can edit my code?" The exact objections the homepage pre-empts are unanswered at the exact CTA that matters.

• Fix: one generated micro-line under the detail-hero CTA row in build.py:

"Free & open · no signup · read-only — it ends by asking · nothing leaves your machine." One template edit fixes all 176 pages.

NF3 — The "primary path" install dead-ends after step 1 (lens 5: friction / lens 4: trust) — lift H · effort S · SHIP

• Location: landing "02 · INSTALL" card copies `/plugin marketplace add

GhostlyGawd/goal-prompts (:660); the required second command /plugin install goal@goal-prompts (README.md:29) appears nowhere in template.html or any b/ page (grep -c "plugin install" → 0). Its only trace is 12px fine print: "then install goal from the marketplace" (:661`).

• First-time experience: a ready visitor copies the one visible command, pastes

it, gets a marketplace added — and no commands appear. Without step 2 the honest conclusion is "it's broken." A failed first experience on the path README calls primary is the most expensive kind of leak: it converts, then refunds itself with interest.

• Fix: render both commands as numbered copyable steps (1 · add marketplace,

2 · install goal) on the landing card and the b/ "02 · INSTALL" way (build.py:908-911). FUNNEL.md counts the steps; this is the persuasion cost.

NF4 — Stale and unverifiable merchandising chips on an "evidence, not vibes" brand (lens 4: trust) — lift L-M · effort S · SHIP (carefully)

• Location: /p/newyear renders the chip "January drop" (playbooks.json

window, rendered unconditionally at build.py:994) — it is July. shipit wears "Seasonal · Featured this season" permanently. Day-1's badge is "Most popular" (playbooks.json) on a site with 0 public stars and no visible usage numbers.

• First-time visitor experience: a January label in July signals an

unmaintained site; an unverifiable superlative on a page whose own hero promises "evidence, not vibes" invites exactly the skepticism the proof section works so hard to defuse.

• Fix: date-gate window chips at build time (hide when expired) or drop the

stale ones; either back "Most popular" with the real copy_conductor analytics ("most-copied playbook") or soften to "Start here." Cheap, and it protects the site's strongest asset — its honesty (the "example" partner card at :739-740 and the "walk-through, not a screen capture" tag at :680 set the standard).

NF5 — The revenue conversion demands a public confession (lens 5: friction / lens 6: objections) — lift M · effort S · SHIP

• Location: "Partner with us →" → github.com/.../issues/new?title=Partnership+inquiry

(:741); the /p/ partner blocks point at GitHub Discussions instead (REVENUE.md §4.1).

• First-time experience: a sponsor's first move becomes a public post

titled "Partnership inquiry," visible to competitors, before any conversation. Most will simply not.

• Fix: one private channel (email or form) as the primary contact on both

surfaces, GitHub as secondary. REVENUE.md owns the full treatment; it is also a straight CRO fix.

NF6 — The hero sub is one 34-word, triple-em-dash sentence (lens 8: scannability) — lift L · effort S · SHIP

• Location: :497 — "Point it at your repo. Every brief — a ready-made,

copy-paste prompt — runs the same four-phase audit and files one evidence-backed report you can act on — no more random, throwaway results."

• First-time experience: in the ten-second skim, three dashes force a re-read;

the payoff clause ("no more random, throwaway results") arrives after the visitor has already skipped ahead.

• Fix: split: "Every brief is a ready-made, copy-paste prompt. It runs the

same four-phase audit and files one evidence-backed report you can act on — not another wall of random, throwaway output."

NF7 — Six assists stand between the headline and the goods (lens 5: friction) — lift M · effort M · TEST

• Location: between the #catalog H2 (:579) and the card list (:621):

triage nudge (:581), 3-question picker (:584), repo-recommend (:588), the 21-row finder (:597), the 4-field "aim the briefs" box (:600), then search + 22 family chips + playbook chips (:612-619).

• First-time experience: each helper is individually good; stacked, the moment

of action reads like a form. The finder's own "New here? Start with Day-1" starter is the best of the six — and it sits below three collapsed disclosures.

• Fix (hypothesis): collapse picker + repo-recommend into one "help me choose"

disclosure and move "aim the briefs" below the toolbar; keep the Day-1 starter at the top. FUNNEL.md maps this structurally — test, don't blind-ship, since the assists exist because 141 choices genuinely need triage.

NF8 — The click before the visit (lens 9: findable & shareable) — defer to SEO.md

The head is now in good shape (dynamic counts, canonical, JSON-LD with price: 0). The remaining CTR-deciders are already specified in SEO.md and matter for conversion: /examples/ — the site's best proof asset — unfurls as a bare URL (SEO-4); all 35 playbooks share one generic OG image (SEO-3); the homepage's 141 briefs are invisible to non-rendering crawlers (SEO-1). Not re-litigated here.

What already converts — keep it

• Hero offer line (:502) and the trust triad (:543-545) — the previous

run's top fixes, intact and load-bearing.

• Dogfooding proof chain (:675-723, /examples/): real reports → real

commits, self-labeled honestly. Rare and persuasive; NF4 is about protecting it.

• Post-copy toast (:895-907): tells the visitor exactly what happens next

and bridges to the Studio — the activation handoff is well-written.

• Star-count honesty: __GH_STARS__ renders nothing below a threshold

(build.py:1300-1304) instead of bragging "0 stars." Correct instinct.

• Speed & weight discipline: single-request page, preloaded fonts, no media.

(SEO-2 notes the 507 KB inline JSON tradeoff; don't regress it further.)

---

3 · Top 5 lifts (ranked by leverage)

• NF3 — show the plugin install's second command. Ship first. It is the only

place on the site where a converting visitor follows instructions and gets a result that looks broken. One line of HTML on two templates; protects the path README calls primary.

• NF2 — offer + risk-reversal micro-line on all 176 detail pages. One

build.py edit puts the homepage's best-performing trust copy at the CTA the cold search traffic actually sees.

• NF4 — retire "January drop" / gate the merchandising chips. Minutes of work;

an expired seasonal label quietly poisons every other claim on the site.

• NF5 — a private partner channel. The only funnel with money in it currently

asks strangers to negotiate in public (with REVENUE.md's fuller fix).

• NF1 — weight the quickstart pill like the conversion it is — behind an A/B

against the existing src:hero event, since it competes with the catalog tour.

4 · Ship vs test

Ship now — proven best practice, low risk: NF2 (detail-page offer line) · NF3 (two-step install) · NF4 (chip gating — keep badges only where verifiable) · NF5 (private partner contact) · NF6 (hero sub split).

Test — could cut both ways: NF1 (promote the quickstart pill — may cannibalize catalog browsing, which is the product tour; measure copy_prompt src:hero vs catalog copies) · NF7 (collapsing the chooser stack — the assists earn their keep for some segments; watch repo_recommend / picker events before removing anything).

Handle with care:

• Never add urgency or popularity claims that can't be backed by a number the site

actually has — the brand is "evidence, not vibes" (NF4's flip side).

• The trust triad and detail-page "It ends by asking" copy carry the safety story;

shorten nothing there to make room for offers.

• Any hero change must preserve the fast, media-light first paint; NF1's pill

should also get a no-JS fallback (hidden today means no JS = no pill).

---

Report only — which lifts do you want me to make?

Nothing was changed in this pass. The ship set (NF2, NF3, NF4, NF5, NF6) is small, independent, and mostly single-template edits in build.py / template.html; NF5 pairs naturally with REVENUE.md's quick wins and NF8 with SEO.md's. NF1 and NF7 should run as experiments against the analytics events that already exist. Tell me which findings to implement (any subset) and I'll make only those changes.