OpenSSF Tools by Persona

A Jekyll site built from three master lists — personas, problems, and projects — that maps the OpenSSF projects onto the roles they serve and the problems they solve. Each project declares which personas and problems it addresses (with a sentence of prose per link) plus the projects it's similar to or pairs well with. Visitors start from whichever axis fits: their role, the problem they're solving, or a specific project.

Site map

/                          landing page · browse by role / problem / project
/personas/                 persona index
/personas/<id>/            persona view · projects for this role + problems they solve
/problems/                 problem index
/problems/<id>/            problem view · projects that help + personas who care
/projects/                 project index
/projects/<slug>/          project detail · personas, problems, related projects
/about/                    about the mapping + data source

Tech stack

• Jekyll 4.4 with the minima base theme
• kramdown for Markdown, Rouge for syntax highlighting
• jekyll-seo-tag + jekyll-feed
• SCSS compiled by Jekyll (front-matter-prefixed assets/css/style.scss)
• FontAwesome via CDN for icons
• Vanilla JS for the theme toggle

There are no framework dependencies beyond the plugins pinned in Gemfile.

Data files

All content lives in three Jekyll data files plus a JSON mirror — everything else in the site is layout.

File	Purpose
_data/personas.yml	Persona rows (id, name, short, icon, summary) — source of truth
_data/problems.yml	Problem rows (same five fields as a persona) — source of truth
_data/projects.yml	Projects; each declares the personas + problems it addresses ({id, note} lists), insights, and optional similar_to/compatible_with — source of truth
assets/data/catalog.json	Generated at build time from the three YAML files; do not edit by hand

Personas and problems are linked only through projects — a persona page derives the problems its projects solve, and vice versa. The three YAML files are the single source of truth; the note sentences, insights links, and project relationships are all edited here and refined over time.

Invariant: every problem id used in projects.yml must have a matching problems/<id>.md stub, or make test fails on a dead internal link.

Build

A Makefile wraps the common loops (Ruby ≥ 3.2 required):

make deps     # bundle install (first time / after Gemfile changes)
make start    # serve on http://localhost:4000
make test     # jekyll build + htmlproofer (run this before opening a PR)

On a fresh macOS box, make brand-new-env-installs installs a suitable Ruby via Homebrew first. The raw equivalents are bundle install and bundle exec jekyll serve if you'd rather not use make.

Repository layout

community/
├── _config.yml
├── _data/
│   ├── navigation.yml        # header nav
│   ├── sidebar.yml           # collapsible sidebar (hand-maintained)
│   ├── personas.yml          # master list 1 · personas
│   ├── problems.yml          # master list 2 · problems
│   └── projects.yml          # master list 3 · projects (+ persona/problem maps)
├── _includes/
│   ├── header.html           # OpenSSF logo + branding + theme toggle
│   ├── footer.html           # social links + copyright
│   └── sidebar.html          # collapsible <details> sidebar nav
├── _layouts/
│   ├── default.html          # shell (header + sidebar + content + footer)
│   ├── home.html             # shell without sidebar (landing page)
│   ├── page.html             # default page wrapper
│   ├── persona.html          # switcher + project cards + derived problem chips
│   ├── problem.html          # switcher + project cards + derived persona chips
│   └── project.html          # personas + problems accordions + related projects
├── assets/
│   ├── css/style.scss        # Gemara stylesheet + net-new site CSS
│   ├── js/theme-toggle.js    # dark-mode toggle (verbatim from Gemara)
│   ├── fonts/                # Cairo + IBMPlexSans
│   ├── data/catalog.json
│   ├── favicon.ico
│   └── logo.svg
├── personas/
│   ├── index.md              # /personas/
│   ├── developer.md          # /personas/developer/ …etc.
│   └── …
├── problems/
│   ├── index.md              # /problems/
│   ├── build-provenance.md   # /problems/build-provenance/ …etc.
│   └── …
├── projects/
│   ├── index.md              # /projects/
│   ├── allstar.md            # /projects/allstar/ …etc.
│   └── …
├── about.md                  # /about/
└── index.md                  # /

Contributing

The site is data-driven, so most contributions are edits to one of the three _data/*.yml files — no templating required.

• Add or fix a project → edit _data/projects.yml and add a one-line stub at projects/<slug>.md (copy an existing stub and change the front matter).
• Add a persona or problem → append to _data/personas.yml or _data/problems.yml, add the matching personas/<id>.md / problems/<id>.md stub, and reference it from at least one project in _data/projects.yml.
• Keep the sidebar in sync → _data/sidebar.yml is hand-maintained, so add your new id/url there too.

Every problem and persona id used in projects.yml must have a matching stub page, or make test fails on a dead internal link. Run make test before opening a pull request against ossf/community.

Accessibility

• Full keyboard navigation: focus rings on pills, tabs, and <details> summaries.
• aria-selected / aria-current on the persona switcher pills.
• Native <details> elements on the tool-detail accordion (no JS needed).
• Dark-mode parity via the data-theme="dark" attribute and the inline anti-flash script in the <head>.
• Responsive down to mobile; the sticky persona switcher collapses to a static strip on screens ≤ 600 px.

License & attribution

The OpenSSF logo is used with attribution and links back to https://openssf.org. This site is distributed under the same license as the underlying OpenSSF project metadata.