Changelog

All notable changes to japaneseness.com.

[0.12.0] — 2026-05-11 (later)

Added

Public JSON API at /api/:

- /api/manifest.json — full sheet catalog (all categories) - /api/kanji.json — 80 N5 kanji with readings + SVG paths - /api/languages.json — Tier 1 50 languages metadata - CORS open, cacheable, no auth needed

/embed/ page — guide for educators to integrate worksheets:

- Hotlink stable URLs - Iframe detail pages - JSON API for dynamic use - Stable URL patterns documented (/kanji/{id}/, /grammar/{id}/, /kanji_svg/{code}.svg, /og/kanji/{id}.png)

Featured Kanji on homepage now baked at build time:

- Deterministic daily rotation (UTC day-of-year mod 80) - SVG stroke order, EN+JA meanings, on/kun readings, link to detail - No JS fetch — fully static, ships under 5KB extra

Docs

BOOTSTRAP_LOG.md fully refreshed: page list, i18n breakdown, remaining tasks
CLAUDE.md Phase 1 progress section overhauled

Build

366 HTML pages + 3 JSON endpoints

[0.11.0] — 2026-05-11 (later)

Added

/roadmap/ — Phase 1 → 2 → 3 → 4 timeline visualization

Each phase: status (in-progress/planned/future/vision), done list, remaining list

/jlpt/ — JLPT N5 through N1 progression with progress bars

Shows kanji + grammar coverage per level (N5 done, N4 prepped, N3-N1 future)

/press-kit/ — brand + media kit: one-liner, colors, logo downloads,

long-form description, quotable stats, contact

Featured kanji widget on homepage — daily-rotating kanji (deterministic

based on UTC day) with SVG stroke order, readings, link to detail

All 19 ui-pending languages now have native names in their lang_label

(was 'BN', 'UR', etc. — now 'বাংলা', 'اردو', 'மிற்', 'மலையாளம்', 'Kiswahili', 'Igbo', 'Runa Simi', 'ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi', etc.)

Changed

Mobile nav now includes Roadmap, JLPT, Languages
Footer extended: Roadmap · JLPT · Press · Privacy · Stats links
LOCALE_LABELS regenerated to use native names for all 50 langs

Build

365 HTML pages (was 362 — adds /roadmap/, /jlpt/, /press-kit/)

[0.10.0] — 2026-05-11 (later)

Added

N4 kanji COMPLETED: 156/158 N4 kanji now have stroke counts, on/kun

readings, English meanings, and 2 example words each (was 30/158 → 80/158 → now 156/158, near-complete)

N4 grammar 50 topics with examples (te-form variants, conditionals

たら/ば/と/なら, modal expressions, comparison より/ほうが, time relationships とき/まえに/あとで, concession のに/けれども, etc.)

20 grammar-specific OG images at /og/grammar/{grammar_id}.png

- Each /grammar/grammar_n5_NNN/ now has unique social card

Cmd+K / Ctrl+K shortcut → opens /search/ from any page
Search nav link with ⌘K hint (visible on lg+ viewports)
/contribute/ rewritten with task-list layout:

- 9 specific actionable tasks across Translation/Outreach/Content/Code - Each with badge (⭐ count), time estimate, difficulty - Direct links to the relevant GitHub files/pages

Build

362 HTML pages
100 detail-page OG images (80 kanji + 20 grammar)

[0.9.0] — 2026-05-11 (later)

Added

80 kanji-specific OG images at /og/kanji/{kanji_id}.png

- Each kanji detail page (/kanji/kanji_n5_NNN/) has a unique social card - Composited from KanjiVG stroke-order SVG + meaning text + JLPT badge - Sharing /kanji/kanji_n5_001/ on Slack now shows 一 with stroke order

/stats/ page — live numbers from the project:

- 200 worksheet definitions, 800 PDFs in pipeline, 50 languages, 80 kanji SVGs, 362 HTML pages, etc. - Progress bars for language coverage (4/50 full, 27/50 UI translated) - Per-category sheet count table

/privacy/ page — honest privacy policy: no tracking cookies, no marketing,

no fingerprinting; Cloudflare Web Analytics is the only beacon (anonymous, aggregated). Important for GDPR-conscious users in EU/UK regions.

Footer links to /privacy/ and /stats/
50 more N4 kanji filled with data (意, 不, 作, 用, 度, 強, 公, 持, 野,

以, 思, 家, 世, 多, 正, 安, 院, 心, 界, 教, 文, 元, 重, 近, 考, 画, 海, 売, 知, 道, 集, 別, 物, 使, 品, 計, 死, 特, 私, 始, 朝, 運, 終, 台, 広, 住, 真, 有, 口, 少) - N4 kanji with data: 80/158 (was 30/158)

Changed

CategoryList li hover now adds background tint (visual feedback)
Kanji detail pages use their unique OG image instead of the generic one

Build

362 HTML pages (was 360 — added /stats/ + /privacy/)
80 new kanji OG PNGs (~22KB each, ~1.8MB total)

[0.8.0] — 2026-05-11 (later)

Added

Mobile hamburger menu — <800px viewport shows ☰ toggle, full drawer

with all nav links (Hiragana, Katakana, Kanji, Grammar, Teachers, Learners, Resources, Languages, About, Contribute, Search)

Category-specific PNG OG images at /og/{category}.png

Each social card now matches the page topic (Hiragana shows あいうえお, Kanji shows 日一人大, etc.)

"What's new" navigation strip on homepage linking /changelog/,

/languages/, /teachers/

30 N4 kanji filled with readings + examples (会, 同, 事, 自, 社, 発, 者,

地, 業, 方, 新, 場, 員, 立, 開, 手, 力, 問, 代, 明, 動, 京, 目, 通, 言, 理, 体, 田, 主, 題). Remaining 128 N4 kanji are Phase 2.

Changed

PDF download buttons honor a real availability flag:

- manifest.json has pdfs_available: false while R2 isn't wired up - Category pages show "📅 PDF coming soon" instead of broken 404 links - Kanji and grammar detail pages show a disabled "Coming soon" pill - "Download all (ZIP)" buttons are conditionally rendered - When R2 is wired up and PDFs uploaded, flipping to true re-enables all download UIs everywhere

Strategy

Going honest: showing dead PDF links would erode trust. "Coming soon"

with a transparent banner explaining the build pipeline is better than silent 404s.

[0.7.0] — 2026-05-11 (latest)

Added

PNG OG image at /og-image.png (1200×630, rasterized from SVG via cairosvg)

- Twitter / Slack / LinkedIn social cards now render properly

PNG favicons: favicon.ico (32×32), apple-touch-icon (180×180),

icon-192, icon-512

PWA manifest (manifest.webmanifest) — installable on mobile
/changelog/ page — renders this file as HTML on the site
A11y improvements:

- Skip-link for keyboard users (Tab on any page → "Skip to content") - role="main", role="contentinfo", aria-label on nav and language picker - :focus-visible ring (vermilion 3px outline) on all interactive elements

N4 master skeleton populated: 158 N4 kanji char + id (readings TODO)

Changed

og-image.svg → og-image.png (PNG works on all social platforms)

Build

360 HTML pages (was 359 — added /changelog/)

[0.6.0] — 2026-05-11 (later)

Added

80 kanji detail pages at /kanji/{kanji_id}/ (e.g. /kanji/kanji_n5_001/)

- Large stroke-order SVG, big kanji glyph, on/kun readings table - Meaning in EN + JA, PDF download button, Prev/Next nav - SEO-optimized title/description per kanji

20 grammar detail pages at /grammar/{grammar_id}/

- Topic + summary + JLPT level + PDF download - Prev/Next nav between topics

Kanji and grammar cards on category pages now link to detail pages
4 more hand-translated UI languages (Hindi, Hebrew, Persian, Finnish)

→ ui-ready languages: 27 (was 23) → ui-pending languages: 19 (was 23)

content/scripts/translate_ui.py — local script to Claude-translate

remaining 19 ui-pending UI files when run by the user with their key

Changed

Plausible Analytics replaced with Cloudflare Web Analytics

(free, privacy-friendly, no cookies, no script bloat). User just needs to paste their CF Web Analytics token into BaseLayout (token placeholder in place).

Build

359 HTML pages (was 259) — adds 80 kanji + 20 grammar detail pages
Sitemap needs regeneration for new pages (next push)

[0.5.0] — 2026-05-11

Major: 50-language UI rollout

All 50 Tier 1 languages now accessible at /{code}/ URLs

(Mandarin, Hindi, Spanish, French, Arabic, Bengali, Russian, Portuguese, Urdu, German, Swahili, Marathi, Telugu, Turkish, Tamil, Vietnamese, Korean, Italian, Persian, Polish, Ukrainian, Punjabi, Malayalam, Hausa, Igbo, Burmese, Thai, Gujarati, Romanian, Dutch, Kannada, Sundanese, Tagalog, Malay, Hebrew, Greek, Czech, Hungarian, Swedish, Finnish, Norwegian, Amharic, Zulu, Quechua, Guarani, Hawaiian — plus existing en/id/yo/ja)

Three-tier status system replacing the lock icon

✅ Full content (4 langs): UI translated + all 200 worksheets
🌐 UI translated (23 langs): hand-written UI strings, worksheets in

English/Indonesian/Yoruba/Japanese fallback

⚙️ UI pending (23 langs): English fallback UI, awaiting translation

Added

50 i18n JSON files in site/src/i18n/ (gen_50lang_i18n.py generator)
RTL_LOCALES set for Arabic, Hebrew, Urdu, Persian — dir="rtl"

on for these locales

HREFLANG_MAP with proper BCP47 codes per locale
50-locale sitemap (~257 URLs)
/languages/ rewritten with 3-tier badge system + region grouping
Header language picker now scrollable (max-height + overflow)

Strategy

We acknowledged that locking 46 languages behind 🔒 was overcautious.

Better: ship the UI in all 50, be transparent about what's hand-translated vs machine-pending, let learners browse + invite review contributions.

Worksheet content (PDFs) still strict 4-language scope until native

reviewers commit.

[0.4.0] — 2026-05-03 (later)

Added

50-language Tier 1 roadmap (site/src/data/languages.json)

- 4 live (en, id, yo, ja) + 46 on roadmap with 🔒 lock icon - Mix of high-population languages and linguistic diversity - Includes RTL languages (Arabic, Hebrew, Urdu, Persian) and minority langs (Quechua, Hawaiian, Guaraní)

/languages/ page: full grid of 50 languages grouped by region

- Speakers, script, RTL flag per language - "Vote for your language" CTA → GitHub Discussions

Language picker (header dropdown) now shows '🔒 + 46 more languages →' link
Homepage now teases 50-language roadmap
Languages link added to top nav
/languages/ added to sitemap.xml

Strategy

Phase 1 stays focused on 3 'live' languages — won't ship machine-translated

worksheets without native reviewer (trust > scale)

Roadmap signals ambition without overpromising
Native reviewer commitment is the explicit prioritization signal

[0.3.0] — 2026-05-03 (later)

Added

80 KanjiVG SVG files for all N5 kanji (CC BY-SA 3.0, attributed)
Kanji cards on the site now show stroke order SVG inline (lazy-loaded)
/donate/ — honest 'we want time, not money' page with Phase 2 plans
/sitemap.xml — hand-rolled (28 URLs, since @astrojs/sitemap incompatible)
robots.txt now references sitemap
Plausible Analytics script enabled (needs account at plausible.io)
JSON-LD structured data (EducationalOrganization) in BaseLayout
Japanese explanations (meaning_ja_default) for all 80 N5 kanji
N4 master skeletons (kanji_n4.yaml + grammar_n4.yaml) for Phase 2
/learners/ — 30-day starter path for self-learners
/resources/ — curated free Japanese-learning resources
/faq/ — common questions answered
README.md, CONTRIBUTING.md as proper repo entry points

[0.2.0] — 2026-05-03

Added

🌐 Site live at https://japaneseness.com (Cloudflare Pages, custom domain, SSL)
4 languages: English, Bahasa Indonesia, Yorùbá, 日本語
200 worksheets per language defined: 50 hiragana + 50 katakana + 80 N5 kanji + 20 N5 grammar
80 N5 kanji with 163 example words + Japanese explanations
6 XeLaTeX templates (base, hiragana_trace/recognize/write, kanji_sheet, grammar_sheet)
New site pages: /teachers/, /learners/, /resources/, /faq/, /search/, /contribute/, /about/
Pagefind full-text search across 4 languages (~330 indexed words)
Cloudflare Pages auto-deploy from GitHub main branch
public/_headers (security + cache rules), _redirects (www → apex)
og-image.svg (1200×630 social card)

Changed

Site converted to monorepo (site/ + content/) under toriiyu/japaneseness
Manifest now lists all 200 sheets per category with rich per-sheet metadata
CategoryList component groups by trace/recognize/write for kana, shows readings for kanji
Removed Astro i18n fallback (was generating 60+ erroneous URL paths)

Known issues

PDF download links 404 (R2 bucket on wrong account, full pipeline run pending)
Sitemap not generated (@astrojs/sitemap incompatible with current Astro 4.16 + i18n combo)
GitHub Actions workflows live in _pending_workflows/ (PAT lacked workflow scope)

[0.1.0] — 2026-04-26

Added

Initial scaffold (CLAUDE.md project brief, site/, content/, R2 + Pages plan)
5 starter hiragana sheets (あ-row only)
bootstrap.sh + cf_bootstrap.sh helper scripts

Live version: github.com/toriiyu/japaneseness/blob/main/CHANGELOG.md