Mascot PNG and portfolio README replace the bare setup guide

beniauer rewrote the README as a portfolio pitch and added a custom mascot component with a CSS-based face crop that avoids committing a separate cropped asset. There's no functional change here, but the component design is clean if you're building branded chat avatars.

brandingchat-ui

The README rewrite (180b1b6) adds a feature list, tech stack table, and architecture tree, replacing the old setup instructions with a pitch for the fork as a self-hostable legal platform. A disclaimer marks it explicitly as a personal project rather than a certified legal product.

86fdb50 commits michi-mascot.png (1.1 MB) and uses it as a centered hero in the README header.

5f3d7eb adds frontend/src/components/chat/michi-mascot.tsx. The component has two modes: full renders the full figure via Next.js Image, and the default mode renders a circular avatar cropped from the same PNG using background-size: 360% and background-position: 50% 11%. Two constants at the top (FACE_ZOOM, FACE_POS) handle framing without needing a second asset. The component lands on the login and signup pages as a full-figure hero, and in AssistantMessage.tsx as an idle avatar - swapping in when the busy flag (active, error, or done-badge state) is false.

The 1.1 MB PNG is committed to history permanently. That's the main cost.

So what Skip unless you want the mascot itself. The CSS-crop trick in `MichiMascot` is a tidy pattern for avoiding a second image asset, but it's tied to a specific image. The README rewrite signals this fork is oriented around personal presentation rather than upstream contribution.

Spotted something wrong? Or know the PR text has fresher detail than the writeup above?

Commits in this thread

3 commits from beniauer/michi, oldest first. Source extracted verbatim from the harvested git log.

SHA	Subject	Author	Date
`180b1b67`	docs: portfolio README and ignore .bak files	Benjamin Auer	2026-05-22	↗ GitHub
Rewrite the README with features, tech stack, architecture, and a security overview. Ignore *.bak editor backups. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
`86fdb500`	docs: add Michi mascot as README hero	Benjamin Auer	2026-05-22	↗ GitHub
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
`5f3d7eb8`	feat: MichiMascot component on login, signup, and chat avatar	Benjamin Auer	2026-05-22	↗ GitHub
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

SHA

Subject

Author

Date

180b1b67

docs: portfolio README and ignore .bak files

Benjamin Auer

2026-05-22

↗ GitHub

Rewrite the README with features, tech stack, architecture, and a security
overview. Ignore *.bak editor backups.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

86fdb500

docs: add Michi mascot as README hero

Benjamin Auer

2026-05-22

↗ GitHub

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

5f3d7eb8

feat: MichiMascot component on login, signup, and chat avatar

Benjamin Auer

2026-05-22

↗ GitHub

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

Capture this thread into my fork

Download a single Markdown prompt that tells Claude how to port every commit above into your working tree — adapting paths and structure to match your repo. Run it via claude -p < capture-thread-553.md from inside the repo you want the changes in.