name: help-files-per-command description: leveva HELP serves embedded per-command help pages from leveva/help/; adding a command means adding its help page metadata: node_type: memory type: project originSessionId: 584f406d-814e-418e-aff3-ca55d8b3c162#

leveva's HELP command (P11 slice 30) serves plain-text help pages embedded from leveva/help/ via rust-embed (HelpFiles in [[leveva-command-folder]]'s command/help.rs): bare HELP → help/index.md, HELP <CMD> → help/<CMD>.md (upper-folded, sanitized to [A-Z0-9] so path traversal misses), unknown → a not-found NOTICE. Pages are delivered as :<server> NOTICE <nick> :<line> wrapped in *** … *** header/footer.

Convention (user instruction, 2026-06-09): adding a new command means adding its leveva/help/<CMD>.md page. Two test invariants in command/help.rs enforce both directions: shipped_help_files_name_real_commands (no orphan page documents a non-existent command) and every_command_has_a_help_page (every command in the test-only COMMANDS list has a shipped page). So a new command without a help file fails cargo test -p leveva.

Why: help text is part of the user-facing command surface, kept honest by tests so it can't silently drift from the real handler set.

How to apply: when you add a command handler + its dispatch arm, add it to the COMMANDS list in command/help.rs AND write leveva/help/<CMD>.md (match the house style: usage synopsis line, blank, prose grounded in the real numerics/gating, optional Examples + "See also"; plain text, ~76-col wrap). Update index.md if it should be listed there.

Topic pages (P11 slice 53, 2026-06-10): HELP also serves non-command reference topics — HELP USER_MODES / HELP CHANNEL_MODES (table-formatted mode catalogues that MODE.md delegates to; markdown tables render nicely on web/websocket clients). To support them sanitize() now allows _ (still no path traversal — _ can't form / or ..), and a test-only TOPICS allowlist in command/help.rs lets shipped_help_files_name_real_commands accept a page whose stem is a command or a topic; reference_topics_are_served checks they render. Add a topic by: write help/<TOPIC>.md, add the stem to TOPICS, list it under "Reference topics" in index.md. Topics are NOT in COMMANDS (no every_command_has_a_help_page obligation, and no dispatch arm).