brand: use the selected Open Herd icon-only organization avatar

[PeterGuy326]

Current decision — R2: Open Herd icon only (2026-09-09)

The owner explicitly selected the icon from bytefolk-concept-c-open-herd.svg: the open-herd-mark group, without the ByteFolk wordmark. This direction supersedes R1's minimal monochrome horned B. The attempted R1 restoration earlier on 2026-09-09 was an assistant source-selection error, not an owner request to revert the design.

Status: in-progress. The owner authorized the live avatar correction directly. Canonical repository assets and reproduction instructions must now follow this selection; no further restoration from the old black B asset is authorized by R1.

R2 requirements

• REQ-001: Use the exact Open Herd icon geometry from the owner's selected SVG. The existing bytefolk-concept-c-open-herd-mark.svg is the icon-only equivalent: 4 paths and 5 rectangles, with no text element.
• REQ-002: Preserve the selected blue #1677ff, purple #722ed1, ink #141414, and white #ffffff; do not redraw, recolor, or stretch the mark.
• REQ-003: Export an opaque white 1024 × 1024 PNG with proportional scaling, centered padding, and no wordmark. Apply that PNG as the centralized organization avatar under the owner's direct instruction.
• REQ-004: Correct canonical export documentation and validation so they cannot silently restore the superseded black B. Preserve all unrelated organization settings and profile copy.

R2 acceptance criteria

• AC-001: XML comparison proves all 9 icon elements equal the selected source after expanding fill variables; the avatar SVG contains no text.
• AC-002: The upload PNG is opaque RGB, 1024 × 1024, with a white background and the original icon's aspect ratio and palette. Visual inspection confirms no lettering and sufficient crop padding.
• AC-003: Repository source, raster artifact, render command, documentation, and validation agree on Open Herd. Governance checks and whitespace validation pass on the candidate head; normal review and CI apply before merging repository changes.
• AC-004: The owner-settings UI confirms successful upload. Download and inspect the public avatar after the change; record actual hashes and dimensions. GitHub may keep the same avatar URL and resize/re-encode the image, so neither URL change nor pixel equality to the 1024 px source is asserted.
• AC-005: Record before/after protected public organization fields and verify no unrelated fields changed. Keep this issue open until remaining repository alignment and product acceptance are complete.

Source identity

Repository alignment: PR #31, head 94766dca09dcc30c1bbbe0fd0f788a1a48866fdd. The original Open Herd SVG, icon-only SVG, and exact uploaded PNG are now published in that candidate. They are not yet merged to main.

Icon-only SVG SHA-256: f7d58df169d6270ff40da11b038d64d6f7c5f7435851eb32f2fe1554c578f32a.

R1 material below is retained as historical evidence only. Its old asset selection and monochrome requirements do not govern current avatar operations.

Historical R1 — superseded by R2

Problem

ByteFolk now has an approved public name and organization profile, but the GitHub organization still lacks an intentional, repository-backed avatar. The selected visual direction is the minimal one-color horned B symbol. Without a canonical asset and usage rules, the live organization image can drift from the brand source or become unreadable across light and dark surfaces.

Desired outcome

The ByteFolk organization uses one simple, recognizable avatar everywhere GitHub renders the centralized organization profile picture, and the .github repository contains the exact scalable source, upload artifact, reversed variant, horizontal lockup, and concise usage rules needed to reproduce it.

Approved direction

R1 — Minimal horned B

• One-color geometric symbol derived from the capital B.
• Two block horns retain the cow/horse/digital-employee character connection.
• The extended lower bowl hints at an animal muzzle without illustration details.
• The organization upload uses a black symbol on an opaque white square so it remains legible in both GitHub light and dark themes.
• The full-body mascot remains a separate expressive asset and is not used as the organization avatar.

Requirements

• REQ-001: Store the approved ByteFolk symbol and its reproducible organization-avatar export in the canonical .github repository.
• REQ-002: Keep the symbol structurally valid in primary, reversed, and horizontal lockup contexts without adding gradients, shadows, mascot detail, or extra colors.
• REQ-003: Apply the exact approved PNG to the centralized bytefolk GitHub organization profile after merge and successful push/main validation.
• REQ-004: Preserve the organization handle, repository names, permissions, pins, descriptions, profile copy, member avatars, and all unrelated settings.

Acceptance criteria

• AC-001: The repository contains a responsive primary SVG, reversed SVG, horizontal lockup SVG, and opaque 1024×1024 PNG generated from the same symbol geometry.
• AC-002: SVGs parse successfully, contain no embedded raster image, gradient, filter, script, external resource, or fixed root dimensions, and remain recognizable at 16, 32, 64, and 512 pixels.
• AC-003: The PNG is exactly 1024×1024, RGB/RGBA, opaque, and has a white background with the approved black one-color mark and sufficient circular-crop padding.
• AC-004: Brand usage documentation records clear space, minimum sizes, primary/reversed usage, exact colors, the avatar export command, and prohibited modifications.
• AC-005: Repository governance validation and git diff --check pass on the exact PR head.
• AC-006: After merge and green push/main validation, an organization owner uploads the exact tracked PNG through GitHub Organization Settings.
• AC-007: Authenticated API and anonymous-page readback show a changed organization avatar_url; downloading that URL produces pixels matching the tracked PNG after GitHub's expected resizing/cropping, while protected non-avatar organization fields remain unchanged.

Scope

Included: canonical brand assets and usage notes in .github, deterministic raster export, the centralized GitHub organization avatar update, and post-change readback.

Non-goals

• Changing personal member avatars.
• Assigning separate avatars to repositories or teams.
• Changing the organization handle, name, description, pins, repository metadata, profile copy, permissions, topics, visibility, or product branding.
• Replacing the full-body mascot or defining product-specific icons.

Validation plan

1. Parse and lint every SVG and check prohibited constructs.
2. Render the primary symbol at 16, 32, 64, 512, and 1024 pixels; verify dimensions, opacity, palette, and circular-crop padding.
3. Run repository governance validation and git diff --check.
4. Merge only after required CI and independent review pass.
5. Record the before-state organization JSON and current avatar URL; upload the exact tracked PNG in GitHub Organization Settings.
6. Read back the organization API and anonymous organization page, download the served avatar, compare its perceptual/structural pixels with the tracked source, and verify unrelated protected fields are unchanged.

Risk and rollback

Risk is limited to public brand presentation. Preserve the previous avatar URL and before-state JSON. If acceptance fails, restore the previous image only when the current avatar still matches this change; do not overwrite a concurrent owner update.

[PeterGuy326]

schemaVersion: implementation-candidate.v1
canonicalIssue: "https://github.com/bytefolk/.github/issues/18"
consumedRevision: R1
pullRequest: "https://github.com/bytefolk/.github/pull/19"
headSha: "8cef9fc2815fe49ab38a03a6b31c804c6ce04c77"
requiredCheck: "https://github.com/bytefolk/.github/actions/runs/33477355914"
requiredCheckConclusion: success
avatarSha256: "6a4d41ad391e87a986a55a84f56a5fff355677f8a94fc8cc8c91f11ce03aab36"
status: awaiting-independent-codeowner-review

The selected minimal C direction is now tracked as reproducible SVG/PNG assets in PR #19. Local SVG, PNG, deterministic-export, governance, and whitespace checks pass; the exact-head Governance job is green. Live organization-avatar upload and E4 readback remain intentionally pending until independent CODEOWNER approval, merge, and successful push/main validation.

[PeterGuy326]

Asset merge gate passed: PR #19 was independently approved at exact head 3c82dccf965dbcfa57ab23b384899632202445c9, squash-merged as 18c398f7d05601559b764a13e3e81d70283b083d, and the exact merge-head Governance run succeeded: https://github.com/bytefolk/.github/actions/runs/33482321755 .

This issue was automatically closed by the PR keyword before AC-006/AC-007 were complete. It is intentionally reopened so the public requirement state remains truthful. The live GitHub organization avatar has not yet been changed; upload and post-change API/anonymous readback remain pending.

[PeterGuy326]

Superseded by the owner’s R2 selection (2026-09-09): The current organization avatar is the Open Herd icon from the owner-selected SVG, without its wordmark. The black B restoration was an assistant source-selection error. Do not use the historical asset selection below as the current instruction; see R2 decision and verified live readback.

Post-upload public readback (2026-09-01T16:54Z)

The live organization avatar has now changed after the earlier NOT VERIFIED comment.

• Canonical source: bytefolk/.github@18c398f7d05601559b764a13e3e81d70283b083d, brand/bytefolk/avatar-1024.png
• Tracked SHA-256: 08a2ebb326503dee75344ddd95b3007d0266ead1564fc9194ad8c6d8f0232dd9
• Organization API: avatar_url=https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/309981672?v=4, updated_at=2026-09-01T16:30:28Z
• Anonymous page: https://github.com/bytefolk renders that same organization avatar.
• Served-image check: GitHub returns a 460x460 RGB resize. Both source and served pixels are grayscale with extrema 20..255; resizing the tracked source to 460x460 gives per-channel mean absolute error 0.664/255 and matching mark/padding geometry. This is consistent with GitHub resizing the exact tracked asset.

Current public API fields are login=bytefolk, name=ByteFolk, description Open, self-hostable infrastructure for digital teams., null location/blog/email/social handle, both organization/repository project flags enabled, and seven public repositories. The persisted rename ledger in #20 matches the login, display name, and seven-public-repository baseline.

Gate status:

• AC-006 exact live upload: PASS.
• AC-007 anonymous/API/avatar-pixel readback: PASS.
• AC-007 complete protected-field before/after proof: NOT VERIFIED. The earlier record did not persist the full pre-avatar protected-field JSON, and the current automation credential cannot read the owner-only audit/settings endpoints needed to close that gap.

Keep this Issue open until an Organization Owner records the missing sanitized protected-field/audit readback. Do not infer that missing evidence from the source asset or public profile alone.

[PeterGuy326]

Superseded by R2 (2026-09-09): The owner selected the Open Herd icon without its wordmark. The black B restoration proposed below was an assistant source-selection error. Use the current R2 decision and verified live readback, not this historical R1 asset selection.

Current avatar drift and owner remediation — 2026-09-09

The owner has authorized restoring the exact tracked approved PNG. Fresh authenticated organization metadata and an anonymous avatar download confirm the current live image differs from the canonical asset:

Artifact	Dimensions	Bytes	SHA-256
Tracked brand/bytefolk/avatar-1024.png	1024×1024	8,309	08a2ebb326503dee75344ddd95b3007d0266ead1564fc9194ad8c6d8f0232dd9
Live organization avatar before this remediation	460×460	19,167	6349d8954e1c5894d3c91e26fddba98411117c98964821d9798d76a43308bb0d

The earlier September 1 readback is preserved as a dated historical report and now explicitly marked as superseded for current-state claims. It is not evidence that the current image matches. The ?v=4 suffix is not used as image identity; upload/readback must compare downloaded pixels, allowing GitHub's resizing.

PR #30 independently approved at 7d81cf4c44913db0342107f2e75aa250403fa38d deliberately makes both homepage headers follow the organization's live avatar. Its Governance and brand checks do not establish external homepage-link availability or avatar-image identity. This drift belongs to #18, not a change to the already approved header diff.

A sanitized before-state snapshot of protected public organization fields and the previous image has been captured. Owner upload and post-upload protected-field/pixel comparison are still pending; no upload or successful readback is claimed here. This issue remains open.

[PeterGuy326]

Superseded by the owner’s R2 selection (2026-09-09): The current organization avatar is the Open Herd icon from the owner-selected SVG, without its wordmark. The black B restoration was an assistant source-selection error. Do not use the historical asset selection below as the current instruction; see R2 decision and verified live readback.

Owner execution / fresh readback — 2026-09-09

Restored the organization avatar through GitHub's organization profile UI using the exact approved tracked file brand/bytefolk/avatar-1024.png. The full square was selected; the UI confirmed the profile picture was updated. No redesign or source-file change was made.

Surface	Dimensions	Bytes	SHA-256
Approved upload source	1024 × 1024	8309	08a2ebb326503dee75344ddd95b3007d0266ead1564fc9194ad8c6d8f0232dd9
Public avatar before restoration	460 × 460	19167	6349d8954e1c5894d3c91e26fddba98411117c98964821d9798d76a43308bb0d
Public avatar after restoration	460 × 460	6626	6223bf01ce3c182a2cfd155fd6ffe338115046490303b80e839c17d2efe32ac2

Anonymous readback of the live avatar now shows the approved black horned B on white. GitHub serves a resized/re-encoded 460px derivative, including when requesting s=1024; this is not byte-for-byte or pixel-for-pixel equality with the 1024px source. I am not repeating the earlier “pixel identical” claim. The evidence is the exact approved upload file, full-image selection, GitHub's successful update confirmation, changed public image digest, and visual readback.

The avatar URL and v=4 stayed unchanged; v is not an image revision counter. The two headers merged in #30 use that URL and therefore follow the restored organization avatar. Public organization name, description, URL, location, email, social field, project settings, identity and public repository count were compared before/after with zero changes.

The earlier readback comment has been explicitly marked historical/superseded. The existing governance and brand-asset CI still does not validate these external avatar URLs; this manual readback is the evidence for the owner-side change, not a claim that CI would catch future avatar drift. Issue closure and product acceptance remain separate.

[PeterGuy326]

R2 owner-selected Open Herd avatar: live correction verified

The owner explicitly selected the icon from bytefolk-concept-c-open-herd.svg, without its wordmark. I mistakenly restored R1's old black B earlier today; that restoration was an assistant source-selection error. R2 supersedes R1: use the selected Open Herd icon only. The issue body now records this decision and marks R1 as historical.

Applied and verified

• The existing icon-only bytefolk-concept-c-open-herd-mark.svg matches all 9 shapes in the selected source's open-herd-mark group after expanding fill variables: 4 paths and 5 rectangles. It contains no text.
• Icon-only source SHA-256: f7d58df169d6270ff40da11b038d64d6f7c5f7435851eb32f2fe1554c578f32a.
• Export: proportional scaling centered on an opaque white square, retaining blue #1677ff, purple #722ed1, ink #141414, and white. No redraw, recoloring, wordmark, or aspect-ratio stretching.
• Uploaded PNG: 1024 × 1024 RGB, 15097 bytes, SHA-256 aefe9f3494bff30ff93809f929b04f709f5f36eedbfabdb5f5764efe78578461.
• GitHub Organization Settings confirmed successful profile-picture update. The full square was selected in the crop dialog.
• Public avatar readback: 460 × 460 RGB, 5563 bytes, SHA-256 86b69ad8314961d2ce5270878a36b3cee6ef672241c4ee9cf313d9a01af9552b. Visual inspection confirms the selected Open Herd icon, no lettering.
• Before this correction, the incorrect black B derivative was 6626 bytes, SHA-256 6223bf01ce3c182a2cfd155fd6ffe338115046490303b80e839c17d2efe32ac2.
• The public avatar URL remains https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/309981672?v=4. URL stability does not mean unchanged pixels. GitHub resizes/re-encodes the upload; no source-to-derivative pixel-equality claim is made.
• Before/after comparison found no changes to the captured public organization fields: handle/ID, display name, description, URL, location, public email, Twitter field, project settings, or public repository count.

Repository follow-through

The live correction is complete under the owner's direct instruction. Canonical asset/export/validation alignment is being prepared from current main so the old black B cannot be restored by stale instructions. This issue remains open for that repository work and final product acceptance.