feat: curate landing-page examples to a featured subset (#114)

The landing page dumped all 40 example cards into its Render Result
section, making it the longest scroll on the site (9948px at 1280px).
A landing page should showcase, not enumerate - the full grid lives at
/gallery/ with search, filters, and density controls since #113.

Selection is data-driven: gallery.json entries may carry a featured_rank
integer, build_site.py sorts by it into featured_examples, and the
template renders that subset (falling back to the full list when nothing
is curated). The panel counter is now honest about shown-vs-total
('8 of 40 frames'), and the gallery link moves from a below-the-fold
footnote to a primary button above the grid. No controls on the landing
page - that is what /gallery/ is for.

Featured set (rank order): car-mirror-symmetry, soccer-ball-goldberg,
damped-track-aim, light-link-studio, collision-hull-proxy, armature-bend,
bmesh-gear, color-attribute-wheel - the pinned calibration members plus
recent striking work, chosen for subject and palette range.

Landing page height: 9948px -> 4847px at 1280px (-51%), 24788px ->
10203px at 390px (-59%).

Signed-off-by: fOuttaMyPaint <TMhospitalitystrategies@gmail.com>

Author: TMHSDigital

examples/gallery.json

@@ -86,7 +86,8 @@
       "tags": [
         "mesh",
         "bmesh"
-      ]
+      ],
+      "featured_rank": 7
     },
     {
       "name": "shader-node-group",
@@ -170,7 +171,8 @@
       "tags": [
         "constraints",
         "animation"
-      ]
+      ],
+      "featured_rank": 3
     },
     {
       "name": "color-attribute-wheel",
@@ -183,7 +185,8 @@
         "mesh",
         "materials",
         "attributes"
-      ]
+      ],
+      "featured_rank": 8
     },
     {
       "name": "parent-inverse-orrery",
@@ -219,7 +222,8 @@
       "tags": [
         "armature",
         "depsgraph"
-      ]
+      ],
+      "featured_rank": 6
     },
     {
       "name": "text-version-stamp",
@@ -368,7 +372,8 @@
       "tags": [
         "rendering",
         "objects"
-      ]
+      ],
+      "featured_rank": 4
     },
     {
       "name": "collision-hull-proxy",
@@ -380,7 +385,8 @@
       "tags": [
         "bmesh",
         "mesh"
-      ]
+      ],
+      "featured_rank": 5
     },
     {
       "name": "custom-normals-shade",
@@ -456,7 +462,8 @@
       "tags": [
         "bmesh",
         "mesh"
-      ]
+      ],
+      "featured_rank": 2
     },
     {
       "name": "car-mirror-symmetry",
@@ -468,7 +475,8 @@
       "tags": [
         "modifiers",
         "depsgraph"
-      ]
+      ],
+      "featured_rank": 1
     },
     {
       "name": "attribute-domain-shear",

scripts/site/build_site.py

@@ -250,6 +250,16 @@ def load_examples(repo_root: Path) -> list[dict]:
     return examples
 
 
+def pick_featured(examples: list[dict]) -> list[dict]:
+    """Landing-page showcase subset: entries carrying a ``featured_rank``
+    integer in gallery.json, sorted by rank. Returns [] when nothing is
+    curated; the template then falls back to the full list."""
+    return sorted(
+        (ex for ex in examples if isinstance(ex.get("featured_rank"), int)),
+        key=lambda ex: ex["featured_rank"],
+    )
+
+
 def load_mcp_tools(repo_root: Path) -> list[dict]:
     mcp_file = repo_root / "mcp-tools.json"
     if not mcp_file.is_file():
@@ -365,6 +375,7 @@ def main():
     skills = parse_skills(repo_root)
     rules = parse_rules(repo_root)
     examples = load_examples(repo_root)
+    featured = pick_featured(examples)
     mcp_tools = load_mcp_tools(repo_root)
     mcp_grouped = group_by_category(mcp_tools)
     changelog = parse_changelog(repo_root)
@@ -378,6 +389,8 @@ def main():
         "rule_count": len(rules),
         "examples": examples,
         "example_count": len(examples),
+        "featured_examples": featured,
+        "featured_count": len(featured),
         "snippet_count": len(plugin.get("snippets", [])),
         "template_count": len(plugin.get("templates", [])),
         # basenames for display: snippets/foo-bar.py -> foo-bar

scripts/site/template.html.j2

@@ -153,6 +153,11 @@
       text-overflow: ellipsis; }
     .panel-cta { display: inline-block; margin-top: 1.25rem; font-weight: 500; font-size: 0.9rem; color: var(--select); }
     .panel-cta:hover { text-decoration: underline; }
+    /* featured subset: gallery link is the section's primary call to action */
+    .cta-row { margin: -0.25rem 0 1.5rem; }
+    .btn-cta { display: inline-block; background: var(--select); color: #1a1b1e; font-weight: 500;
+      font-size: 0.92rem; border-radius: 4px; padding: 0.55rem 1.15rem; transition: filter 0.15s; }
+    .btn-cta:hover { filter: brightness(1.12); }
 
     /* skills */
     .skill-grid { display: grid; grid-template-columns: 1fr 1fr; gap: 0.4rem 2.25rem; }
@@ -284,19 +289,21 @@
   <main id="main">
 
   {% if examples %}
+  {% set shown = featured_examples if featured_examples else examples %}
   <section class="panel" id="examples">
     <div class="panel-head">
       <span class="caret" aria-hidden="true">&#9662;</span>
       <span class="hud">Render Result</span>
-      <span class="hud count">{{ example_count }} frames</span>
+      <span class="hud count">{% if featured_examples %}{{ featured_count }} of {% endif %}{{ example_count }} frames</span>
     </div>
     <div class="panel-body">
       <h2>Every render here is a CI artifact.</h2>
       <p class="lede">These aren't mockups. Each example runs headless on Blender 4.5 LTS and 5.1 in the
         smoke workflow, asserts its own correctness, and exits non-zero if the API drifted. The render is
         what the code produced.</p>
+      <p class="cta-row"><a class="btn-cta" href="gallery/">Browse all {{ example_count }} examples in the gallery &rarr;</a></p>
       <div class="render-grid">
-        {% for ex in examples %}
+        {% for ex in shown %}
         <a class="render-card" href="gallery/{{ ex.name }}/">
           <img src="{{ ex.heroSite }}" alt="{{ ex.name }} render" loading="lazy" width="1280" height="720" />
           <div class="render-meta">