The Crosswalk

A free, honest front door for one hard, scary, expensive decision: do you need to code — and if so, should you learn it, direct an AI, or hire a person? Built on the State Delta method (a claim held against a witness). It is the human pole of a two-pole system; the agent pole is The Stable. The two share the method, not a codebase — separate repos on purpose, so the machine-training work can never quietly get booked as the human mission.

Everyone else sells their own door — bootcamps sell "learn," agencies sell "hire," AI companies sell "direct." This is the lobby before all three, with no stake in which one you take, and no selling. It is fine if the honest answer is "you do not need to code at all."

The site

Static pages in public/, no build step. The walkable ladder:

• index.html — the front door.
• Crosswalk-Router — do you need to code at all? (the first, most important question).
• Crosswalk-ThreeDoors — who should write it: you, an AI, or a pro, priced for your numbers.
• Crosswalk-Matrix — if you are learning, which language fits you.
• Crosswalk-TheMachine, Crosswalk-RedRover — two short exhibits to feel why the site trusts nothing it cannot test.
• Crosswalk-ReadingRoom — every number traces to a named, dated, linked source.

Trust discipline (bracket every deploy)

node crosswalk-gate.js                                 # BEFORE: the source is correct (206 checks)
# ...deploy public/ (see DEPLOY.md)...
node verify-live-crosswalk.js https://<your-site>      # AFTER: the deploy actually carried it

The gate enumerates public/*.html (never a hand-list) and checks properties, not known-bad patterns: palette contrast, no dead links, no runtime nondeterminism, the honesty footer, every sourced card and route figure. DEPLOY.md has the Cloudflare Pages runbook.

Honest notes

• Sourced or it does not ship. Every learn-time, cost, and effect size names its source and its population, so you can judge how far it travels. See the Reading Room.
• No newcomer has used it yet. The real test of "does this help people" is a real person on the live door — not the gate going green. That test is the next thing that matters.
• Built by a non-coder who shipped working tools by directing AI, and wanted this map before he had it. Open, with credit. If a step is wrong for you, trust your own testing over any claim here.