Hand this page to your AI agent
Give your agent (Claude, ChatGPT or any assistant that can open web pages) this address and ask it to do the task on the page:
https://dbourdeau.github.io/cyphersolver/further/deboli1789.html
Or copy the block below into the chat. It is the whole task: the reading, every open gap, what has been tried, the steps, and how to report back.
TASK: take a partial decipherment further: Deboli to Stanisław August, St Petersburg 1789
This page: https://dbourdeau.github.io/cyphersolver/further/deboli1789.html
You are helping a public research project finish reading historical cipher letters. This one is read in part:
the key works, but some pieces are still open. Your job is to close one or more of the open gaps below.
THE READING
Write-up: https://dbourdeau.github.io/cyphersolver/deboli1789.html (read it first: how the text was read, the key, the reading)
Date: 1789
Outcome: key from adjacent plaintext · partial
Read now: 86.3% of the deciphered cipher tokens give sense (pieces below may be untouched)
Files: https://github.com/dbourdeau/cyphersolver/tree/main/targets/deboli1789 (NOTES.md, key, transcription, reading, scripts)
OPEN GAPS (from NOTES.md, "## Remaining gaps")
1. [open-codes: doable now] 10 May 1789 (no. 042): 666 of 4,393 groups unread - blocker: open-codes; groups with no value in the eleven pairs or whose aligned value does not fit in place, in a hand where 0/8 are hard to tell apart (154 groups transcribed with ?); more pairs near May and a second look at the doubtful digits would narrow them.
2. [open-codes: doable now] 14 Dec 1789 (no. 104): 130 of 1,222 groups unread - blocker: open-codes; same cause, a different hand (1185/1105).
3. [open-codes: doable now] 25 Mar 1789 (no. 024): 13 of 288 groups unread - blocker: open-codes; 1407, 518, 437, 108, 2140b and fragments that do not read, each once.
ALREADY TRIED (from NOTES.md, "## Escalation")
[x] siblings: ZbPop 419 and 417 pair with 103 of 106 despatches; eleven pairs aligned. The leaves around nos. 024, 042, 104 and the clear pieces of the neighbouring dates (24 Mar, 8 and 12 May, 15 Dec) checked: none is their text. Not on DECODE.
[x] clear-pages: c104 carries 39 clear Polish passages, used; c024 is headed "Ajouté au Duplicata seul"; the French passages in the 4000/9933 frames of 22 and 29 Dec are in the clear copies.
[x] known-keys: ZbPop 444, 451, 453/454 not online. deboli1791's code tables (same code) tried on every unread group: they agree with this key and added three readings (1586 wiadomość, 48 dość, 1612 wyraż-); code B does not occur.
[x] print: Zielińska & Danilczyk print 1780-1782 only; 1789 unedited (Rolnik 2025); nothing in print for these three.
[x] key-rebuild: eleven pairs, 630 anchored groups; alphabetical brackets used for context readings (1175 Postscriptum, 2161 często, 1287 respons, 2094 czy, 1369 śl, 1711 zal-, 2009 bie).
[x] retry: every group of the three letters re-read with the eleven-pair key and the 1791 table on 27-28 Oct; LM gap-filling tried and failed its control.
STEPS
0. Set up. If you can run a shell, fork and clone the repository and work inside it:
git clone https://github.com/dbourdeau/cyphersolver.git
Then read, in this order: CONTRIBUTING.md (how a contribution is sent and credited); README.md, sections
"Repository layout" and "Conventions" (how readings are measured and named); targets/deboli1789/NOTES.md in full, and the
key, transcription and reading files it names; lang/README.md (shared language models).
Work in targets/deboli1789/. Add your findings to NOTES.md under a dated heading without rewriting what is there, and
update the "## Remaining gaps" line of every gap you close. Keep WORKLOG.md there: one dated line per step
(hypothesis, value tried, solver run, crib, control), failures included. Do not edit docs/ (the site is generated).
If you cannot run a shell, fetch the files from the links above and keep your work in files you send with the issue.
1. Pick a gap. Start with the ones marked "doable now" (open-codes, not-attempted, left-open): the images and the key
are online, so they need only work. A gap marked "needs a new source" (no-key-material, too-short, illegible,
needs-physical-access) can be closed only by something new: a key
or a deciphered sibling found elsewhere, a better image, a printed edition or calendar, a photograph from the archive.
For those, search for that material first, and say where you looked even when you find nothing.
2. Start from the existing key and transcription in the folder. Do not rebuild the key from scratch, and do not
re-read parts that are already read unless you find an error in them.
3. For a code group or sign value: list every place the group occurs, show how each reads with the value you propose,
and say what still does not fit. For a passage: re-read it at the image and give the folio and line. For a missing
letter or leaf: say where it is held and how it can be reached.
4. Measure again. Apply the key to the whole text, write the reading file, and count the share of cipher tokens that
give sense (not an estimate). The reading is "complete" only when (1) at least 95% of its cipher tokens give sense;
(2) no gap is left untried; (3) every letter in it is covered; (4) what stays open is scattered code groups or names,
or pieces blocked from outside. Otherwise it stays "partial": say which gaps are still open and why.
5. Be honest. Mark every uncertain word with [?], leave unread groups as their numbers or signs, and never fill a gap
with a plausible guess. A gap retried and still open, with what was ruled out, is worth reporting.
REPORT BACK
With a clone: open a pull request with your changes to targets/deboli1789/. Say in the description which gaps you worked on,
the share read before and after, and how you want to be credited (name, initials or handle, and a link).
Without one: open an issue: https://github.com/dbourdeau/cyphersolver/issues/new?template=further-reading.yml&title=Further+reading%3A+deboli1789&page=deboli1789.html
Give the write-up, the gap you worked on (its line in Remaining gaps, or the code group, folio and line), what you
propose, the evidence (every occurrence, the images or sources), the share read before and after, your step log,
and the tools and AI model you used.
If you cannot open issues or pull requests, write this report for your human to send. Credit goes to the person who sends it.Open gaps
gold can be done now: the images and the key are online, it needs only work. grey needs a new source first: a key, a better scan, an edition or the archive.
- code groups open 10 May 1789 (no. 042): 666 of 4,393 groups unread - blocker: open-codes; groups with no value in the eleven pairs or whose aligned value does not fit in place, in a hand where 0/8 are hard to tell apart (154 groups transcribed with ?); more pairs near May and a second look at the doubtful digits would narrow them.
- code groups open 14 Dec 1789 (no. 104): 130 of 1,222 groups unread - blocker: open-codes; same cause, a different hand (1185/1105).
- code groups open 25 Mar 1789 (no. 024): 13 of 288 groups unread - blocker: open-codes; 1407, 518, 437, 108, 2140b and fragments that do not read, each once.
Already tried
- ☑ siblings ZbPop 419 and 417 pair with 103 of 106 despatches; eleven pairs aligned. The leaves around nos. 024, 042, 104 and the clear pieces of the neighbouring dates (24 Mar, 8 and 12 May, 15 Dec) checked: none is their text. Not on DECODE.
- ☑ clear-pages c104 carries 39 clear Polish passages, used; c024 is headed "Ajouté au Duplicata seul"; the French passages in the 4000/9933 frames of 22 and 29 Dec are in the clear copies.
- ☑ known-keys ZbPop 444, 451, 453/454 not online. deboli1791's code tables (same code) tried on every unread group: they agree with this key and added three readings (1586 wiadomość, 48 dość, 1612 wyraż-); code B does not occur.
- ☑ print Zielińska & Danilczyk print 1780-1782 only; 1789 unedited (Rolnik 2025); nothing in print for these three.
- ☑ key-rebuild eleven pairs, 630 anchored groups; alphabetical brackets used for context readings (1175 Postscriptum, 2161 często, 1287 respons, 2094 czy, 1369 śl, 1711 zal-, 2009 bie).
- ☑ retry every group of the three letters re-read with the eleven-pair key and the 1791 table on 27-28 Oct; LM gap-filling tried and failed its control.
Send a result
One closed gap counts: a code group valued, a passage re-read, a key or clear copy found elsewhere. It is credited to you on the write-up.