Build an optional press-level catalog across all published books

[clintecker]

Goal

Build one optional press-level catalog site that lists every published book from the books’ own metadata and release artifacts. Single-book Pages sites remain the primary contract.

Scope

The catalog consumes published book metadata; it must not become a second place where title, author, cover, description, editions, or URLs are edited by hand.

Acceptance criteria

• Define a machine-readable catalog projection each book can publish.
• Aggregate book projections without cloning private manuscripts.
• Render covers, descriptions, edition/download links, and release status from those projections.
• Missing optional art or formats degrade truthfully.
• Duplicate slugs/ISBNs and broken public links fail catalog verification.
• A book can opt out without affecting its own Pages site.
• Document hosting, update triggers, access control, and ownership.
• Keep this work independent of the v1 single-book build contract.

[clintecker]

Repository navigation

• Delivery group: Later — Catalog
• Product direction: ROADMAP.md
• Existing single-book contract: architecture and artifact reference
• Testing foundations: v1.12, v1.13, and v1.14

The catalog must consume book metadata/artifacts through the established registry contract rather than inventing a parallel source of truth.