Checklist items rendered as plain text [ ] instead of checkboxes; excessive list spacing

[sanchuanhehe]

Description

The new-project-checklist page uses GitHub-style task list syntax (* [ ]) in the source Markdown:

* [ ] Technical problem addressed by the project
* [ ] Intended users and value proposition

However, MyST/Sphinx does not natively support the * [ ] / - [ ] task list syntax. The [ ] markers are rendered as literal text instead of checkboxes. Additionally, Sphinx wraps each list item's content in <p> tags (<ul class="simple"><li><p>[ ] ...</p></li></ul>), which creates excessive vertical spacing between items.

This affects both the English and Chinese versions of the page.

Affected pages

• https://theopensourceway.github.io/production/en/getting-started/new-project-checklist.html
• https://theopensourceway.github.io/production/zh_CN/getting-started/new-project-checklist.html

Expected rendering

• Checkbox items displayed with actual checkbox styling (☐ or <input type="checkbox">)
• Compact list spacing consistent with other list pages

Actual rendering

• [ ] displayed as literal text
• Each list item has extra vertical spacing due to <p> wrapping

Suggested fix

1. Enable the tasklist extension in myst_parser configuration — MyST supports myst_enable_extensions = ["tasklist"] which renders - [ ] as checkboxes
2. Alternatively, use sphinx.ext.todo or a custom directive for checklist items
3. Address the <p> wrapping by overriding the simple list CSS to reduce spacing