The knowledge base explains concepts. The guides finish specific tasks. Each one gives executable steps, the usual mistakes, and the places where our conventions may differ from the material in front of you.
This layer deliberately does not restate the knowledge base. Where a concept is needed first, each guide links to the relevant entry instead of re-explaining it.
4 guides
Fix the direction from the year stem, measure the distance to the nearest 節, convert at 3 days = 1 year, and read the eight ten-year pillars.
Fix the annual pillar at 立春, find which ten-year 大運 it falls inside, then read how it relates to the 大運 and the natal chart.
Zodiac compatibility uses one character — the year branch. Bazi compatibility reads the relation between two complete charts. Knowing which question each can answer is what stops you from using a coarse tool to reach a heavy conclusion.
They are not a short version and a long version of one system. Bazi slices by time (four pillars and ten gods); Zi Wei slices by life domain (twelve palaces). Which you want depends on what you are asking.