vac-optimizer/.agents/skills/scaffold-exercises/SKILL.md

name, description

name	description
scaffold-exercises	Scaffold numbered course exercises with problem, solution, and explainer folders in the AI Hero course format. Use when that format is requested or already established in the course.

Scaffold Exercises

Inspect the selected course's package manager, exercise layout, and lint script first. The conventions below describe the AI Hero format; follow an explicitly requested different format instead. Use the course's installed lint command; pnpm ai-hero-cli internal lint applies only when that tool and package manager are configured. If tooling is absent, check the files directly and report that lint was unavailable; do not install or initialize a course stack implicitly. Commit only when requested, staging just the task-owned exercise changes.

Directory naming

• Sections: XX-section-name/ inside exercises/ (e.g., 01-retrieval-skill-building)
• Exercises: XX.YY-exercise-name/ inside a section (e.g., 01.03-retrieval-with-bm25)
• Section number = XX, exercise number = XX.YY
• Names are dash-case (lowercase, hyphens)

Exercise variants

Each exercise needs at least one of these subfolders:

• problem/ - student workspace with TODOs
• solution/ - reference implementation
• explainer/ - conceptual material, no TODOs

When stubbing, default to explainer/ unless the plan specifies otherwise.

Required files

Each subfolder (problem/, solution/, explainer/) needs a readme.md that:

• Is not empty (must have real content, even a single title line works)
• Has no broken links

When stubbing, create a minimal readme with a title and a description:

# Exercise Title

Description here

If the subfolder has code, it also needs a main.ts (>1 line). But for stubs, a readme-only exercise is fine.

Workflow

1. Parse the plan - extract section names, exercise names, and variant types
2. Create directories - mkdir -p for each path
3. Create stub readmes - one readme.md per variant folder with a title
4. Run lint - use the selected course's configured command
5. Fix any errors - iterate until lint passes

Lint rules summary

For courses using AI Hero, verify these conventions against the installed linter:

• Each exercise has subfolders (problem/, solution/, explainer/)
• At least one of problem/, explainer/, or explainer.1/ exists
• readme.md exists and is non-empty in the primary subfolder
• No .gitkeep files
• No speaker-notes.md files
• No broken links in readmes
• No pnpm run exercise commands in readmes
• main.ts required per subfolder unless it's readme-only

Moving/renaming exercises

When renumbering or moving exercises:

1. Use git mv (not mv) to rename directories - preserves git history
2. Update the numeric prefix to maintain order
3. Re-run lint after moves

Example:

git mv exercises/01-retrieval/01.03-embeddings exercises/01-retrieval/01.04-embeddings

Example: stubbing from a plan

Given a plan like:

Section 05: Memory Skill Building
- 05.01 Introduction to Memory
- 05.02 Short-term Memory (explainer + problem + solution)
- 05.03 Long-term Memory

Create:

mkdir -p exercises/05-memory-skill-building/05.01-introduction-to-memory/explainer
mkdir -p exercises/05-memory-skill-building/05.02-short-term-memory/{explainer,problem,solution}
mkdir -p exercises/05-memory-skill-building/05.03-long-term-memory/explainer

Then create readme stubs:

exercises/05-memory-skill-building/05.01-introduction-to-memory/explainer/readme.md -> "# Introduction to Memory"
exercises/05-memory-skill-building/05.02-short-term-memory/explainer/readme.md -> "# Short-term Memory"
exercises/05-memory-skill-building/05.02-short-term-memory/problem/readme.md -> "# Short-term Memory"
exercises/05-memory-skill-building/05.02-short-term-memory/solution/readme.md -> "# Short-term Memory"
exercises/05-memory-skill-building/05.03-long-term-memory/explainer/readme.md -> "# Long-term Memory"