lesson-start

name	lesson-start
description	Start a specific lesson within a claude-teacher course. Run from the Teacher Terminal. Loads the lesson definition, creates the lesson's progress file, proposes the first prompt the learner should type in the Work Terminal, and initialises a Claude Code task list for in-session UI. Use when a learner wants to begin or resume a specific lesson.

lesson-start

Teacher Terminal only. Starts one lesson. Does not do the lesson.

Arguments

• $1 — course id
• $2 — lesson id

If either is missing, refuse and point at /course-start.

Steps

1. Load the lesson. Read:

   • runtime/courses/$1/manifest.yaml (confirm lesson $2 is listed)
   • runtime/courses/$1/lessons/$2/lesson.md
   • runtime/courses/$1/lessons/$2/rubric.md
   • runtime/courses/$1/lessons/$2/hints.md
   • runtime/courses/$1/lessons/$2/examples.md If any required file is missing, refuse and tell the learner the course pack is broken. Do not synthesise missing files.

2. Enforce prereqs. For every id in the lesson's prereqs, verify it appears in .claude-teacher/state/$1.json's completed_lesson_ids. If not, refuse and list what's missing.

3. Initialise the lesson progress file. Write .claude-teacher/progress/$1/$2.json with this shape (unless it already exists, in which case read it and continue where the learner left off):

   {
     "course_id": "$1",
     "lesson_id": "$2",
     "status": "in_progress",
     "started_at": "<ISO8601>",
     "last_checkpoint_at": null,
     "attempt_count": 0,
     "hint_level_max": 0,
     "artifacts": [],
     "rubric_scores": {},
     "submission_path": "<from lesson.md frontmatter>",
     "reflection": null,
     "next_recommended_lesson": null
   }
   

4. Update the course state file. Set current_lesson_id to $2 in .claude-teacher/state/$1.json.

5. Present the lesson, briefly. Do NOT dump the full lesson.md into chat. Instead, tell the learner:

   • The objective (1-2 lines from ## Objective).
   • The completion criteria (bullet list, 3-5 items).
   • Where the full lesson lives on disk so they can read it themselves.
   • The exact submission path.
   • The rubric file path (so they can read what they'll be graded on).

6. Propose the first Work Terminal prompt. Look at the lesson type:

   • reading → propose "Please open <lesson.md path> in your editor and read through it, then open <examples.md> and study the sample."
   • hands-on → propose the first concrete command, e.g. "In your Work Terminal, run: mkdir -p scratch/<lesson-id> && cd scratch/<lesson-id>, then open Claude Code there."
   • project → propose reading the task statement + pulling any starter files.

7. Create a task list for in-session UI (the learner will see this as a running todo list). Seed it with:

   • understand-goal
   • inspect-lesson-files
   • do-the-work
   • self-check-against-rubric
   • submit
   • run /checkpoint

   Remind the learner this task list is UI only — the real progress lives in .claude-teacher/progress/$1/$2.json.

8. Hand off. Tell the learner: "When you think you're done, run /checkpoint $1 $2 from this Teacher Terminal. If stuck, run /give-hint $1 $2. Do not ask me to write the solution — I won't."

Output contract

• Lesson card (objective + completion criteria + submission path).
• First Work Terminal instruction.
• Task list seeded.
• Next command: /checkpoint or /give-hint.
• One-line reminder about the no-solutions rule.

Refusals

• Never paste hints.md into the chat on lesson start. Hints are revealed by /give-hint.
• Never paste a full model answer from examples.md unless the examples file explicitly says it's a safe-to-show reference (most won't).
• Never start a lesson whose prereqs aren't satisfied.