catalog-validation

name	catalog-validation
description	Validate Sogrim catalog JSON files for correctness — schema validation and cross-validation against the source Technion PDF. Use when asked to validate or check a catalog JSON.

Technion Catalog Validation

Validate Sogrim catalog JSON files for correctness — both structural (schema) and content (against the source PDF).

Python Scripts

IMPORTANT: This skill uses pre-built Python scripts in packages/catalog-validation/. Do NOT recreate these scripts from scratch — use and improve them instead.

Setup (one-time)

cd packages/catalog-validation
pip install -r requirements.txt

Available scripts

Script	Purpose
validate_schema.py	Validates JSON structure: required fields, 8-digit course IDs, bank references, overflow rules, replacements
validate_pdf.py	Cross-validates JSON against the source Technion PDF: courses, credits, banks, chains, ליבה rule
validate_all.py	Runs both validations in sequence — schema first, then PDF cross-check
pdf_utils.py	Shared utility: PDF download/text extraction, course ID zero-padding

Workflow

1. Install dependencies: pip install -r packages/catalog-validation/requirements.txt
2. Run full validation:

   cd packages/catalog-validation
   python validate_all.py ../docs/<CatalogFile>.json <pdf_url> --verbose
   

3. Review findings: Fix all ERRORs. Review WARNINGs manually.
4. Re-run until 0 errors.

Schema-only validation (no PDF needed)

python validate_schema.py ../docs/<CatalogFile>.json

PDF cross-validation only

python validate_pdf.py ../docs/<CatalogFile>.json <pdf_url> --verbose

Validation Checks

Schema Validation (validate_schema.py)

#	Check	What it verifies
1	Required fields	_id, name, faculty, total_credit, description, course_banks, credit_overflows, course_to_bank, catalog_replacements, common_replacements
2	Faculty	Must be one of: ComputerScience, DataAndDecisionScience, Medicine, Unknown
3	Total credit	Must be a positive number
4	Course banks	Each bank has name and rule
5	Course IDs	All IDs in course_to_bank are 8-digit zero-padded
6	Bank references	Every course maps to a bank defined in course_banks
7	Bank coverage	All non-special banks have at least one course
8	Credit overflows	All from/to reference valid bank names
9	Replacements	All IDs in catalog_replacements and common_replacements are 8-digit, values are lists
10	Replacement convention	Replacement values must NOT appear in course_to_bank — only the key (CS faculty course) goes in course_to_bank

PDF Cross-Validation (validate_pdf.py)

The script automatically detects the track type from the JSON catalog name (e.g., CyberSecurity, SoftwareEngineer, ComputerEngineering, DataScience) and extracts the correct section from the PDF. No manual configuration is needed.

#	Check	What it verifies
1	Track section extraction	Auto-detects track type and extracts the correct PDF section
2	Total credits	JSON total_credit matches PDF total
3	Credit breakdown	חובה + related bank credits match PDF's combined count (track-aware)
4	חובה courses	All courses from PDF semester tables exist in JSON (replacement-aware)
5	ליבה courses	All PDF ליבה courses match JSON ליבה bank (handles fragmented IDs and replacement-aware)
6	Course coverage	חובה/ליבה courses from JSON appear somewhere in PDF
7	Bank structure	All expected banks present in JSON (per-track expectations)
8	Chain structure	שרשרת מדעית uses Chains rule with valid chain options
9	Credit overflows	Overflow rules are defined
10	ליבה rule	ליבה bank requires correct number of courses (extracted from PDF)

Severity Levels

• ERROR — Must fix. Missing courses, wrong credits, invalid IDs.
• WARNING — Review manually. Course in JSON but not found in specific PDF pages (may be in general track).
• OK — Check passed.
• INFO — Verbose details (only with --verbose).

JSON Output

Use --json-output findings.json to save machine-readable results:

python validate_all.py ../docs/CatalogFile.json <pdf_url> --json-output findings.json

Each finding is:

{
  "severity": "ERROR|WARNING|OK|INFO",
  "category": "schema|total_credit|חובה_courses|...",
  "message": "Human-readable description",
  "details": "Additional context (optional)"
}

Catalog Replacement Convention

Replacements are one-directional: the KEY is the preferred CS faculty course, the VALUE is the alternative.

• KEY (e.g., 02360330) → appears in course_to_bank and as the replacement key
• VALUE (e.g., 00460197) → appears ONLY in catalog_replacements, never in course_to_bank
• Replacements are NOT bidirectional — do not add a reverse entry

The schema validator enforces this: it warns if any replacement value is also found in course_to_bank.

Supported Tracks

The PDF cross-validation supports multiple tracks via TRACK_CONFIGS in validate_pdf.py:

Track	Catalog name pattern	Credit total	חובה includes
Cyber Security	CyberSecurity	155	חובה + שרשרת מדעית + מתמטי נוסף
Software Engineering	SoftwareEngineer	159.5	חובה + שרשרת מדעית
Computer Engineering	ComputerEngineering	160	חובה + שרשרת מדעית
General 4-year	General (no 3yr)	155	חובה + שרשרת מדעית
General 3-year	3Year	161	חובה + שרשרת מדעית
Data Science	DataScience	varies	חובה + שרשרת מדעית

Adding a New Track

1. Add an entry to TRACK_CONFIGS in validate_pdf.py with: keywords, header_pattern, total_credits, expected_banks, chova_includes
2. Add the track's section header to ALL_SECTION_HEADERS for boundary detection
3. Run validation — the script will auto-detect the track from the catalog name

Known PDF Parsing Quirks

• Fragmented course IDs: Hebrew RTL rendering can split IDs across lines (e.g., 02360341 appears as 341\n0\n236\n0). The ליבה extraction handles this automatically.
• חובה credit mapping: Some tracks include sub-banks (שרשרת מדעית, מתמטי נוסף) within the PDF's "חובה" total. The chova_includes config handles this per-track.

Improving the Scripts

If the PDF format changes or a check needs updating, modify the scripts in packages/catalog-validation/ rather than writing one-off code. This keeps the tooling reusable.

Examples

cd packages/catalog-validation

# Validate the Cyber Security 2024-2025 catalog
python validate_all.py \
  ../docs/ComputerScienceCyberSecurity2024-2025.json \
  "https://undergraduate.cs.technion.ac.il/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/23-%D7%94%D7%A4%D7%A7%D7%95%D7%9C%D7%98%D7%94-%D7%9C%D7%9E%D7%93%D7%A2%D7%99-%D7%94%D7%9E%D7%97%D7%A9%D7%91-%D7%AA%D7%A9%D7%A4%D7%B4%D7%94-.pdf" \
  --verbose

# Validate the SE 2024-2025 catalog (same PDF, different JSON)
python validate_all.py \
  ../docs/ComputerScienceSoftwareEngineerCourse2024-2025.json \
  "https://undergraduate.cs.technion.ac.il/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/23-%D7%94%D7%A4%D7%A7%D7%95%D7%9C%D7%98%D7%94-%D7%9C%D7%9E%D7%93%D7%A2%D7%99-%D7%94%D7%9E%D7%97%D7%A9%D7%91-%D7%AA%D7%A9%D7%A4%D7%B4%D7%94-.pdf" \
  --verbose