new-course

name	new-course
description	Adds a new course to the spec-build-lab. Use this skill ANY time the user wants to register, scaffold, set up, add, create, init, or start tracking a NAMED COURSE in this repo — including phrasings like "scaffold a new course called X", "set up a course folder for X", "make a new course called X", "add the X course", "init the X course", "let's start tracking the X course", "I want to add a new course", "/new-course X", or any user message naming a course they want to begin. This skill copies templates/course/ to courses/<name>/ and nothing else; it does NOT read materials, write spec.md, or run a build. If the user asks anything about an EXISTING course, do NOT use this skill. Always run from the repo root.
argument-hint	<course-name>
allowed-tools	["Bash","Read"]

new-course

Scaffold courses/<name>/ from templates/course/. This skill ONLY copies the template; it does not read materials and does not generate spec.md.

Steps

1. Verify cwd is the repo root. Confirm both paths exist relative to cwd:
   • templates/course/
   • .claude/skills/new-course/ If either is missing, refuse with: "Run /new-course from the repo root — the folder containing templates/ and .claude/." Stop.
2. Require the course name. If $ARGUMENTS is empty (or the user did not provide a name in their message), ask: "What should the course be called? It becomes the folder name under courses/." Stop until they answer.
3. Refuse on collision. If courses/$ARGUMENTS/ exists, refuse with: "courses/$ARGUMENTS/ already exists. Pick a different name or remove the existing folder first." Stop.
4. Copy the template:

   cp -R templates/course/ "courses/$ARGUMENTS/"
   

5. Report and hand off. Tell the user, in this order:
   1. "Scaffolded courses/$ARGUMENTS/."
   2. "Get notebooks + transcripts from https://course-context-lab.vercel.app — that's where this lab's course materials are produced. Download them yourself; I won't WebFetch from there."
   3. "Tip: once they're downloaded, drag the files from Finder into this terminal window. The terminal pastes their absolute paths, and I can cp them into courses/$ARGUMENTS/materials/notebooks/ and courses/$ARGUMENTS/materials/transcripts/ — saves tokens versus having me traverse your filesystem."
   4. "Then cd courses/$ARGUMENTS and run /generate-spec when the materials are in place — say 'go ahead' when you're ready."
   5. "Optional extra: if you also want the course's real code, find the course at https://github.com/deeplearningai-eng/courses and run /ingest-course-repo <course-folder-URL> before /generate-spec — it adds the .ipynb files and helper.py under courses/$ARGUMENTS/materials/notebooks/from-repo/. This is an addition to step 2, not a replacement: the notebooks .md and the transcripts still come from the site."

Don't

• Don't read or write materials/, spec.md, builds/, or evals/.
• Don't cd for the user — they choose when to move into the course folder.
• Don't run from inside an existing course folder. The session is anchored at the repo root.
• Don't WebFetch from course-context-lab.vercel.app — point the user at it; let them download manually. The agent doesn't pull course content from the web.