qf-course-researcher

name	qf-course-researcher
description	Researches trending certification courses on the web, compares them with existing QuizFactor courses using the AI routes collection, and generates a Notion report for missing or inactive courses. Use for daily discovery of high-demand certifications to add to QuizFactor.
metadata	{"clawdbot":{"emoji":"🔎"},"openclaw":{"emoji":"🔎"}}

qf-course-researcher

Discover trending certification courses (e.g. AWS, Azure, security, networking, DevOps) on a regular basis, compare them to what already exists in QuizFactor, and write the report to a new dated page under QuizFactorA+ (e.g. Course Research – 2026-03-14), not to the QuizFactorA+ page itself. Each run creates its own page and database.

Prerequisites

• QuizFactor API

  • Base URL config as used in other QuizFactor skills:

    QF_BASE_URL=$(cat ~/.config/quizfactor/base_url)
    

  • AI route used:
    • GET /api/ai/courses – for all course categories and courses.

• Notion integration

  • Use the existing notion skill.
  • Configure:
    • ~/.config/notion/api_key – Notion API key.
    • QuizFactorA+ parent page: Resolve the top-level page QuizFactorA+ (e.g. search POST /v1/search with query: "QuizFactorA+" and use the page id, or store it in ~/.config/quizfactor/notion_quizfactor_page_id). All course research output goes under this page, not on it directly.

• Web access

  • The agent needs to be able to search the web (e.g. via a web search tool) for up-to-date certification trends.

• Shared reference

  • For a consolidated table of config paths, env vars, and curl patterns used across growth skills, see workspace/INTEGRATIONS.md.

High-level Workflow

1. Gather trending certification list

   • Use web search to identify at least 20 trending certifications, prioritizing:
     • Cloud (AWS, Azure, GCP).
     • Security (CISSP, CEH, CompTIA Security+).
     • Networking (CCNA, CCNP, etc.).
     • DevOps & automation (AWS/Azure DevOps, Kubernetes, Terraform).
   • Normalize into a list of objects:
     • name – e.g. "AWS Certified Solutions Architect".
     • provider – e.g. "AWS".
     • categoryGuess – e.g. "Cloud Computing".

2. Fetch QuizFactor courses

   • Call:

     curl -X GET "$QF_BASE_URL/api/ai/courses"
     

   • Extract:
     • data.courses[] – uuid, title, slug, categoryUuid, totalQuizzes.
     • data.courseCategories[] – for mapping providers to categories.

3. Match trending certifications to QuizFactor courses

   • For each trending course:
     • Normalize both the trending name and QuizFactor title / slug:
       • Lowercase, strip punctuation, collapse spaces to -.
     • Matching heuristic:
       • Exact or near-exact match on normalized name vs. title or slug.
       • Fuzzy substring/keyword matching for cases like "CISSP" vs. "Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP)".
   • Determine status:
     • Existing & active – course found and appears to have quizzes (totalQuizzes > 0).
     • Existing but underdeveloped – course found but totalQuizzes = 0.
     • Missing – no reasonable match found.

4. Map to QuizFactor categories

   • For missing or underdeveloped certifications:
     • Map to a courseCategories entry using:
       • name or tagName containing or matching categoryGuess.
     • If no good match:
       • Mark Category as "Unmapped" but still report in Notion.

5. Create a new report page under QuizFactorA+

   • Do not write results directly to the top-level QuizFactorA+ page.
   • Resolve the QuizFactorA+ page id (search Notion for "QuizFactorA+" or read from ~/.config/quizfactor/notion_quizfactor_page_id).
   • Create a new child page under QuizFactorA+ with title:
     • Course Research – {Today's Date}
     • Use a clear date format, e.g. Course Research – 2026-03-14 or Course Research – March 14, 2026.
   • Use POST /v1/pages with:
     • parent: {"page_id": "QUIZFACTOR_A_PLUS_PAGE_ID"}
     • properties: set the page title to the string above.
   • Save the new page’s id for the next step.

6. Create the Course Research database and write rows

   • Colored tags in Notion only appear when a property is Select or Multi-select and its options include a color in the schema. If Category or Provider are created as rich_text or as Select without predefined colored options, the table will show plain text with no coloring.
   • Create a data source (database) as a child of the new page from step 5:
     • POST /v1/data_sources with parent: {"page_id": "NEW_PAGE_ID"}.
     • Title the database (e.g. "Course Research" or use the same date).
     • Use Select (with colored options) for Category and Provider so Notion shows colored tags. Do not use rich_text for these, or tags will appear as plain text with no coloring. When defining the database, set options on each select property with a color for each option (Notion colors: default, gray, brown, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink, red). Example: "Category": {"select": {"options": [{"name": "Cloud Computing", "color": "blue"}, {"name": "Cybersecurity", "color": "orange"}, {"name": "DevOps & Automation", "color": "purple"}, {"name": "Networking & Infrastructure", "color": "purple"}, {"name": "Unmapped", "color": "gray"}]}}, and "Provider" (or "Source") as select with options for common vendors (e.g. AWS, Cisco, Docker, HashiCorp, CompTIA) each with a color. Other properties: Name (title), Status (select: Missing/Inactive/Existing), Notes (rich_text).
   • For each trending certification, create a row in this database:
     • POST /v1/pages with parent: {"database_id": "NEW_DATABASE_ID"}.
     • Name – certification name.
     • Status – {"select": {"name": "Missing"}} (or Inactive/Existing).
     • Category – {"select": {"name": "Cloud Computing"}} (or the matching category name from your predefined options).
     • Provider – {"select": {"name": "Docker"}} (or the matching provider; use the predefined option name so the tag gets the color).
     • Notes – rich text commentary.
   • After finishing, confirm in the user-facing message that the report was written to the new page “Course Research – {date}” under QuizFactorA+, not to QuizFactorA+ itself.

7. Scheduling

   • This skill is designed to run daily (or on a schedule). Each run creates a new dated page and database, so no deduplication of rows is required across runs; each run is self-contained on its own page.

Agent Checklist

• Use web search to compile at least 20 trending certification names with basic metadata.
• Call GET /api/ai/courses to load all QuizFactor courses and categories.
• For each trending certification: match to a QuizFactor course, classify as Existing / Inactive / Missing, and map to a category where possible.
• Resolve the QuizFactorA+ page id (search or config).
• Create a new child page under QuizFactorA+ titled Course Research – {Today's Date} (e.g. Course Research – 2026-03-14).
• Create a Course Research data source with Select properties for Category and Provider that include options with color (so Notion shows colored tags), plus Name, Status, Notes.
• For each certification, add a row to that database with status and notes.
• Tell the user the report was written to the new page “Course Research – {date}” under QuizFactorA+, not to the top-level QuizFactorA+ page.