Skills scaffold-exercises

Create exercise directory structures with sections, problems, solutions, and explainers that pass linting. Use when user wants to scaffold exercises, create exercise stubs, or set up a new course section.

install

source · Clone the upstream repo

git clone https://github.com/mattpocock/skills

Claude Code · Install into ~/.claude/skills/

T=$(mktemp -d) && git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/mattpocock/skills "$T" && mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && cp -r "$T/scaffold-exercises" ~/.claude/skills/mattpocock-skills-scaffold-exercises && rm -rf "$T"

manifest: scaffold-exercises/SKILL.md

source content

Scaffold Exercises

Create exercise directory structures that pass

pnpm ai-hero-cli internal lint

, then commit with

git commit

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

Parse the plan - extract section names, exercise names, and variant types
Create directories -
```
mkdir -p
```
for each path
Create stub readmes - one
```
readme.md
```
per variant folder with a title
Run lint -
```
pnpm ai-hero-cli internal lint
```
to validate
Fix any errors - iterate until lint passes

Lint rules summary

The linter (

pnpm ai-hero-cli internal lint

) checks:

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:

Use
```
git mv
```
(not
```
mv
```
) to rename directories - preserves git history
Update the numeric prefix to maintain order
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"