# AGENTS.md — Build guide for Teachable

## Project scope
Sell one course with a public outline, hosted checkout, authenticated lessons and progress tracking, with reviewable enrollment/refund states.

Catalogue verdict: kinda. A basic course site with Stripe can be built, but student apps, tax/payments, course compliance, certificates, upsells, affiliates, and support make full parity hard.
Use the implementation prompt below to define the deliverable. Complete each phase's acceptance checks before extending the scope.

## Working agreement
- Inspect the repository and its existing instructions before choosing paths, dependencies or commands. Keep one coherent stack and explain changes to the proposed architecture.
- Plan a vertical slice that accepts a real input and produces the useful output described below. Persist only the state the prompt calls for; respect memory-only and upstream-managed workflows. Use fixtures only when they are clearly labelled.
- After scaffolding, document the actual install, development, check and build commands in README and keep them synchronized with the package or project manifest. Do not report commands as successful unless they ran.
- Work in small steps. At handoff, list implemented flows, checks actually performed, remaining blockers, and any credentials or provider setup the owner must supply.
- Do not publish, spend money, contact customers, delete source data or run irreversible migrations without the project owner's authorization.

## Prerequisites
- Runtime and tools: Node, Express, better-sqlite3, Markdown course files and hosted Stripe Checkout.
- Before starting: One course, a Stripe sandbox account, a verified email provider for login links and private media storage.

## Stack and architecture
- Node, Express, better-sqlite3, Markdown course files and hosted Stripe Checkout
- Data design: Store Student, CourseVersion, Enrollment, PaymentEvent, Lesson and Progress; verified webhook events are deduplicated and a login link is single-use/short-lived with server-side session checks.
- Setup: One course, a Stripe sandbox account, a verified email provider for login links and private media storage

## Security and data integrity
- Check membership on reads, mutations, attachments and exports. Keep activity history separate from editable current state; do not make private records public through search.
- Use the simple Node/SQLite single-course implementation with protected media endpoints. Do not accept a checkout redirect or raw email address as enrollment proof; taxes and course-marketplace features are deferred.
- Keep secrets outside client bundles and exported projects; document what leaves the device and make retention/deletion controls visible.

## Agent implementation rules
- Project rule — domain: Store Student, CourseVersion, Enrollment, PaymentEvent, Lesson and Progress; verified webhook events are deduplicated and a login link is single-use/short-lived with server-side session checks.
- Project rule — scope and recovery: Use the simple Node/SQLite single-course implementation with protected media endpoints. Do not accept a checkout redirect or raw email address as enrollment proof; taxes and course-marketplace features are deferred.
- Project rule — acceptance: Replay a checkout event, open an expired login link and refund enrollment; create one access grant, reject expired authentication and revoke protected lesson/media access consistently.
- Project rule — delivery: document real setup commands and permissions; do not claim a build, accuracy level, performance result or security certification that has not been demonstrated.

## Optional agent skills and references
- Recommended skill: [stripe-best-practices](https://github.com/stripe/ai/blob/main/skills/stripe-best-practices/SKILL.md) — design the optional hosted checkout, verified webhook and entitlement/refund state transitions using the current Stripe integration guidance. Follow the maintainer's installation instructions and match its requirements to the chosen runtime.
- Recommended skill: [sharp-edges](https://github.com/trailofbits/skills/blob/main/plugins/sharp-edges/skills/sharp-edges/SKILL.md) — review configuration and API defaults against the app-specific invariants and recovery boundaries above; this is not a security certification. Follow the maintainer's installation instructions and match its requirements to the chosen runtime.
- Recommended skill: [web-design-guidelines](https://github.com/vercel-labs/agent-skills/blob/main/skills/web-design-guidelines/SKILL.md) — review keyboard access, focus, validation, error recovery and the readable work/review interface or HTML report. Follow the maintainer's installation instructions and match its requirements to the chosen runtime.

Read the linked SKILL.md and its dependencies before adding a skill. Select only the skills matching this project's runtime and task; their documentation does not supply API access, credentials or approval to perform external actions. Pin the reviewed revision where the tool supports it. Follow the chosen agent's documented project-level installation mechanism.

## Distribution ideas
These are optional planning notes. Obtain the owner's approval before publishing or contacting anyone.
- Demonstrate this working slice using synthetic or explicitly authorized non-sensitive examples: Sell one course with a public outline, hosted checkout, authenticated lessons and progress tracking, with reviewable enrollment/refund states.
- Share a synthetic example export and the acceptance walkthrough; keep real customer, health, financial and source data private: Replay a checkout event, open an expired login link and refund enrollment; create one access grant, reject expired authentication and revoke protected lesson/media access consistently.
- State the limits before asking someone to replace their existing tool: Use the simple Node/SQLite single-course implementation with protected media endpoints. Do not accept a checkout redirect or raw email address as enrollment proof; taxes and course-marketplace features are deferred.

## Engineering roadmap
1. Phase 1 — Pin the working slice and create its example input: Sell one course with a public outline, hosted checkout, authenticated lessons and progress tracking, with reviewable enrollment/refund states. Confirm setup: One course, a Stripe sandbox account, a verified email provider for login links and private media storage.
2. Phase 2 — Implement persistence and write-time invariants before decorating the UI: Store Student, CourseVersion, Enrollment, PaymentEvent, Lesson and Progress; verified webhook events are deduplicated and a login link is single-use/short-lived with server-side session checks.
3. Phase 3 — Connect the working view to real saved state. Check membership on reads, mutations, attachments and exports. Keep activity history separate from editable current state; do not make private records public through search.
4. Phase 4 — Expose the app-specific limits and recovery path in context: Use the simple Node/SQLite single-course implementation with protected media endpoints. Do not accept a checkout redirect or raw email address as enrollment proof; taxes and course-marketplace features are deferred.
5. Phase 5 — Walk through this concrete acceptance case and preserve its exported evidence: Replay a checkout event, open an expired login link and refund enrollment; create one access grant, reject expired authentication and revoke protected lesson/media access consistently. Finish the README and backup/restore instructions; report unfinished capabilities explicitly.

## Paid-product capabilities outside this build
- student apps
- payments/tax workflows
- certificates
- upsells
- affiliates
- support
- course compliance features

## Implementation prompt
Build the following focused alternative to Teachable. This is a deliberately limited personal or small-team substitute, not parity with the paid service.

WORKING SLICE
Sell one course with a public outline, hosted checkout, authenticated lessons and progress tracking, with reviewable enrollment/refund states.

SETUP AND ARCHITECTURE
Use Node, Express, better-sqlite3, Markdown course files and hosted Stripe Checkout. Prerequisites: One course, a Stripe sandbox account, a verified email provider for login links and private media storage. Before integrating anything, record actual versions and permissions, plus model files or provider limits only where used, in the README; make unavailable dependencies visible rather than simulating success.

DOMAIN MODEL AND INVARIANTS
Store Student, CourseVersion, Enrollment, PaymentEvent, Lesson and Progress; verified webhook events are deduplicated and a login link is single-use/short-lived with server-side session checks.

IMPLEMENTATION CONTRACT
Check membership on reads, mutations, attachments and exports. Keep activity history separate from editable current state; do not make private records public through search. Provide an input/setup view, the main work view, and a review/export view appropriate to this workflow. Preserve the last saved state if a job or save fails. Include empty, loading, permission-denied, partial and retryable-error states. Log identifiers and error categories without secret values or unnecessary private content.

APP-SPECIFIC BOUNDARY AND RECOVERY
Use the simple Node/SQLite single-course implementation with protected media endpoints. Do not accept a checkout redirect or raw email address as enrollment proof; taxes and course-marketplace features are deferred.

ACCEPTANCE SCENARIO
Replay a checkout event, open an expired login link and refund enrollment; create one access grant, reject expired authentication and revoke protected lesson/media access consistently. Also reopen the app after an interrupted operation, confirm the saved record/export remains inspectable, and document the recovery action. These are implementation acceptance requirements, not a claim that this guide has been tested.

DELIVERY
Deliver a runnable repository with migrations or project-format versioning, a non-sensitive example, environment/permission setup, the exact manual acceptance steps, and a backup/export-and-restore walkthrough. Implement the working slice before optional integrations; list any deferred paid-product capabilities honestly. Do not add capabilities outside the working slice just to resemble the original product.

PROJECT RULES FOR AGENTS.md
Keep the domain invariants above executable at the write boundary. Propose scope changes before adding providers or permissions. Never fabricate source evidence, publish results, identity matches or successful delivery. Preserve user originals and require an explicit confirmation for destructive changes or external publication.

## Completion evidence
Demonstrate the prompt's acceptance scenarios against the scoped workflow. Include setup from a clean checkout and failure recovery. Check persistence across restart and export/restore only for the state the prompt says to store; for memory-only tools, confirm that temporary content is discarded as specified. Record actual results and remaining limitations. A detailed plan alone does not establish a working replacement.