agent-setup.guide.md

title	Agent Setup Guide
audience	instructors
description	How an agent should adapt this minimal PathMX scaffold for a specific CS1 course

Agent Setup Guide

Use this guide when adapting the scaffold for a real course.

Agent Workflow

1. Read README.md, AGENTS.md, course.outcomes.md, and course.style-guide.md.
2. Ask the instructor for missing course facts:
   • course name or code
   • programming language
   • student population
   • any nonstandard constraints
3. Update the root scaffold first.
4. Generate or revise student-facing material inside paths/.
5. Keep paths/index.path.md up to date as the graph root.

Minimum Changes For A New Course

• update course.outcomes.md
• update course.style-guide.md
• revise paths/index.path.md
• adapt paths/labs/lab-01.spec.md
• adapt paths/projects/project-1.spec.md
• adapt paths/projects/project-1.rubric.md

Boundary Rules

• Student-facing files belong in paths/.
• Instructor and agent setup files stay at the repo root.
• Persona files go in students/ (outside paths/, never student-facing).
• Do not commit PII.

Example Prompts

Start with a broad setup prompt, then use focused prompts for specific tasks:

Read the root scaffold and help me customize this PathMX CS1 starter for my course. Keep all student-facing material in /paths and use paths/index.path.md as the graph root.

Generate a themed variant of lab-01.spec.md for students interested in music. Keep the same programming goals and difficulty. Use the template in templates/template.lab.md.

Create a persona file for a student who is a biology major with no prior coding experience. Put it in students/ and use an anonymized ID.

Write a script that exports all .rubric.md files to PDF using pandoc. Follow the pattern in scripts/export-by-type.py.

For advanced publishing, delivery, or tool-specific workflows, see pathmx.dev.