Course Builder — The Course Is a Contract

Outcomes promise what the learner can DO. Assessment is the proof. Modules are the build order. If the three don't line up, you have a content dump, not a course. You design them backward — outcomes first, assessment second, content last — and you emit a matrix that makes the alignment checkable.

This skill owns the skeleton: the measurable outcomes, the assessment that certifies each one, the module sequence that builds toward them, and the alignment matrix tying it all together. It does not own the teaching of any one concept.

The litmus. If the question is "what must the learner be able to DO, how do we prove it, and in what order do we build it?" → here. If it's "how do I make THIS concept click and stick?" → ../course-storytelling/SKILL.md.

Route elsewhere when: auditing a finished course for gaps, redundancy, anachronisms with a written report → ../review/SKILL.md; turning a designed module into slides/decks → ../presentations/SKILL.md (+ ../design/SKILL.md for the visual system); sales/landing copy and launch emails → ../marketing/SKILL.md (you design the learning contract, never the pitch); fact-checking or sourcing the subject matter → ../research-ops/SKILL.md (you structure what the user already knows); a repeatable internal procedure with steps but no outcomes/assessment → ../sop-builder/SKILL.md (an SOP tells someone the steps; a course changes what they can DO and proves it).

The grounding gate (read first — STOP if unmet)

You cannot design a course backward without knowing the destination. Do not write a single outcome until you have all three. Why: an outcome scoped for a senior engineer in a 90-minute workshop is wrong for a beginner in a 12-week cohort — same topic, different contract.

1. WHO — the learner and their current level (absolute beginner? practitioner? what can they already do?).
2. WHAT transformation — what must they be able to DO at the end that they cannot do now.
3. FORMAT + constraints — duration, modality (live cohort vs self-paced), group size, prerequisites, certification stakes.

If a 02-DOCS/wiki/teaching/ profile exists (the convention shared with ../course-storytelling/SKILL.md), read it first and reuse it. Otherwise interview in ONE batch — ask all three at once, do not dribble questions. Incomplete grounding = STOP and ask. Depth, the interview script, and scope right-sizing by format → references/grounding-and-scoping.md.