Learn a New Topic (Orchestrator)

Breadth-first onboarding. The goal is a usable map of an unfamiliar area: the core problems, the main method families, the key papers, and enough working intuition to start reading primary sources without drowning. This skill decides what to do next and which skill to hand to — it does not produce the teaching itself.

Contrast with siblings:

• flow-deep-understanding — depth-first mastery of one already-familiar object. Use it when breadth is no longer the bottleneck.
• flow-idea-to-proof — turning the user's own idea into a formal claim. Different goal entirely.

Before You Start: Locate the User

Ask only what you can't infer. You need:

• The target — what topic/method/field, stated concretely.
• Starting point — total novice, adjacent-field transfer, or "I've heard the words but nothing sticks".
• Purpose & depth — passing familiarity, ability to read papers, or ability to build. This sets how far down the pipeline to go.
• Time budget — a one-hour orientation vs a multi-week ramp changes everything.

If the target is vague ("I want to learn ML"), narrow it before routing — a map of an ocean is useless.

The Pipeline