Learning Guide Skill
Accelerate developer ramp-up through personalized learning paths and actionable next steps.
When to Use
- •Developer asks "what should I work on?"
- •Need suggestions for first contribution
- •User says "guide", "learning path", "what's next", "where do I start"
- •Onboarding checkpoint or milestone completion
Guidance Types
First Tasks: Specific, achievable tasks (< 1 day) to build confidence Learning Path: Phased roadmap (days to weeks) for skill building Milestones: Progress tracking with checkpoints
Guidance Framework
Profile Developer
Beginner: New to stack/domain - needs hand-holding, docs first Intermediate: Knows stack - can navigate, needs domain context Advanced: Experienced - skip basics, suggest complex tasks
Assess Codebase
Simple (< 1000 LOC): Contribute day 1 Moderate (1000-10000 LOC): 2-3 days exploration Complex (> 10000 LOC): 1-2 weeks orientation
Match Tasks
Beginners: Documentation, tests, logging Intermediate: Bug fixes, small features, refactoring Advanced: Architecture, performance, mentoring
Task Discovery
Find Good First Issues
- •Issue tracker: "good-first-issue" labels
- •TODO comments:
grep -r "TODO" - •Test coverage: Low coverage areas
- •Documentation: Outdated or missing
- •Code quality: Refactoring opportunities
Validate Suitability
Good tasks have:
- •✓ Clear scope (< 1 day)
- •✓ Success criteria
- •✓ Limited dependencies
- •✓ Tests
Avoid:
- •✗ Vague requirements
- •✗ Cross-cutting changes
- •✗ Performance-critical
- •✗ No tests
Output Templates
See templates.md for detailed first task and learning path templates.
Quick reference:
First Tasks: Profile → Quick wins → How to start → Success criteria → Resources
Learning Path: Phases (Foundation → Exploration → Contribution → Ownership) → Progress tracking
Milestone: Achievement → Learned → Next level → Progress
Common Scenarios
Brand New: Orient → Fix typo → Add test → good-first-issue
Stuck After Setup: Trivial change → Trace flow → Read tests → Improve area
Ready for Work: Pick issue → Reproduce → Fix/test → Submit PR
Experienced/New Domain: Skip setup → Domain concepts → Business flows → Medium issue
Integration
With wicked-mem
# Track progress
if has_plugin("wicked-mem"):
progress = recall("onboarding_progress")
if progress: "Last: {milestone}. Next: {next}?"
# Store milestones
store({"type": "milestone", "task": name, "completed": now()})
With wicked-search
/wicked-search:code "TODO|FIXME" # Find tasks /wicked-search:docs "getting started" # Find resources
Quality Checklist
- • Tasks specific (file paths, commands)
- • Time estimates realistic
- • Success criteria measurable
- • Resources linked
- • Progressive difficulty
- • Celebrates progress
- • Provides escape hatches
Reference
- •Templates - Detailed output templates
- •Onboarding Checklist - Comprehensive day-by-day guide