Creating Courses

Lessons

Lessons are video-based content items with a transcript, key points, and optional resources. Each lesson lives in its own directory with a lesson.yml file.

lesson.yml Example

A complete lesson file with all supported fields:

type: lesson
id: "what-is-kubernetes"
title: "What is Kubernetes?"
description: "Learn the fundamentals of Kubernetes and container orchestration."
estimatedTime: 15              # Video watch time in minutes (10-15 max)
estimatedReadTime: 10          # Transcript read time in minutes (10 MAX)

# Video content
youtubeID: "fqMOX6JJhGo"

# Supporting content
transcript: |
  # What is Kubernetes?

  Kubernetes is an open-source container orchestration platform that
  automates deploying, scaling, and managing containerized applications.

  ## Key Benefits

  - Portability: Run anywhere — dev, test, production
  - Scalability: Easy horizontal scaling
  - Self-healing: Automatic restarts and replacements

summary: "Kubernetes orchestrates containerized applications at scale."

keyPoints:
  - "Kubernetes automates deployment and scaling of containers"
  - "Pods are the smallest deployable units in Kubernetes"
  - "Services provide stable network access to pods"

resources:
  - title: "Official Kubernetes Documentation"
    url: "https://kubernetes.io/docs/"
    type: "documentation"
  - title: "Kubernetes Interactive Tutorial"
    url: "https://kubernetes.io/docs/tutorials/"
    type: "tutorial"

Field	Required	Description
`type`	Yes	Must be "lesson" (flat structure, not nested).
`id`	Yes	Unique identifier for this lesson (slug-style).
`title`	Yes	Display title shown to learners.
`estimatedTime`	Yes	Video watch time in minutes. Max 15.
`estimatedReadTime`	Yes	Transcript read time in minutes. Max 10.
`youtubeID`	Yes	YouTube video ID (not full URL).
`transcript`	Yes	Full lesson content in Markdown.
`summary`	No	Brief one-sentence summary.
`keyPoints`	No	Bullet list of key takeaways.
`resources`	No	Array of supplementary links.

Duration Limit

10-minute maximum read time

Lesson transcripts must be a maximum of 10 minutes read time (estimatedReadTime: 10 max). Content is converted to video, and videos longer than 10 minutes lose student engagement.

If a topic needs more depth, break it into multiple shorter lessons at natural conceptual break points. Each lesson should cover a focused subtopic that stands on its own.

Avoid

One 25-minute lesson on "Complete Kubernetes Setup"

Correct

Three 8-minute lessons: "Clusters", "Pods", "Services"

Flat Structure Requirement

All fields must be at the top level of the YAML file. The CLI validates against a flat structure — do not nest fields under a lesson: key.

Incorrect — nested structure

type: lesson
title: "Pods"

lesson:
  id: "pods"
  estimatedTime: 10
  transcript: |
    ...

Correct — flat structure

type: lesson
id: "pods"
title: "Pods"
estimatedTime: 10
transcript: |
  ...

Downloadable Resources

To attach a downloadable file to a lesson, place a file named lesson.zip in the same directory as the lesson.yml. No configuration needed — the CLI detects it automatically during validation and uploads it during push.

sections/01-intro/01-getting-started/
├── lesson.yml
└── lesson.zip   ← just add this file

Must be a valid ZIP archive
Maximum size: 50 MB
Only one zip per lesson — bundle everything into a single archive
Students see a download card in the lesson sidebar