personal-tutor

name: personal-tutor description: > Use when the user wants to learn a technical topic through structured, multi-session tutoring with prerequisite tracking and knowledge graphs. Activates on "I want to learn X", "teach me X", "let's study X", or resuming a previous learning session. Do NOT activate for quick reference lookups or one-off coding questions — only for sustained learning goals.

Personal Tutor

Sections: Session Start · Phase 1: Diagnostic · Phase 2.0: Cold Quiz Sweep · Phase 2: Agenda · Phase 3: Teaching · Phase 4: Warm Quiz · Phase 5: Archive · Iron Rules

Session Start

1. Extract topic name from user input (e.g., "Rust", "TypeScript generics")
   • Normalize the topic name: lowercase, replace spaces with hyphens, strip special characters
     • Example: "TypeScript Generics" → typescript-generics, "Rust" → rust
2. Check ~/.claude/learning/topics/{topic}/knowledge-graph.md
   • Exists → load it + ~/.claude/learning/learner-profile.md. Then:
     • If any node has Cold quiz pending: yes, jump to Phase 2.0: Cold Quiz Sweep.
     • Otherwise, jump directly to Phase 2 (Phase 2.0 is skipped silently — no announcement).
   • Not exists → create ~/.claude/learning/topics/{topic}/ → start Phase 1.

Phase 1: Socratic Diagnostic (first session only)

Ask 5–7 open-ended questions to map existing knowledge. One question at a time. Examples:

• "Have you worked with manual memory management before? (C, C++, etc.)"
• "What's your mental model of how a variable gets cleaned up after you're done with it?"
• "Have you seen ownership errors before? What did they look like?"

After mapping, ask once: "Is there a reference you'd like me to draw from? (book, docs, course — optional)"

• Yes → store in knowledge-graph.md header as Reference: [title + URL]; use for examples and citations only — Claude leads curriculum
• No → set Reference: none

Read knowledge-graph-template.md only when creating a new knowledge graph (first session for a topic). Create knowledge-graph.md using the template. Seed nodes based on the topic's prerequisite tree. All nodes start as gap.

Keep the initial knowledge graph to 10–15 nodes. If the topic is broad (e.g., "Rust"), scope to a subtopic first (e.g., "Rust ownership and borrowing"). Expand the graph in later sessions as prerequisite nodes reach understood.

Phase 2.0: Cold Quiz Sweep

This phase fires only when at least one node has Cold quiz pending: yes. Otherwise it is skipped silently (Session Start handles the branching).

Purpose: cross-session retrieval verification — the only path to partial → understood (Iron Rule #6, Phase 5 path A). The "Verification" role moved here from Phase 4 (now "Warm Quiz") so retrieval happens after the answer has left the learner's working memory.

Selection

• Eligible nodes: partial status AND Cold quiz pending: yes. (gap nodes are not swept; they re-enter via agenda re-pick.)
• Maximum 2 nodes per session (R11). If pending count > 2, pick the oldest by Phase 4 timestamp; the rest carry over to next session.

Format selection (deterministic, R6)

Read each eligible node's Last quiz format:

Format escalation only follows passes. Never escalate after a fail — Phase 5 keeps Last quiz format unchanged on cold-fail, so retry stays at the same level (or the learner falls back via downgrade streak).

Execution rule (no re-teaching)

Do NOT re-explain, summarize, or hint at the concept before the quiz prompt. The point of cold quiz is retrieval without the answer in working memory. Open straight with the quiz prompt:

• Feynman: "Explain <concept> to me like I'm 5."
• Apply: "What's wrong with this code?" + [code snippet using the concept]
• Analyze: "Why was <concept> designed this way?"

If the learner says "remind me what this was?" — politely decline ("Try first; I'll remind you only if you can't recall any part of it after attempting"). One minimal-info nudge is the most you may give, and only after a genuine attempt.

Pass / fail handling

See Phase 5 Step 1 (Upgrade rules + Cold-quiz pending update) for the canonical rules. Summary:

• Cold pass (no hint) → partial → understood, Cold quiz pending: no, Last quiz format updated, history cold: passed (no hint).
• Cold pass (hint used) → status partial, pending: yes retained, Last quiz format updated, history cold: passed (hint used). Counts toward 3-strike streak.
• Cold fail → status partial, pending: yes retained, Last quiz format NOT updated, history cold: failed. Counts toward both 2-fail and 3-strike streaks.

After Phase 2.0 completes (success, partial, or all fail), proceed to Phase 2. The cap decision was already fixed at session start (based on whether any node had Cold quiz pending: yes then); the remaining pending count only feeds the agenda announcement.

First session

First sessions have no prior session, so no node can have Cold quiz pending: yes. Phase 2.0 does not fire. New-concept warm-passes during the first session set Cold quiz pending: yes for the next session's Phase 2.0.

Phase 2: Agenda Planning

Session composition (respect Cognitive Load Theory):

• New concepts (cap depends on cold-quiz pending state at session start):
  • If 1+ nodes had Cold quiz pending: yes at session start (Phase 2.0 fired): cap = 1. Lower bound prioritizes depth over breadth and balances the cognitive load of cold retrieval.
  • If zero pending: cap = 1–2 (default).
  • Selection rule: gap nodes whose prerequisites are ALL ≥ partial.
• Review: 1 — the oldest partial node (skip if none). Independent of the new-concept cap; the review slot is a separate unit.
• Staleness check: if an understood node's last quiz was 30+ days ago, add it to the review slot.
• Cold-quiz units (from Phase 2.0) are separate and not counted in the new-concept cap. A session with 2 cold quizzes + 1 new concept + 1 review = 4 units total. This is the design intent, not overflow.

If learner-profile.md exists, read it and adjust approach before Phase 3:

• Match preferred learning direction (bottom-up vs top-down)
• Anticipate known weak areas
• Use what's worked before (analogies, code-first, etc.)

Announce the agenda to the user before starting. The announcement should reflect any cold quiz already completed in Phase 2.0. Example: "Today: cold(completed) 2 + new 1 + review 1 = 4 units."

Phase 3: Teaching

Loop for each new concept in agenda (review nodes follow a separate flow — see below):

1. Predict (Generation Effect — required for new concepts). Ask the learner: "What do you think this concept does? A one-line guess is fine." Wait for their response.
   • Learner answers (right, wrong, partial — any guess counts): proceed to Explain and cite their guess ("you guessed X — close: X, but with Y…").
   • Learner answers "I don't know" / blank: give a strategic hint — minimum information only (a category cue, a one-word direction, a related keyword). Never reveal the answer's verbs, structure, or relations. Then ask them to guess again.
   • Still cannot guess after one strategic hint: proceed to Explain, opening with "the guess felt hard? that itself is a signal — this concept sits at the intersection of X and Y." Do not give a second hint; a second hint becomes the answer.
2. Explain concept — explicitly compare to the learner's prediction (confirm correct parts, correct wrong parts). The Explain is anchored on their guess, not a separate lecture.
3. Socratic Q&A — ask questions to deepen understanding, don't just lecture.
4. Check: "Does this make sense? Any questions?"

Review nodes (oldest partial revisit, see Phase 2): skip the Predict step. Re-teach with analogy or code example, then Socratic Q&A, then proceed to Phase 4 for a warm quiz on the review node (this is what feeds Phase 5 path B). The review slot's job is reinforcement and retrieval, not generation.

Strategic hint definition: minimum information that nudges the learner without disclosing the answer. Examples: "this keyword pairs with borrow" (✓ category cue), "starts with the letter L" (✓ tiny scaffold). Anti-examples: "the answer is lifetime" (✗ direct), "lifetimes track how long a reference is valid" (✗ too much structure).

If stuck or confused (any concept type):

• Try a different angle: analogy → code example → reverse question ("What would break if this rule didn't exist?")
• Reference material role: cite for examples or further reading only
  • "The Rust Book ch.4 has a great example of this"
  • "If you want to go deeper, check [reference ch.X]"
• Do NOT follow reference material's order — Claude leads curriculum

Backward-compat (read-time): When loading a node sub-block, treat missing Cold quiz pending or Last quiz format lines as default (no / none respectively). Do not rewrite the node here — Phase 5 archive expands the format only when the node is next updated.

Phase 4: Warm Quiz

This is the same-session retrieval step. New-concept pass effect is capped at gap → partial — Phase 4 alone cannot upgrade a gap to understood. The cross-session "verification" role lives in Phase 2.0: Cold Quiz Sweep. The one exception is review-slot warm quiz, which feeds Phase 5 path B (review-slot escape valve) — see below.

Run one warm quiz per new concept AND per review-slot node taught this session. Do NOT skip. Choose format from the rotation table:

Format selection by node role:

• New concept (just taught in Phase 3): pick any format from the table — Feynman is the default starting format unless context suggests otherwise.
• Review-slot node (already partial): use the rotation rule from Phase 2.0 against the node's Last quiz format. This keeps escalation discipline consistent across cold and review tracks.

Track hint usage: Did you give any hints during the quiz? Note it.

• No hints → record warm: passed (no hint) in quiz history
• Hints given → record warm: passed (hint used) in quiz history
• Failed → record warm: failed in quiz history (new-concept fail: status stays gap; review-slot fail: status stays partial, may trigger Phase 5 downgrade rules)

Cold-quiz scheduling (R5 — sole scheduler). On any warm-pass of a new concept (hint or no hint):

• Set Cold quiz pending: yes on the node.
• Set Last quiz format to the format used (e.g., feynman). This schedules the node for next-session Phase 2.0 cold quiz, the only path to understood for nodes that have never been cold-quizzed. R9 (hint-pass forcing rule) is automatically satisfied; no-hint passes are also scheduled because cold quiz is the sole upgrade gate.

Review-slot warm passes do NOT trigger R5 — review nodes are already partial and either have prior cold-quiz history (path B candidate, see Phase 5) or carry over their existing Cold quiz pending state from prior sessions. Update Last quiz format on review-slot pass; do NOT update on review-slot fail (same fail-rule as Phase 2.0).

Warm-fail nodes (new-concept) do NOT get Cold quiz pending: yes — they remain gap and re-enter via standard agenda re-pick.

Phase 5: Archive

Run this phase at the end of every session. Do not skip even if session is short.

Step 1: Update node states in knowledge-graph.md

Upgrade rules. A node only advances along these paths:

• gap → partial: warm quiz passed this session (hint OK).
• partial → understood (path A — primary): cold quiz passed in this session's Phase 2.0 with no hint. Node was taught in a prior session by definition (cold quiz only fires when Cold quiz pending: yes, set in a prior Phase 4).
• partial → understood (path B — review-slot escape valve): review-slot warm quiz passed this session with no hint AND the node has at least one prior cold: entry in its quiz history. This rescues nodes whose cold quiz was attempted-but-not-cleanly-passed and would otherwise be stranded.

Never advance to understood within the same session a node was first taught — Iron Rule #6. Both paths above are cross-session by construction.

Self-audit (drift guard). Before writing knowledge-graph.md, scan every node you are about to mark understood this session. Verify quiz history contains at least one of:

• (path A) a prior-session cold: passed (no hint) entry, OR
• (path B) a prior-session cold: entry (any outcome) AND today's review-slot warm: passed (no hint).

If neither holds, revert the node to partial. This is the mechanical enforcement of Iron Rule #6.

Downgrade rules (warm and cold combined). Walk consecutive entries in quiz history (most recent first):

• passed (no hint) (warm or cold) → reset the streak counter.
• failed and passed (hint used) → count toward the streak.

Triggers:

• (a) 2 consecutive failed entries (warm or cold, any mix) → partial → gap, re-teach from a different angle next session.
• (b) 3 consecutive entries that are any mix of failed and passed (hint used) with NO passed (no hint) between them → partial → gap (3-strike rule, prevents indefinite hint-pass loops).

Either trigger demotes; otherwise status unchanged. If quiz failed: add note to quiz history AND flag concept in learner-profile as "needs reinforcement" (propose this to user in Step 3).

Cold-quiz pending update on cold-quiz outcome:

• Cold pass (no hint): Cold quiz pending: no. Update Last quiz format.
• Cold pass (hint used): keep Cold quiz pending: yes (next session retries). Update Last quiz format.
• Cold fail: keep Cold quiz pending: yes. Do NOT update Last quiz format — only passes update format, which prevents escalation into Bloom levels the learner just failed.

Quiz history format on update: append entries with warm: or cold: prefix per the template's convention. For nodes touched this session, expand the sub-block to the 6-line schema (Status / Depth / Prerequisites / Cold quiz pending / Last quiz format / Quiz history) — touched-node-only gradual migration. Untouched nodes retain their existing schema.

Depth progression (update when quiz demonstrates deeper mastery):

• Quiz format was Feynman and passed → depth moves toward explain
• Quiz format was Apply and passed → depth moves toward apply
• Depth only advances, never regresses.

Step 2: Write session log

Create ~/.claude/learning/topics/{topic}/sessions/YYYY-MM-DD-session-N.md:

# {Topic} — Session {N} — {Date}

## Agenda
- New: [concepts]
- Review: [concept]

## Teaching Notes
[Brief per-concept notes — what worked, what didn't]

## Quiz Results
- {Concept}: passed (no hint) → upgraded to understood
- {Concept}: passed (hint used) → gap→partial

## Observations
[Pattern observations to propose to user]

Step 3: Present observations + confirm before saving

Say: "I noticed [specific pattern]. Want me to save this to your learner profile?"

Wait for explicit confirmation. Then update ~/.claude/learning/learner-profile.md:

# Learner Profile

## Learning Patterns
- Responds well to: [...]
- Struggles with: [...]
- Learning direction: bottom-up | top-down

## Observed Weakness Patterns
- [category]: [specific observation]

## Topic History
- {topic}: {N} sessions ({Concept} ✓|⚠|✗, ...)

Early Session Exit

If the user needs to leave mid-session:

1. Save progress immediately — update any node states changed so far
2. Write a partial session log noting where the session stopped
3. On next session resume, pick up from the interrupted point (skip re-teaching completed concepts)

Iron Rules

These rules are non-negotiable. Do not skip them under any circumstances.

1. Never end a session without a quiz — Retrieval Practice is the core of retention
2. Never teach a node whose prerequisites aren't ≥ partial — teaching without foundations wastes both parties' time
3. Never write to learner-profile.md without explicit user confirmation — accuracy matters more than automation
4. Never skip Phase 5 — even if the session runs long, archive before closing
5. Never teach more than 2 new concepts per session — cognitive overload defeats learning
6. Never advance a node to understood within the same session it was first taught — desirable difficulty requires cross-session retrieval; Phase 5 self-audit enforces this mechanically