| name | learn-nexus |
| description | Master Nexus philosophy and best practices. Load when user mentions: learn nexus, nexus tutorial, system mastery, nexus best practices, how nexus works, nexus philosophy, nexus design, understand nexus, nexus deep dive. 15-18 min. |
| onboarding | true |
| priority | medium |
🎯 AI Proactive Triggering (ONBOARDING SKILL)
This is an ONBOARDING skill with MEDIUM PRIORITY (suggest after core onboarding complete).
When to Proactively Suggest (AI MUST check user-config.yaml)
Check learning_tracker.completed.learn_nexus in user-config.yaml. If false:
PROACTIVELY SUGGEST when user:
- Has completed OTHER onboarding skills (setup-goals, learn-projects, learn-skills) but hasn't done learn-nexus yet - suggest as "graduation" step
- Asks philosophical questions ("why does Nexus work this way?", "what's the design behind...")
- Encounters AI patterns (false progress, incomplete reads, over-engineering)
- Makes common mistakes (creating projects instead of skills, skipping close-session)
- Expresses interest in mastering the system or best practices
- After using Nexus for 3+ sessions without completing this skill
Suggestion Pattern (after other onboarding):
💡 You've learned the core concepts! Ready for system mastery? 'learn nexus'
(15 min) covers the philosophy, design principles, common pitfalls, and
expert collaboration techniques.
This is the "graduation" skill - after this, you'll understand Nexus deeply.
Suggestion Pattern (encountering issues):
💡 I notice you're running into [AI pattern / common mistake]. The 'learn nexus'
skill covers exactly how to handle this. Want to take 15 minutes to learn
the system deeply? It'll prevent these issues in the future.
DO NOT suggest if:
learning_tracker.completed.learn_nexus: true- User hasn't completed core onboarding yet (suggest core skills first)
- User is new and just getting started (too advanced for first sessions)
Learn Nexus
Master Nexus through understanding its philosophy, design principles, and practical patterns.
Purpose
Help users understand WHY Nexus works the way it does, avoid common mistakes, and collaborate effectively with AI.
Time Estimate: 15-18 minutes
Part A: The Living Knowledge Organism (3 min)
Display:
━━━ CORE PHILOSOPHY ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
ALL FILES IN THIS SYSTEM ARE EXECUTABLE — NOT DOCUMENTATION!
Every .md file, .yaml config, and planning document is designed
to be READ, LOADED, and EXECUTED by AI in conversation.
This is not a static knowledge base. It's a living, breathing
organism that guides you through work, adapts to your context,
and evolves with every interaction.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Ask: "Does that click? Every markdown file is essentially code for the AI."
Part B: The 7 Problems Nexus Solves (4 min)
Display one at a time, confirm understanding:
━━━ THE 7 PROBLEMS ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
1. AI AMNESIA
Problem: AI forgets everything every session
Solution: Memory files auto-load every session (goals.md, etc.)
2. FILE CHAOS
Problem: AI generates files randomly everywhere
Solution: 5-folder system with clear boundaries
3. INCONSISTENT RESULTS
Problem: AI improvises differently every time
Solution: Skills = saved workflows with exact steps
4. REPEATED WORK
Problem: Build same workflow multiple times
Solution: Create skill once, reuse forever
5. CONTEXT OVERLOAD
Problem: Loading everything slows responses
Solution: Progressive loading (metadata first, content on-demand)
6. HARD TO LEARN
Problem: Steep learning curve, overwhelming complexity
Solution: Optional onboarding skills, smart defaults
7. IMMEDIATE EXECUTION
Problem: AI builds before understanding requirements
Solution: Planning mode → separate execution session
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Ask: "Which of these problems have you experienced? That's why Nexus exists."
Part C: The 7 Design Principles (4 min)
Display:
━━━ 7 DESIGN PRINCIPLES ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
1. INSTRUCTION-DRIVEN
Python script returns COMPLETE instructions.
AI follows exactly. Zero interpretation.
2. YAML-DRIVEN AUTO-DETECTION
Everything has metadata describing when to load it.
AI matches your message → context loads automatically.
3. SKILL-FIRST EXECUTION
Skills have priority over projects.
User skills have priority over system skills.
4. PROGRESSIVE DISCLOSURE
Load minimum at start (metadata only).
More context just-in-time when needed.
5. STATE IN DATA FILES
System state tracked in YAML and checkboxes.
No hidden logic. Transparent. Inspectable.
6. CONTEXT PRESERVATION
Nothing is lost between sessions.
close-session saves everything automatically.
7. CONCRETE BEFORE ABSTRACT
Experience first, explanation after.
Value delivery before feature teaching.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Ask: "Any principle you want me to explain further?"
Part D: System Pitfalls (2 min)
Pitfall #1: Projects Instead of Skills
WRONG:
📁 weekly-report-week-1/
📁 weekly-report-week-2/
📁 weekly-report-week-3/
RIGHT:
📁 weekly-report/ # ONE skill, used weekly
If creating "name-1", "name-2"... STOP! That's a skill.
Pitfall #2: Skipping Close-Session
Without "done" / "close session":
❌ Progress not saved
❌ Learnings not captured
❌ Next session loses context
Always say "done" when finished.
Pitfall #3: Over-Organizing
WRONG (day 1): 20 nested empty folders
RIGHT (day 1): 3-5 essential folders
Add folders WHEN needed, not before.
Part E: AI Collaboration Patterns (2 min)
Pattern #1: False Progress
AI: "Done! Files created."
(But they don't exist)
Detection:
🔍 "Show me the files"
🔍 "Read that back"
Pattern #2: Incomplete Reads
AI reads 100 of 500 lines, misses critical info.
Detection:
🔍 "Did you read the ENTIRE file?"
🔍 "What's at the end?"
Pattern #3: Over-Engineering
You want simple, AI builds framework.
Detection:
🔍 "Can this be simpler?"
🔍 "What's the minimum needed?"
Part F: Expert Techniques (2 min)
"Yes, And..." Collaboration
You: "Create sales proposal template"
AI: "I'll create it. I notice you target enterprise
clients - should I add ROI calculator?"
Evaluate additions, don't auto-accept/reject.
Intelligent Friction
You: "Create 10 projects for Q1"
AI: "Before 10 projects: Which unblocks others?
Should some be skills? Start with 2-3?"
Good friction prevents wasted effort.
The Planning Pattern
Session 1 (Planning - 20-30 min):
- Create project structure
- Fill overview.md, plan.md, steps.md
- NO IMPLEMENTATION
Session 2 (Execution):
- Load planning files (crystal-clear requirements)
- Execute end-to-end
- Minimal intervention needed
Planning optimized for thinking. Execution optimized for doing.
Part G: Mastery Check (2 min)
Quick quiz:
- Creating "expense-report-jan", "expense-report-feb"... Fix?
- AI says "Done! All files created." Response?
- What's the #1 design principle of Nexus?
Answers:
- ONE "expense-report" skill
- "Show me the files"
- Instruction-driven (Python script controls, AI follows)
Finalize
Actions (MUST complete all):
Mark skill complete in user-config.yaml:
learning_tracker: completed: learn_nexus: true # ADD THIS LINEDisplay completion:
✅ Learn Nexus Complete! You now understand: • The Living Knowledge Organism philosophy • 7 problems Nexus solves • 7 design principles (instruction-driven, skill-first, etc.) • 3 system pitfalls to avoid • 3 AI patterns to detect • Expert collaboration techniques You're ready to use Nexus at full power. Next steps: • 'create project' - Start a new project • 'create skill' - Capture a workflow • Just work - Nexus guides youPrompt close-session:
💡 When you're done working, say "done" to save progress.
Success Criteria
- User understands the Living Knowledge Organism philosophy
- User knows the 7 problems Nexus solves
- User can name key design principles
- User knows 3 system pitfalls and how to avoid them
- User can detect 3 AI behavior patterns
- User understands expert collaboration patterns
- User passed mastery check quiz
-
learning_tracker.completed.learn_nexus: truein user-config.yaml