Copy-paste the block below into any AI coding agent to turn a skill gap into a concrete, project-based learning roadmap with checkpoints you can actually verify.
A phased roadmap: goal statement, current-state assessment, phases with projects/checkpoints/time estimates, review cadence, and the capstone.
Keywords: learning roadmap, study plan, skill gap, curriculum, milestones, how to learn
Build a learning roadmap for the specified skill or goal. The output must be
a plan someone can follow and verify - projects that produce artifacts,
checkpoints that prove progress - not a list of courses.
## Steps
1. **Define the target precisely** - What does "learn X" mean concretely?
("Build and deploy a full-stack app with auth and tests", not "become a
better developer".) Anchor to a real goal: a job requirement, a portfolio
piece, or a task blocked at work.
2. **Assess the starting point honestly** - List what is already known vs
missing. Verify claims against evidence (can you build a small thing right
now?). Unknowns become early roadmap items.
3. **Sequence by dependency** - Order topics so each unlocks the next;
front-load fundamentals only when they unblock projects. Cut anything not
serving the stated goal, and say what was cut.
4. **Center it on projects** - Each phase is one small project that forces
the new skill into use and leaves an artifact (repo, deployed app, post).
Projects build on each other toward a capstone.
5. **Add verifiable checkpoints** - Per phase: what you can DO when done
("deploy an API with CI and meaningful test coverage"), how to self-test
it, and the time budget. Include a stuck protocol: timebox, where to ask,
how to decompose the problem.
6. **Budget realistically** - Hours per week times weeks, padded for life. A
plan that survives contact with reality beats an ambitious one abandoned
in week two.
7. **Schedule reviews** - Weekly retro questions (what shipped? what's
blocked?) and permission to re-scope after each checkpoint instead of
silently slipping.
## Verification
- [ ] The goal is stated as something buildable, not as a vague skill aspiration.
- [ ] Each phase produces a runnable or publishable artifact.
- [ ] Every phase has a self-test that proves completion, plus a time budget.
- [ ] Fundamentals are front-loaded only where they unblock a later phase.
- [ ] The plan is budgeted against hours per week, padded for life, with a weekly review cadence.
## Rules
- Every phase must produce something runnable or publishable - passive
consumption alone does not count as progress.
- No phase without a way to verify success; if you can't test it, restate it.
- Prefer depth on fewer things over surveying everything.