nextcraft/.ciagent/PROJECT.md

Nextcraft — PROJECT.md

What This Is

Nextcraft is an AI-native outcome school where graduates prove what they can build — not what they can write. It credentials verifiable skill for a post-AI labor market, rejects legacy degree structures, and trains the workforce of tomorrow through hands-on competency stacks assessed entirely by AI tutors. The marketplace is the symbiotic second surface: employers meet AI-credentialed talent through an automated, algorithmically-matched job board that runs without human headcount.

Single guiding outcome: ≥1,000 learners placed in AI-orchestration roles via the Nextcraft marketplace within 36 months of launch, verified by CIRR-style third-party audit.

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Current Milestone: v0.1 — UI/UX Prototype

Scope: High-fidelity interactive prototype of all four Nextcraft surfaces with realistic mock data, navigation flows, responsive layouts, and a shared component library. No backend, no business logic, no database — everything static/mocked.

Constraint: MAJOR 0 until MVP is released. No business logic until the first milestone prototype is agreed upon by the founder.

Tech stack: TypeScript monorepo (pnpm/turborepo) with Next.js for all web surfaces. Python FastAPI AI services planned for later milestones (not in v0.1).

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Requirements (Validated)

The following requirements have been validated during specification and are locked for milestone v0.1:

1. Learner surface UI — landing page, program catalog, competency stack view, learner dashboard, byte tutorial viewer, build sandbox mockup, assessment/defense mockup
2. Marketplace surface UI — job board listing, job detail page, employer profile, search/filter UI, job posting packages pricing page
3. Employer dashboard UI — overview, talent search, candidate profile view, posting management
4. Admin surface UI — overview, learner management, competency graph viewer, marketplace moderation
5. Shared component library — design system, reusable UI primitives, surface-specific theming
6. Responsive layout system — mobile, tablet, desktop breakpoints
7. Mock data layer — typed, realistic data reflecting the vision (competency stacks, job listings, candidate profiles)
8. Navigation/routing — cross-surface navigation, role-based route groups

Requirements (Active — Future Milestones)

The following are deferred beyond v0.1 and will be activated in subsequent milestones:

• AI tutor agent architecture (Coach, Tutor, Lab, Assessor, Proctor, Mentor)
• Competency graph engine and adaptive pathways
• Assessment engine (process-trace grading, oral defense, per-learner variant tasks)
• Sandbox fabric (sandboxed IDE, design tool, simulation)
• Identity verification and age-gating logic (16+/18+)
• Marketplace job aggregation pipeline (3M+ jobs from 120K companies)
• AI-powered tagging, semantic vector search, company enrichment
• AI resume parsing and job matching
• SEO-optimized programmatic pages
• Payment processing and subscription management
• Human tutor marketplace (third-party course creation)
• B2B employer network functionality
• CIRR-style placement tracking and audit

Requirements (Out of Scope — Per Vision Doctrine)

• Traditional accreditation — not sought, not pursued, not revisited
• Under-16 learners — excluded; AI school floor is 16+
• Marketplace for under-18 — excluded; marketplace is 18+ with verified identity
• Human tutors in the core school — excluded; humans exist only in the open marketplace
• Graded written exams without process trace — excluded
• Legacy job titles in curriculum — excluded
• Junk advertising — excluded

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Constraints

1. MAJOR 0 until MVP — all versions remain v0.x until the MVP is released and agreed upon by the founder
2. No business logic in v0.1 — pure UI/UX prototype with mock data only
3. High-fidelity interactive — clickable navigation, realistic content, hover states, form inputs (non-functional), responsive breakpoints, loading states (mock)
4. All data mocked — no real API calls, no database, no authentication logic
5. Shared design system — all 4 surfaces use a unified component library with surface-specific theming via CSS variables
6. TypeScript monorepo — pnpm workspaces + turborepo for build orchestration
7. Next.js App Router — route groups for each surface: (learner), (marketplace), (employer), (admin)
8. Solo founder constraint — Phase 1 is build-only with no headcount; the prototype must be producible by a solo developer with AI assistance
9. No traditional accreditation — proprietary credential replaces degrees
10. AI-first architecture — AI tutors are the primary human-facing layer (in future milestones)

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Key Decisions

ID	Decision	Rationale	Outcome
D-001	Milestone v0.1 = UI/UX prototype only, no business logic	Founder directive: validate UX before building backend. Prototype must be agreed upon before proceeding to business logic.	Scope locked to frontend surfaces with mock data
D-002	MAJOR 0 until MVP released	Founder directive: remain on v0.x until MVP is validated. Signals pre-release status.	All tags are v0.x.y until MVP agreement
D-003	TypeScript monorepo (pnpm/turborepo) + Next.js	Unified codebase for all 4 surfaces. Shared component library, types, mock data. Next.js App Router for route-based surface separation. Python AI services deferred to later milestones.	Monorepo structure with apps/web + packages/*
D-004	All 4 surfaces in v0.1 (Learner, Marketplace, Employer, Admin)	Founder selected all 4 surfaces for the prototype. Complete product visualization before any backend work.	24 REQ-IDs covering all surfaces + shared infrastructure
D-005	High-fidelity interactive prototype	Founder selected high-fidelity over wireframes. Realistic mock data, navigation flows, responsive layouts, component library. No backend calls.	Clickable prototype with realistic content
D-006	Release forge = Gitea @ git.cloudinit.dev, owner=coreci, repo=nextcraft	Founder-provided Gitea instance for release management. Token stored in .ciagent/.env.secrets.	Ship workflow creates tags + releases on Gitea
D-007	Full autonomy for CIAgent pipeline	Founder selected full autonomy. No HITL after clarify. Auto-decide above confidence 0.60. Escalation hooks: deploy, delete_data, merge_to_main.	Rapid autonomous building with kill criteria
D-008	Shared component library in packages/ui/	All surfaces share a unified design system with surface-specific theming via CSS variables. Promotes consistency and reduces duplication.	packages/ui, packages/mock-data, packages/types
D-009	AI tutor UI as chat interface mockup with pre-scripted responses	The learner surface includes an AI tutor chat UI mockup. No real AI backend — pre-scripted responses simulate the Coach and Tutor agents.	Mockup only in v0.1, real agents in future milestone
D-010	Age-gating represented as visual registration flow mockup	16+/18+ age-gating shown as a UI flow with age verification step. No actual verification logic.	Visual mockup only
D-011	Competency graph viewer as interactive static visualization	Admin surface includes a competency graph viewer using react-flow or similar. Mock competency nodes and edges. No real graph data.	Static graph with mock data
D-012	Tech stack: TS monorepo + Python AI services (future)	v0.1 uses TS only. Python FastAPI microservices planned for AI tutor agents and assessment engine in later milestones.	v0.1: TS only. Future: TS + Python

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Context

Nextcraft is being built by a solo founder using the CIAgent v0.7.0 autonomous pipeline. The vision document defines a 36-month, 3-phase roadmap to ≥1,000 placements. The first CIAgent milestone (v0.1) is intentionally scoped to UI/UX only — validating the product vision through interactive prototypes before any backend or business logic investment.

The four surfaces (Learner, Marketplace, Employer Dashboard, Admin) map directly to the four audiences in the vision: learners, employers, marketplace operators, and platform administrators. The prototype will demonstrate the complete user journey across all surfaces with realistic mock data reflecting the AI-era competency stacks, AI-orchestration job listings, and artifact+process trace+oral defense credential model.