Build or restructure a course syllabus from a topic list or reading list — course description + prerequisites, week-by-week schedule (topic → readings → deliverables), measurable learning…

MITAuto-check passedEducation

Install Syllabus

skills CLI
$ npx skills add pedrohcgs/claude-code-my-workflow --skill syllabus -a claude-code

Project install by default; add -g for ~/.claude/skills/.

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install pedrohcgs/claude-code-my-workflow syllabus --agent claude-code

Project scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).

Manual copy
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/pedrohcgs/claude-code-my-workflow.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/.claude/skills/syllabus .claude/skills/syllabus && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.claude/skills/ instead of .claude/skills for a personal install. The folder must contain SKILL.md.

Claude Code skills documentation · loads skills from .claude/skills/

Facts

Skill name
syllabus
GitHub stars
1.7k
Token cost
~2.1k tokens
SKILL.md length
904 words
Files
1
Skills in repo
59
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
MIT

At a glance

Build or restructure a course syllabus from a topic list or reading list — course description + prerequisites, week-by-week schedule (topic → readings → deliverables), measurable learning…

  • Works in 4 steps: Intake (elicit before drafting) → Sequence topics into weeks → Objectives + assessment → …
  • User says build a syllabus
  • SKILL.md covers When to use, Phase 0: Intake (elicit before…, Phase 1: Sequence topics into… and Phase 2: Objectives + assessment, plus 6 more sections
  • Instructions only: no scripts, shell commands, URLs or credentials in SKILL.md

What it does

Syllabus is an agent skill from pedrohcgs/claude-code-my-workflow. Build or restructure a course syllabus from a topic list or reading list — course description + prerequisites, week-by-week schedule (topic → readings → deliverables), measurable learning objectives, an assessment scheme + rubric, standard policies (late work, AI use, academic integrity, accessibility), and a per-week work-list to hand to /create-lecture. Use when user says "build a syllabus", "structure my course", "turn this reading list into a schedule", "draft a course outline", "make a syllabus for Econ…

Its SKILL.md is about 2.1k tokens, which your agent loads only when the skill is triggered. It is a single SKILL.md file with no bundled scripts.

It sits in Education, covering Curriculum and course design. The repository describes itself as: A ready-to-fork Claude Code template for academics using LaTeX/Beamer + R. Multi-agent review, quality gates, adversarial QA, and replication protocols. The licence is MIT.

When your agent uses it

  • User says build a syllabus
  • Structure my course
  • Turn this reading list into a schedule
  • Draft a course outline

Example prompts

  • “build a syllabus”
  • “structure my course”
  • “turn this reading list into a schedule”
  • “/syllabus”

Requirements

  • Pre-approved tools (allowed-tools): Read, Grep, Glob, Write

Workflow steps

4 steps, taken from the step headings in SKILL.md.

  1. Intake (elicit before drafting)
  2. Sequence topics into weeks
  3. Objectives + assessment
  4. Emit the syllabus + the lecture work-list

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit ae72617. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

  • Tool permissions

    Pre-approves these tools, so the agent can use them without asking each time:

    • Read
    • Grep
    • Glob
    • Write

    From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

  • Runs code

    No scripts in the folder and no shell commands in SKILL.md (its code samples are markdown).

    From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.

  • Network

    No URLs in SKILL.md.

    From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.

  • Credentials

    Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.

    From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

Context cost

Syllabus loads about 2.1k tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 163 tokens; SKILL.md has 904 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~163
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~2.1k

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

Auto-check passed

The automated check found no risky patterns in SKILL.md.

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); files beside SKILL.md are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from pedrohcgs/claude-code-my-workflow at commit ae72617, republished under its MIT licence (© pedrohcgs). 904 words, ~2,120 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/syllabus/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder).
name
syllabus
description
Build or restructure a course syllabus from a topic list or reading list — course description + prerequisites, week-by-week schedule (topic → readings → deliverables), measurable learning objectives, an assessment scheme + rubric, standard policies (late work, AI use, academic integrity, accessibility), and a per-week work-list to hand to `/create-lecture`. Use when user says "build a syllabus", "structure my course", "turn this reading list into a schedule", "draft a course outline", "make a syllabus for Econ 7xx", or "map weeks to lectures". Economics-aware (PhD metrics/micro/macro sequences, undergrad); generic enough for any field.
allowed-tools
Read, Grep, Glob, Write
argument-hint
[course title or topic/reading list] [--weeks N] [--level phd|grad|undergrad] [--sessions-per-week N] [--no-policies]
effort
medium

Build a Course Syllabus

Turn a bare topic list or reading list into a teachable syllabus: a course description, a sequenced weekly schedule, measurable objectives, an assessment scheme with a rubric, the boilerplate policies every syllabus needs, and a week→lecture work-list you can feed straight into /create-lecture. The instructor owns the academic judgment; this skill structures it.

When to use

  • You have a pile of topics or papers and need them ordered into a term.
  • You are converting last year's syllabus to a new length, level, or modality.
  • You want the schedule's weeks pre-mapped to lecture decks before you start building slides.

Not for building the slides themselves (/create-lecture), reviewing a deck's pedagogy (/pedagogy-review), or assembling the reading list from scratch (/lit-review).

Phase 0: Intake (elicit before drafting)

A syllabus is shaped almost entirely by three parameters. Resolve them first — from flags, then by asking. Do not start sequencing until all three are pinned.

  1. Level + audience — --level (phd / grad / undergrad). For economics, name the sequence (first-year metrics, micro theory, macro, field course, undergrad intermediate). Level sets reading depth, proof-vs-application balance, and assessment type.
  2. Length + cadence — --weeks (default 14) and --sessions-per-week (default 2). A reading seminar and a problem-set course at the same length need very different schedules.
  3. Material — the topic list or reading list ($ARGUMENTS, a file path, or a .bib). If the user points at a .bib or a folder of PDFs, Glob/Read to inventory it; if topics are bare, ask for 1-2 anchor texts per topic.

Echo a short Intake Report (level, weeks, cadence, N topics / N readings, any gaps) and get confirmation before Phase 1.

Phase 1: Sequence topics into weeks

  1. Order by dependency, not by the reading list's order. Build a prerequisite chain — foundational tools before the topics that use them (e.g., asymptotics → GMM → applications; consumer theory → GE → welfare). Front-load what later weeks assume.
  2. Allocate readings to weeks. Distribute material so each week's load is realistic for the level (a PhD field week carries 2-4 papers; an undergrad week, 1 chapter + 1 application). Flag any week that is overloaded or thin.
  3. Place deliverables on the calendar. Problem sets after the tools they exercise; the midterm at a natural conceptual break; referee report / replication / paper proposal milestones spaced so they don't collide. Mark reading-break and no-class weeks.
  4. Emit the schedule table (topic → readings → deliverable per week) and get sign-off before writing objectives — re-sequencing is cheap now, expensive later.

Phase 2: Objectives + assessment

  1. Write measurable learning objectives. One course-level set plus per-unit objectives, each using an observable verb (derive, estimate, replicate, critique, prove) — not "understand" or "be familiar with". Tie each objective to the week(s) that deliver it.
  2. Design the assessment scheme. Pick instruments that fit the level (problem sets + final for a methods course; referee report + replication + paper for a field/PhD course; exams + project for undergrad). State weights summing to 100%, and check every objective is assessed by something.
  3. Write one rubric for the highest-stakes deliverable (the paper, project, or referee report) — criteria × levels, with point bands. Keep it short and concrete.
Show full SKILL.md (389 more words)Show less

Phase 3: Emit the syllabus + the lecture work-list

  1. Assemble the syllabus document in the Output format below (skip policies if --no-policies).
  2. Generate the per-week /create-lecture work-list — one row per teaching week mapping it to a deck name, its objective(s), and its anchor reading, so the instructor can hand each row to /create-lecture in order. This is the bridge from syllabus to slides.

Output format

Write to quality_reports/teaching/[course]_syllabus.md (or a user-specified path; not the repo root, where syllabus.md fails the repo-hygiene gate as root clutter):

markdown
# [Course title] — [Term, Year]
[Level · meeting cadence · units]

## Course description
[2-4 sentences: what the course is, what students leave able to do.]

## Prerequisites
[Courses / skills assumed. Be specific — "first-year metrics or equivalent".]

## Learning objectives
By the end of this course, students will be able to:
- [observable verb] … (Weeks N-M)

## Weekly schedule
| Week | Topic | Readings | Deliverable |
|------|-------|----------|-------------|
| 1 | … | … | — |

## Assessment
| Component | Weight | Maps to objectives |
|-----------|-------:|--------------------|
| … | …% | … |

### Rubric — [highest-stakes deliverable]
| Criterion | Excellent | Adequate | Weak |
|-----------|-----------|----------|------|

## Policies
Late work · AI / LLM use · academic integrity · accessibility / accommodations · attendance.

## Week → lecture work-list (hand to `/create-lecture`)
| Week | Deck name | Objective(s) | Anchor reading |
|------|-----------|--------------|----------------|

End the chat message (not the file) with a gap summary: weeks with no reading, objectives not assessed, deliverable collisions, or topics dropped for lack of time — the instructor decides how to resolve each.

Flags

  • --weeks — term length in teaching weeks (default 14).
  • --level — phd / grad / undergrad; sets reading depth and assessment type.
  • --sessions-per-week — meetings per week (default 2); affects per-week load.
  • --no-policies — omit the boilerplate Policies section (use when an institutional template supplies it).

Exit behavior

  • Phase 0 halts until level, length, and material are all resolved — a forked or unattended run never guesses these. If the material is empty, ask for a topic/reading list and stop.
  • Each phase gates on user sign-off (schedule before objectives, objectives before policies); re-ordering is offered cheaply at Phase 1.
  • The deliverable is the syllabus file plus the work-list; the chat message always carries the gap summary, even when empty (No gaps — every week has a reading and every objective is assessed.).
  • This skill is text-only; it never compiles, renders, or builds slides.

Cross-references

What this skill does NOT do

  • Does not write slide content or scaffold .tex/.qmd decks — that is /create-lecture.
  • Does not search for or vet readings — pair with /lit-review.
  • Does not grade, generate problem sets, or build answer keys.
  • Does not assert institutional policy as binding — the Policies section is editable boilerplate the instructor must reconcile with their department's rules.
  • Does not invent citations; every reading in the schedule comes from the material the user supplied.

© pedrohcgs, MIT. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file

Files

Just SKILL.md in .claude/skills/syllabus of pedrohcgs/claude-code-my-workflow.

Open the folder on GitHubat commit ae72617

Compare with similar skills

Syllabus next to the 5 skills that share the most tags, products or categories with it. Stars are the repository's; “used in” counts other GitHub owners with a copy.

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AnythingAtlasLiuziyu77/AnythingAtlas195—~3.6kAutomated safety check: PassApache-2.0
Codex Skill Self-AssessmentFlorianBruniaux/claude-code-ultimate-guide6.1k—~2.3kAutomated safety check: PassCC-BY-SA-4.0
Curriculum PlannerTHU-MAIC/OpenMAIC40k—~2.8kAutomated safety check: PassMIT

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Categories

Questions about Syllabus

What does Syllabus do?

Build or restructure a course syllabus from a topic list or reading list — course description + prerequisites, week-by-week schedule (topic → readings → deliverables), measurable learning…. Syllabus is an agent skill from pedrohcgs/claude-code-my-workflow. Build or restructure a course syllabus from a topic list or reading list — course description + prerequisites, week-by-week schedule (topic → readings → deliverables), measurable learning objectives, an assessment scheme + rubric, standard policies (late work, AI use, academic integrity, accessibility), and a per-week work-list to hand to /create-lecture.

When should I use Syllabus?

Syllabus fits situations like: user says build a syllabus; structure my course; turn this reading list into a schedule; draft a course outline.

How do I install Syllabus in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add pedrohcgs/claude-code-my-workflow --skill syllabus -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (.claude/skills/syllabus in pedrohcgs/claude-code-my-workflow) into .claude/skills/syllabus in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install Syllabus in Codex?

Run `npx skills add pedrohcgs/claude-code-my-workflow --skill syllabus -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (.claude/skills/syllabus in pedrohcgs/claude-code-my-workflow) into .agents/skills/syllabus in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Syllabus in Cursor, Gemini CLI or GitHub Copilot?

Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot and OpenCode also load SKILL.md folders. With the skills CLI, run `npx skills add pedrohcgs/claude-code-my-workflow --skill syllabus -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/syllabus, .gemini/skills/syllabus, .github/skills/syllabus and .opencode/skills/syllabus in your project.

What does Syllabus need to run?

SKILL.md names no scripts, command-line tools or credentials: Syllabus is instructions for the agent only. Its frontmatter pre-approves these tools: Read, Grep, Glob, Write.

Does Syllabus access the network?

SKILL.md contains no URLs. Any network use would come from the scripts or tools the agent runs. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.

Is Syllabus safe to install?

Our automated static check of SKILL.md found no risky patterns, such as piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files or hidden Unicode. It is not a guarantee. Review the folder before installing.

What licence does Syllabus use?

Syllabus is published under the MIT licence (the repository's licence). It allows redistribution, so the full SKILL.md is shown on this page.

How many tokens does Syllabus use?

About 2.1k tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 8.5k characters). Agents keep only the skill's name and description in context until a task matches; then they load SKILL.md in full.

What are the alternatives to Syllabus?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Syllabus: AI Engineering Placement Quiz (rohitg00/ai-engineering-from-scratch, 66k stars), K-12 Core Literacy Lesson Design (THU-MAIC/OpenMAIC, 40k stars), AnythingAtlas (Liuziyu77/AnythingAtlas, 195 stars) and Codex Skill Self-Assessment (FlorianBruniaux/claude-code-ultimate-guide, 6.1k stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Syllabus?

pedrohcgs (a GitHub user) maintains it in pedrohcgs/claude-code-my-workflow, which has 1,653 GitHub stars. The repository holds 59 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on September 27, 2026.

Source: pedrohcgs/claude-code-my-workflow on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.