Authoring with apprenti creator
apprenti creator is a VS Code / Cursor / VSCodium extension for building a curriculum path visually, without hand-editing JSON. It writes exactly the same files the app reads — it is a studio for the files, not a second curriculum format.
Install
Creator is not an OS app bundle. Download
apprenti-creator-<version>.vsix
from the same GitHub Release as the learner app, then
use Install from VSIX in VS Code,
Cursor, or VSCodium. Step-by-step, including how that
differs from installing the app:
Installing apprenti creator.
What it is not
Creator is not a second copy of the app, not a review tool (the mentor's review inbox stays in the apprenti.dev app), and not a place to touch apprentice or mentor personal-data folders — it will show a read-only banner if those folders exist, but it never writes to them.
The Path canvas
The primary surface is a Path canvas, not a file tree:
- •Horizontal axis: academic time — year, term, an optional summer term, and on into the next year
- •Vertical axis within a term: modules as lanes, tasks as cards in the term's own task order
- •Each card shows: id, title, hours, competency dots, locale-completeness pips, AI-policy mode, and a dangling-reference badge if something doesn't resolve
Dragging a task reorders or moves it — Creator rewrites the affected term files and the task's own term and module fields together, as one operation. If any step of a move fails, it stops and surfaces the problem rather than leaving two folders claiming the same id.
Two error states are visualized directly on the canvas: a ghost card (an id listed in a term file with no folder on disk) and an orphan lane (a task folder that exists but isn't listed anywhere) — both are one click away from being fixed.
Entity editors
Double-clicking a card opens a three-pane task editor: a form (metadata, AI policy, evidence, acceptance criteria, resource/competency pickers), a Markdown editor with live preview for instructions, and — when the curriculum has locale overlays — a side-by-side source/translation column. Raw JSON is always one click away via Open Source.
Two more views worth knowing
- •Competency matrix — competencies as rows, tasks as columns; click a cell to map or unmap a competency on a task.
- •Locale board — one column per configured language, showing overlay coverage (present, missing, or invalid) for every manifest, term, and task.
Validation
Creator validates against the curriculum's own JSON Schemas plus structural rules — duplicate ids, tasks missing from every term, term entries with no matching folder, dangling competency/resource references, unsafe locale segments. Problems show with a file path and a fix action where one is safe to offer; nothing is auto-fixed silently.
Git stays Git
Creator writes files to disk; it does not wrap Git. Committing, diffing, and opening a pull request happen in VS Code's ordinary source-control view, exactly as they would for any other change to the repository. Creator may suggest a commit message; it never runs Git on your behalf.