The course itself

The questions do not change with the subject. A specification of anything buildable and acceptable answers what & why & done, who wants what, and how to build — whether the subject is one rung of the Portal's engine or one chapter of a course. So chapter A4 is specified the same way a rung is: three files, the same three questions.

a4.md is the chapter contract: its Goal ("After A4, the reader can write a spec for a rung and the stories that accept it"), its Rationale (5W), Scope, Deliverables (the landing plus modules A4.1–A4.7), Invariants, and Definition of Done — the same six sections A4.3 teaches. a4.stories.md is the chapter's user's side: Connextra stories for three roles — the learner, the developer, and the Claude Author — with Given/When/Then, at chapter, module, and dive levels. a4.llms.md is the chapter's agent brief: the references, the module structure, the no-invent grounding, and the gate command an Author runs to verify each page.

A4's Definition of Done says the chapter is done when its own triad reads as a spec that passes the traceability rule — the same closure A4.6 teaches. So the chapter is held to the artifact it teaches: each of its three files must answer its question. Step the three a4.* files and the readout reports whether the question is answered, and the running count toward a closed triad.

All three are present and each answers its question, so the chapter's triad is closed: three of three. The course does not exempt itself from the rule it argues for — it is specified by the triad it teaches.

On the Portal, the rung F6.1 is specified by f6.1.*; in this course, the chapter A4 is specified by a4.*. Lined up, the two triads are the same three rows — the question is the constant, the file role is the constant, only the subject changes. A rung on one line, a chapter on the next.

The fragment below lines up both triads. It is markdown specification text, not code: the question as a comment, the two files as the matched pair. Reading down the comments reads the triad; reading across reads the two levels.

# The triad, at two levels — a Portal rung and this course's chapter. (markdown, not code)
# what & why & done   f6.1.md          ↔  a4.md          # Goal · Rationale · Scope · Deliverables · Invariants · DoD
# who wants what        f6.1.stories.md  ↔  a4.stories.md  # Connextra · Given/When/Then · Coverage
# how to build, gated   f6.1.llms.md     ↔  a4.llms.md     # References · Requirements · the prompt

# The questions are subject-independent: a rung and a chapter are specified by the same triad.

Chapter A4 is specified by a4.md, a4.stories.md, and a4.llms.md — the same three files, answering the same three questions, that specify a Portal rung. The questions are subject-independent, so a rung and a chapter take the same shape, and the chapter's own triad closes: three of three. The triad is the unit of a specification, whatever the subject. With the triad in hand, A4.3 opens the first file and reads it section by section.

The sources behind a specification as a subject-independent triad, and where it connects in the course.