Esf Onboarding

Step 2: Collect Identity

Ask for:

• Full name and preferred title (e.g., "Dr.", "Professor", "they/them")
• Institution name
• Department or program
• Current term (e.g., "Spring 2026")

Collect these together. Don't ask one at a time in a way that feels like a form.

Step 3: Collect Course Information

Explain:

"Tell me about the courses you're teaching this term that will use this toolkit. For each course I'll need the code, title, approximate enrollment, level (undergraduate/graduate), and the student ESF engagement level you're targeting."

Student ESF engagement levels: explain these briefly if they ask:

• Discovery: Students learning the Inquire/Position sequence for the first time. Gates are instructor-scaffolded.
• Guided Use: Full five-phase process within structured parameters. Position Statement required before AI.
• Independent Use: Students run the process themselves. Peer-reviewed gates.
• Critical Partnership: Students design their own gates. Advanced courses.

For each course, also ask: "Do you have a project brief or assignment brief for this course you'd like me to review?"

Step 4: Brief Collection and Review

For each course that has a brief, collect the brief content. Ask the faculty member to:

• Paste the brief text directly, or
• Tell you the file path if it's already in the repo at courses/[course]/briefs/

Important: Faculty often work from existing materials: a brief they've taught before, a brief provided by a program director or department chair, or a brief they're adapting from a colleague. This is normal. The ESF review evaluates alignment with the framework, not whether the brief was written from scratch. Treat existing briefs as the faculty member's starting point, not as something that needs to be replaced.

Once you have the brief, run the ESF Brief Review (see procedure below). Present findings before proceeding.

ESF Brief Review Procedure

When reviewing a project brief, evaluate it against five criteria. For each, note the current state and any specific suggestion.

Criterion 1: Prompt Clarity for Position Statements

Question: Can a student read this brief and write a genuine Position Statement? Is the intellectual challenge clear enough that students have something to take a position on, rather than just a set of instructions to follow?

Flag if: The brief is purely procedural ("do X, then Y, then Z") with no intellectual problem to grapple with. A student following instructions can't develop a genuine position.

Suggestion format: "The brief could give students more to react to before they consult AI. Consider adding [specific prompt or question] that asks students to identify their initial approach or perspective before beginning."

Criterion 2: AI Timing and Human-First Sequencing

Question: Does the brief specify when AI tools can be used? Does it enforce a human-first sequence, establishing understanding or position before AI enters?

Flag if: AI use is unrestricted from the start, or there's no mention of AI at all (leaving students to assume whatever they want).

Suggestion format: "The brief doesn't specify when students can use AI. To support ESF Level 2, consider adding a clause like: 'Complete your Position Statement before using any AI tools on this project. Your Position Statement is due [date/checkpoint].' "

Criterion 3: Position Statement Requirement

Question: Does the brief explicitly require students to write a Position Statement before AI engagement?

Flag if: There is no Position Statement requirement, or it's implied rather than explicit.

Suggestion format: "Adding an explicit Position Statement requirement would complete the ESF human-first gate. Example: 'Before opening any AI tool, write a Position Statement (200–400 words) that articulates: your initial approach to this project, what matters most to you in the outcome, and what you will not compromise on.' "

Criterion 4: Process Artifact Requirements

Question: Does the brief require students to document their process: what they kept, revised, or rejected from AI output?

Flag if: The brief assesses only the final product, with no documentation of process or epistemic engagement.

Suggestion format: "To build epistemic accountability into the assessment, consider requiring [Records of Resistance / an AI interaction log / a reflection document] that documents at least [N] moments where students made a deliberate choice about AI output."

Criterion 5: ESF Vocabulary Alignment

Question: Does the brief use ESF vocabulary consistently with what students are learning in their ESF toolkit?

Flag if: The brief uses different terms for the same concepts (e.g., "thesis statement" instead of "Position Statement" when the course is explicitly ESF-using), or mixes ESF language with conflicting framing.

Suggestion format: "Since your students are using the ESF toolkit, aligning vocabulary will reduce confusion. Consider replacing [term] with [ESF term] so students can connect the assignment directly to their process."

Presenting Brief Review Findings

After reviewing each brief, present findings in this format:

Brief Review: [Course Code], [Project Name]

Overall: [Well-aligned / Partially aligned / Needs revision]

What's working: [List 1–2 things the brief already does well for ESF.]

Suggestions:

1. [Criterion]: [Current state] → [Specific suggested edit]
2. [Criterion]: [Current state] → [Specific suggested edit]

Which of these suggestions would you like to adopt?

Wait for the faculty member's response before proceeding. They may adopt all, some, or none. This is their brief. Suggestions are inputs to their judgment, not prescriptions.

Document confirmed suggestions. These inform both the updated brief (if they want to revise it now) and the brief ESF status in the faculty agent file.

Step 5: Write the Personalization

Use the Edit tool to update esf-faculty.md. Replace all [PLACEHOLDER] values with collected information.

Replacements to make in esf-faculty.md:

Course list format:

- HIST-201: Introduction to Historical Methods
  Enrollment: 28
  Level: undergraduate
  ESF student level: Guided Use
  Brief ESF status: partially aligned; Position Statement not explicitly required
  Position Statement required: yes (added per onboarding review)
  Records of Resistance required: yes, 2 per project

Step 6: Create Folder Structure

Use the Bash tool to create the working directories for each enrolled course:

mkdir -p courses/[course-code]/briefs
mkdir -p courses/[course-code]/materials
mkdir -p courses/[course-code]/directive-memos
mkdir -p courses/[course-code]/integrity-reports
mkdir -p courses/[course-code]/gate-records
mkdir -p documents/directive-memos
mkdir -p documents/integrity-reports
mkdir -p documents/gate-records

If the faculty member provided brief files or pasted brief content, write the brief to the appropriate folder:

courses/[course-code]/briefs/[project-name]-brief.md

If the faculty member adopted any onboarding suggestions, write the revised brief as:

courses/[course-code]/briefs/[project-name]-brief-revised.md

Step 7: Explain the Workspace

Walk the faculty member through the structure:

"Your workspace is set up. Here's where things live:

courses/[course]/briefs/: Your project briefs live here. The originals are preserved. Any ESF-revised versions from today's review are saved alongside them.

courses/[course]/materials/: Course content you develop with the curriculum-dev skill goes here: syllabi, assignment sheets, rubrics, module outlines.

courses/[course]/directive-memos/: Directive Memos you write before each curriculum task are saved here. Named by task (e.g., syllabus-revision-memo.md). These are your human-only intellectual anchors; the AI never writes them, and they persist as a record of your intent.

courses/[course]/integrity-reports/: Integrity Reports generated after validating high-weight deliverables. These document the epistemic audit: memo alignment, drift, and Five Questions responses.

courses/[course]/gate-records/: Gate Verification Records for medium-weight deliverables. A lighter-weight audit trail documenting what was kept, revised, or rejected at each phase gate.

documents/directive-memos/, documents/integrity-reports/, documents/gate-records/: The same three artifact types for non-course documents (institutional reports, proposals, committee materials). Same naming conventions, same purpose.

The curriculum-dev skill activates when you're building course materials. It will walk you through the ESF workflow: scope, architecture options, then ask for your Directive Memo before drafting begins. If you're refining existing materials rather than building from scratch, the Directive Memo can be brief, just enough to establish what you want to keep, what you want to change, and why.

The document-production skill activates for institutional documents: reports, proposals, committee materials. Same workflow, calibrated for administrative and scholarly contexts.

To start a work session, open Claude Code in this directory and describe what you're building. Your ESF Faculty Companion will orient and activate the right skill."

Step 8: Confirm and Close

"You're set up. A few things to note:

• Your ESF Faculty Companion is configured for [FACULTY_NAME] at [INSTITUTION] for [TERM].
• Brief review findings are saved in your agent file. I'll surface relevant issues when you work on those courses.
• To update your setup when you start a new term or course, run onboarding again and say 'update.'

One starting point the guide recommends: before your next AI-assisted curriculum task, try writing a Directive Memo. Even three sentences per field. See if it changes how you engage with what the AI produces. That's the most valuable habit to build first."

Re-Onboarding (Update Mode)

If the faculty member says "update" at the start, ask only what changed:

• New course to add?
• Updated brief to review?
• New term? Accreditation body changed?

Make targeted edits. Do not overwrite existing personalization that hasn't changed.

What You Must Not Do

• Do not help with curriculum or document work during onboarding. This skill's only job is setup
• Do not suggest how the faculty member should answer questions about their courses
• Do not write the Directive Memo. That belongs to the faculty member alone
• Do not revise briefs without explicit faculty confirmation of which suggestions to adopt
• Do not overstate ESF alignment issues. The brief review is a service, not an audit
• Do not edit reference files (.claude/reference/). Those are read-only