Course 4.1 · Curriculum 2026.1
The operating instructions file: making an org legible to an agent
Write the file that makes an agent useful in your org on its first run. Conventions, constraints, and the click paths that verify a change.
- Estimated effort
- 4 hr
- Lessons
- 34
- Modules
- 6
- Material
- 4 hr
Estimated effort is the sum of the lesson and lab times in the course outline, for this version of the course.
This course is planned and not on sale. The curriculum below is the plan, and it may change before the course opens.
See the courses on sale01What you will learn
7 capabilities, stated as things you can do
Each one is what you should be able to do at the end, not what the course covers. If an outcome is not testable, it is not an outcome.
- Write an operating instructions file an agent can follow without asking you six questions.
- Document the conventions an agent must not break, including naming and deployment paths.
- Record the org’s real constraints: limits, package boundaries, and what must never be deployed.
- Describe verification click paths precisely enough for someone else to execute them.
- Keep the file current, so it does not become the stale document nobody trusts.
- Split instructions by directory so a large repository stays navigable.
- Measure whether the file helped, by comparing agent runs before and after.
02Curriculum
6 modules, 34 lessons
Every lesson shows its length and its type, from the course outline.
6 modules · 34 lessons · 4 hr of material
An agent starts every session with no memory of your org. The file is the briefing, and its quality decides the first hour of every run.
- VideoWhy an agent asks the same six questions every timePreview8 min
- VideoAn org at scale: 314 Apex classes, 1,781 fields, and why memory does not scaleThe org this track is built from, in one screen: 314 classes, 32 triggers, 79 components, ~191 active flows.7 min
- VideoWhat belongs in the file, and what belongs in the code7 min
- VideoDirectory-scoped instructions in a large repository6 min
- ReadingWhat a stale instructions file costs, before you write one5 min
- LabLab: map an org you do not know, in one file10 min
The patterns an agent must not break, and why an unwritten convention gets reversed by the next person who finds it inconvenient.
- VideoConventions: naming, structure, and the patterns you already use7 min
- VideoThe naming convention nobody wrote down, and the branch it cost6 min
- VideoDeployment paths: the one that is sanctioned and the ones that are not7 min
- VideoWriting a convention as a rule with its reason6 min
- ReadingA convention with no reason attached, and why it gets reversed5 min
- LabLab: extract five conventions from a repository’s history9 min
Limits, package boundaries and the things that must never deploy, stated as facts about this org rather than platform trivia.
- VideoConstraints: limits, package boundaries, and what must never deployName the credential that gets blanked on redeploy, the managed package you cannot modify, and the object nobody may add a trigger to.7 min
- VideoThe 120-second callout budget as an org constraint, not a footnote6 min
- VideoThe trigger that is vendor code, and stays out of source control~90 managed Field Service Starter Kit triggers, deliberately excluded from source control.7 min
- VideoThe credential that gets blanked on redeploy, named in the file6 min
- ReadingNaming the object nobody may add a trigger to5 min
- LabLab: write the constraints section for a real org9 min
Log in as this user, open this list view, apply this filter, and confirm this number. Vague verification is unverified work.
- VideoVerification click paths, written for a stranger7 min
- VideoLog in as this user, and why that sentence has to be literal6 min
- VideoWhat to name: the list view, the filter, and the number to confirm7 min
- VideoA click path bad enough to be useless, rewritten6 min
- ReadingThe difference between a click path and a promise5 min
- LabLab: write a click path for a change you already shipped10 min
A stale instructions file is worse than none, because an agent follows it confidently. This module is the maintenance loop.
- VideoUpdating the file as part of the change, not afterwards7 min
- VideoMeasuring whether it helped: runs before and after7 min
- VideoThe instruction nobody follows any more, and why it survives6 min
- ReadingThe review that finds it5 min
- LabLab: audit an instructions file for staleness9 min
A large repository does not get one file. It gets a root file and a rule for finding the rest.
- VideoAn org with 191 active flows, one file, and does it still work~191 active flows, 119 objects, 45 permission sets. One root file cannot carry all of it.7 min
- VideoSplitting by directory without losing the one thing everyone must read6 min
- ReadingThe one paragraph every directory file must inherit5 min
- LabLab: write the file for an org you know12 min
- QuizCheck: operating instructions12 min
04Before you start
What you need first
Assumed knowledge and setup
- Working knowledge of a Salesforce org you are accountable for.
- A coding agent you can run locally. Any of the common ones works.
- Course 2.1 helps but is not required. This course is about instructions, not Apex.
Before this course
No other course is needed first.
Courses often taken next
- 4.2 · The done rule: why an agent may not mark its own work complete
- 4.4 · Running agents in parallel with worktrees
- 4.9 · The autonomous task loop: the org is the queue and the completion target
Each is a separate course, bought on its own.
05Who teaches it
Elliot Saha
Co-founder, Chief Technology Officer
Platform architecture, custom Apex and Lightning Web Components, AI systems, and the Academy platform itself.
06Reviews
No learner reviews yet
This course has not been taken by enough people to publish an honest rating, and we will not print invented quotes on a page that sells verification discipline. Here is what we can evidence instead.
- Assessment
- Lesson checks onlyThis course carries lesson checks and issues no certificate.
- Curriculum version
- 2026.1You enrol into a version. Content changes do not move you mid-course, and your required-lesson count is snapshotted at enrollment.
- Refunds
- 14 daysAn individual purchase can be refunded within 14 days if you have completed less than 20% of the lessons. Team seats are refundable before they are assigned. From the Academy terms.
Start 4.1
This course is in development and not yet open for enrolment. The courses open now are listed in the catalogue.
- 4 hr estimated effort, labs included
- A ShareCo certificate is not a Salesforce certification