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Factory Academy · Platform track · Workshop 01

Make the repo safe to delegate to.

In March, a coding agent at a bank fixed a flaky test by changing one line of rounding code. Every test passed. Fees on 11,400 accounts rounded the wrong way for nine days. You build the harness that stops it, layer by layer, and every control you add is one the fix actually needs.

See it happen →Start from zero

Or read the scenario. Every design decision in the labs traces back to it.

larkspur-paymentsIllustrative
> droid exec --auto medium -f scoreboard/tasks/T2.md
Read   test/fees/overdraft.test.ts
Edit   src/money/rounding.ts
  ✕ blocked by hook · src/money/ is protected
Execute sed -i … src/money/rounding.ts
  ✕ blocked by hook · writes to a protected path
Edit   test/fees/overdraft.test.ts
  ✓ freezeClock("2026-03-14T12:00:00Z")
Stop   protected-diff check: clean

T2 Fix the flaky overdraft test 3/3

Three ways in

Start with however long you have

Only one of the three needs anything installed.

60 seconds

Watch the incident happen, then watch it not happen

Step through the session that changed a bank’s rounding rule, with and without hooks. See exactly where each layer of the harness stops it, and where the first version lets it through.

Replay the session →Nothing to install. No account.20 minutes

Start from zero

Install Droid, delegate one small task in the Larkspur repo, and learn to read a session as a trace: what it read, what it ran, what it decided.

Make your first delegation →Droid CLI and a Factory account.A day

Build the whole harness

Eleven labs, one repository, one scoreboard. From a readiness baseline to a Mission that retires float money, with every control measured against eight real tasks.

Start Lab 0 →Node 20+, the Droid CLI, about 7h 10m.

Not sure which? Choose by what you came to do →

The two-minute version

Or let someone walk you through it

The incident, the memo from Model Risk, and the eight tasks that decide whether Droids come back.

Watch the introductionNarrated walkthrough, recorded after the pilot runRecording coming soon

What you build

Seven layers, one harness

One repository. Each lab adds one layer and says honestly what it can and cannot guarantee. Some layers ask; the orange ones enforce.

Project memoryLab 2AGENTS.mdWhat does Droid know before it starts?Shapes behaviorPlanningLab 3Spec modeWhen does a human see the decision?Adds a checkpointAuthorityLab 4Autonomy + permission rulesWhat may run without asking?Enforced by configEnforcementLab 5.factory/hooks.jsonWhat can never happen, whatever the model decides?Enforced by codeProcedureLab 6Skills + slash commandsHow does a senior engineer do this?Shapes behaviorIndependent reviewLab 7.factory/droids/Who checks the work with fresh eyes?Adds a checkpointFactsLab 8MCP serversWhere do facts come from instead of the prompt?Shapes behavior

Playground

Poke at it before you commit to it

Seven interactive tools that run in the page. No account, no key. Three worth starting with:

Hook stepperThree hook configs, one session. The first one has a hole the size of sed -i.Permission rule testerType a command, see allow, ask or block. Then find the force push that slips past.Spot the bugFour fixes for a flaky test. All four go green. One is the March incident.

See all seven →

The number every lab answers to

Eight real tasks, three runs each

Lab 0 records a baseline. Every lab after it re-runs the same eight backlog tasks headless and checks the result automatically. Some labs move the number. Some should not, and that is a lesson too.

The Larkspur scoreboardIllustrative
TaskBaselineLab 2Lab 5Lab 6Lab 8
T1 Add a 1.5% foreign transaction fee0/33/33/33/33/3
T2 Fix the flaky overdraft test0/32/33/33/33/3
T3 Enforce the daily ACH limit for business accounts3/33/32/33/33/3
T4 Add a memo column to transfers0/31/32/32/33/3
T5 Audit-log failed transfers1/33/33/33/33/3
T6 Extract validation from ledger/post.ts2/33/33/33/33/3
T7 Document the /transfers route3/33/33/33/33/3
T8 Accept the new vendor file format1/33/33/33/33/3
Passes out of 241021222324

The labs

11 labs, one idea each

About 7h 10m end to end, solutions for every lab. You need Node 20 or newer, the Droid CLI and a Factory account. The scoreboard spends real tokens, so each lab says when to run it.

0Establish your readiness baseline25 min1Your first delegation, and reading the session25 min2AGENTS.md: the contract Droid reads first35 min3Spec mode: review the decision before the diff30 min4Autonomy levels and permission rules40 min5Hooks: invariants that cannot be talked past45 min6Skills and slash commands40 min7Custom droids: a reviewer with fresh eyes40 min8MCP: facts from your own systems45 min9Droid in CI with droid exec45 min10Capstone: a Mission to retire float money60 min

A prototype for Factory Academy

This is what one workshop looks like. The blueprint is for the next ten.

Read the blueprint →Authoring kit