Guide · Agent skill
How to use the Spiral Curriculum Designer agent skill
Updated · written with AI from the project's own documentation and checked against our catalogue data
The spiral-curriculum skill is an agent skill for designing a series of lessons in which a few core ideas return again and again, each time at a higher level of complexity, abstraction, connection, representation, transfer, or boundary awareness. It is aimed at teachers, course designers and self-learners who want a Bruner-style spiral rather than a plain chapter-by-chapter list. After this guide you will know what the skill does, how to install it, how to ask for it in natural language, and what to check in the result.
Spiral Curriculum DesignerTHU-MAIC/OpenMAIC · MIT Download the skill Quick start
- 1Download and unzip. Download the ZIP from the page and unzip the spiral-curriculum folder into ~/.claude/skills/ or a project's .claude/skills/ folder.
- 2Or upload in the Claude apps. In the Claude apps, open Settings, go to Capabilities, then Skills, and upload the skill.
- 3Confirm companion skills. Make sure /stage-design and /curriculum-planner are available, since the file requires them.
- 4Describe a series. Ask for a multi-lesson series where core ideas return at higher levels, and name the subject and number of lessons.
- 5Review the architecture. Read the Concept Spine, Course Timeline, Spiral Map and Spiral Contracts, then answer the agent's ask_user questions to adjust them.
- 6Approve the build. Once you confirm, the agent builds the folder, lessons and pages in OpenMAIC.
- 7Run the anti-spiral check. Review each concept for repetition, vocabulary inflation or difficulty without deeper understanding, and ask for revisions where needed.
What is an agent skill, and what does this one do?
An agent skill is a folder containing a SKILL.md file with instructions that an AI agent loads when a request matches the skill's description. This skill is named spiral-curriculum and is designed for the OpenMAIC course platform.
When it is active, the agent starts from a small set of core concepts rather than a topic list. It drafts a concept map showing when each idea first appears, when it returns, and what it adds each time. The source says the agent then asks you to confirm the plan before building anything.
- Concept Spine: each core concept written as a transferable understanding, usually 3 to 6 concepts per series.
- Spiral Map: each concept's encounter history across lessons.
- Spiral Contract: a planning record for each lesson listing returning concepts, new concepts, added complexity, new relations, representation shift, transfer target and future hook.
- Anti-spiral check: after the series is built, the agent checks for repetition that does not deepen the idea.
Install the skill from the downloaded ZIP
Download the ZIP for this skill from our page and unzip it. For a personal install, place the skill folder in ~/.claude/skills/. To keep it only for one project, place it in that project's .claude/skills/ folder.
You can also upload the skill in the Claude apps: open Settings, go to Capabilities, then Skills, and upload it there.
- Personal install: ~/.claude/skills/
- Project install: the .claude/skills/ folder inside your project
- Claude apps: Settings → Capabilities → Skills
Check what you need before you start
The skill builds lessons inside the OpenMAIC platform, so you need access to OpenMAIC with its stage and curriculum tools. The source names functions such as create_folder, create_stage, generate_scene, read_stage and ask_user.
The skill also refers to companion skills: /stage-design and /curriculum-planner are required by the file. /understanding-by-design, /feynman-learning, /learning-to-learn, /social-emotional-learning, /style-clone and /pptx-import are optional. Those companion files are not included in the reviewed files, so the skill may not work fully without them.
- OpenMAIC platform with stage and curriculum tools
- /stage-design and /curriculum-planner (referenced, not included in the reviewed files)
- Optional companion skills listed above
Trigger the skill with a natural request
Ask for the approach by name or describe the goal. The description says to use it when you explicitly want a Bruner-style spiral curriculum, progressive conceptual revisits, or a series organised by how understanding develops.
Be clear that you want a series. The skill says not to use it for a single standalone lesson or for a series that only needs sequential coverage.
- Good: "Design a 5-lesson Bruner-style spiral curriculum on fractions in OpenMAIC, with core ideas returning at higher levels."
- Good: "Plan a series where proportional reasoning comes back in each lesson with more variables and a new context."
- Not a fit: "Make one lesson about photosynthesis." The source points to stage-design for that.
- Not a fit: "Cover chapters 1 to 10 in order." The source points to curriculum-planner for that.
What happens during a run
The work has two stages. First the agent produces the architecture for you to review: the Concept Spine, the Course Timeline, the Concept Spiral Map, the Learner Progression and each lesson's Spiral Contract. It uses ask_user so you can change lesson count, timing of concepts, depth and cross-links. No lessons are created until you confirm this plan.
After approval, the source says the agent builds the whole approved series into a folder: create_folder for the series, create_stage for each lesson, then set_roster, generate_scene per page, optional narration through generate_actions and generate_tts, and checks with list_scenes, read_stage_outline and read_stage. Before each later lesson it updates its concept memory from what is actually saved.
- Step 1: review and confirm the architecture.
- Step 2: the series is built and saved to the folder.
- Step 3: check each concept for spiral quality.
Tips for a better spiral
Give the agent a small number of ideas to track. The source suggests 3 to 6 core concepts, since too many leads to shallow lessons.
Make every revisit answer one question: what is new compared with last time? Pick one main growth operator per revisit, such as ADD_COMPLEXITY, ABSTRACT or ADD_EXCEPTION, plus a few supporting ones. Stacking every operator only adds difficulty.
Leave a deliberate future hook in early lessons. The source allows productive incompleteness, so an early model can be useful but partial.
- Start each concept with a transferable sentence, not a noun.
- Ask for the change log per concept if you want to audit the series.
- Do not expect the skill to keep memory between sessions beyond what is saved in your conversation and OpenMAIC.
What people use it for
- A teacher planning a unit where proportional reasoning returns in each lesson with more variables and new contexts.
- An instructional designer building a multi-lesson OpenMAIC course with a tracked history for each core concept.
- A self-learner or student who wants to see how a well-structured series is organised.
- A course designer checking an existing plan for fake spirals, where a topic only repeats or gets harder without deepening.
Frequently asked questions
How do I install the spiral-curriculum agent skill?
Download the ZIP from the page and unzip it into ~/.claude/skills/ for personal use or into a project's .claude/skills/ folder. In the Claude apps you can instead upload it under Settings, then Capabilities, then Skills.
Is the spiral-curriculum skill free?
The source provided for this page does not state pricing. It lists the licence as MIT. Check the repository's licence file for terms.
What do I need to run it?
You need the OpenMAIC platform with its stage and curriculum tools. The file also requires /stage-design and /curriculum-planner, which are not included in the reviewed files.
Does it run scripts or use the network?
According to the review on this page, the skill runs no scripts and uses no network. It works through the OpenMAIC tools listed in its instructions.
What is the difference between a spiral curriculum and a normal lesson plan?
A normal sequence covers topics in order. A spiral curriculum brings the same core ideas back, each time adding complexity, abstraction, connections, a new representation, a new context or an exception.
Can I use it for a single lesson?
No. The skill says not to use it for a single standalone lesson; use stage-design instead. It is also not for plain sequential coverage, where curriculum-planner is the recommended skill.
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Our verdict
Use this skill if you are designing a multi-lesson series and want core ideas to return with real conceptual growth, and you are comfortable working inside OpenMAIC. Pick something else for a single lesson, for simple chapter-by-chapter coverage, or for copying a visual style or importing PowerPoint files, since the skill routes those jobs to other skills.
Download the skill