Build out all 27 modules + capstone (#1)

Co-authored-by: claude <claude@jpaul.io>
Co-committed-by: claude <claude@jpaul.io>

README.md

@@ -1,2 +1,93 @@
-# the-workflow-course
+# The Workflow
+### The Toolchain Around AI Coding
 
+A living course for IT professionals who are comfortable in an AI chat window and starting to build
+real software with it — but are still copy-pasting between the chat and their files. The goal is to
+replace that loop with durable engineering workflows: version control, collaboration, CI/CD,
+runners, and the tools that extend AI into real systems.
+
+> **Thesis:** the model is the cheap, swappable part. The workflow around it is the skill that
+> lasts. This course is deliberately model- and vendor-agnostic — whichever LLM you use, the
+> scaffolding is the same.
+
+This repo *is* the course, and it also dogfoods the course: it's version-controlled, it commits its
+own AI instructions file ([`AGENTS.md`](AGENTS.md), the subject of Module 5), and each module is
+built on a branch and merged through review — exactly the motion the modules teach.
+
+---
+
+## Who this is for
+
+IT professionals who are fluent in an AI chat window and comfortable with ops concepts — **not
+beginners.** If you already paste code between a chat tab and your editor and feel the friction, you
+are the audience. You will not be taught what a variable is; you will be taught the engineering
+scaffolding that makes AI-assisted work safe, shareable, and repeatable.
+
+---
+
+## How the course is built
+
+It's a **dependency chain, not a topic list.** Every module assumes only what the previous ones
+taught, and nothing references a tool before it's been introduced. The 27 modules group into five
+units, plus a capstone finale.
+
+| Unit | Modules | Theme |
+|------|---------|-------|
+| **1 — Get out of the chat window** | 1–7 | The local foundation: version control, committing the AI's config, getting the AI editing real files safely. |
+| **2 — Make it shareable, reviewable, recoverable** | 8–12 | The team layer: hosting, issues, review, collaboration, recovery. |
+| **3 — Automate the checking and shipping** | 13–19 | The pipeline: tests, CI, security scanning, containers, secrets, delivery, runners. |
+| **4 — Extend the AI into your systems** | 20–23 | The frontier: MCP, skills, securing them, existing codebases. |
+| **5 — AI in the loop** | 24–27 | Agents inside the pipeline, from assistive to autonomous, plus the evals that make it trustworthy. |
+| **Capstone** | finale | One real feature taken end to end. |
+
+**Durable core vs. expansion zone.** Modules 1–14 are the stable foundation. From Module 15 onward
+is the expansion zone, where a fast-moving space keeps handing us new lessons. Volatile material
+lives toward the back so the front stays stable as the course grows.
+
+See [`the-workflow-syllabus.md`](the-workflow-syllabus.md) for the full module-by-module plan and
+the reasoning behind the sequencing.
+
+---
+
+## Format and conventions
+
+- **Written lessons + interactive labs.** Every module is a README you read *and* a lab you run at
+  the keyboard. There are no quizzes; there's a "you're done when…" check.
+- **Run labs on your own machine, any OS.** No sandbox or cloud account required. Where a lab needs
+  code, it leans on **Python or shell** — picked per lab, kept as small as possible. The *concepts*
+  are language-agnostic; the labs just need something concrete to run.
+- **GitHub is the default, not the requirement.** Hosting examples use GitHub because nearly
+  everyone will encounter it, but the course is provider-neutral and includes an optional
+  **self-hosted-forge track** for on-prem and air-gapped environments.
+- **Self-checks only.** No grading, no certification — each module ends at a concrete done-criterion.
+
+---
+
+## Repo layout
+
+```
+the-workflow-course/
+  README.md                 # this file
+  AGENTS.md                 # committed AI instructions — dogfoods Module 5 (vendor-neutral name)
+  the-workflow-syllabus.md  # the full course plan (source of truth for structure)
+  handoff.md                # build-context notes for the authoring sessions
+  _TEMPLATE.md              # the shape every module follows
+  modules/
+    01-the-copy-paste-problem/
+      README.md
+      lab/
+    02-version-control-as-a-safety-net/
+      README.md
+      lab/
+    ...
+  capstone/
+    README.md
+  assets/                   # diagrams, images
+```
+
+---
+
+## Status
+
+Planning is complete (27 modules + capstone). Authoring is in progress, built in dependency-chain
+order. Modules 1–2 are drafted as the reference exemplars; the rest follow.