π The Bestiary
Each assignment is a creature. Each creature has a tier. Each tier has a point value.
This Bestiary names the recurring shapes of weekly work β the creatures you will face most often. For work outside the Bestiary, the master who assigns it will name a wild tier in the moment.
π Logging a Defeat
When you complete an assignment, append to progress.md in your project repo. The format is described in the Progress Log Template:
- YYYY-MM-DD β **Code Familiar** (I, +10) β short note on what was done
- YYYY-MM-DD β **Wraith** (Marco-judged, +15) β short noteUse the printed point value for named creatures. For Marco-judged work, leave a ? and let the master fill it in during PR review.
π Named Creatures
| Creature | Domain | Tier | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|
| Code Familiar | small utility, refactor, scaffolding | I | 10 |
| Glyph Sprite | a clean math derivation or lemma | I | 10 |
| Phantom of the Stack | a tracked-down bug, root cause documented | II | 20 |
| Beast of the Library | a paper read, distilled into a one-page summary | II | 20 |
| NaN Wraith | a numerical instability resolved (overflow, divergence, gradient pathology) | III | 35 |
| Construct of the Pipeline | infrastructure or data plumbing built and working | III | 35 |
| Drake of the Ansatz | a new method, model, or approach designed (not iteration) | IV | 60 |
| Specter of Convergence | proof or empirical study of convergence | IV | 60 |
| Hydra of the Hyperparams | a full sweep with analysis β every head a parameter | IV | 60 |
| Dragon of the Awakening | the week-2 milestone presentation | V | 100 |
| Dragon of the Convergence | the week-7 milestone presentation | V | 100 |
| Quintessential Dragon | the week-12 milestone presentation | V | 150 |
π Wild Tiers
Sometimes the master assigns work that does not match any creature in the Bestiary. In that case the work is wild, and the master names its tier in the moment.
| Tier | Pts | Shape |
|---|---|---|
| Imp | 5 | trivial β a fix, a tweak, a one-liner |
| Wraith | 15 | small β a working artifact, not yet a study |
| Drake | 30 | substantial β judgment was required |
| Dragon | 60+ | rare β a research-shaped beast |
Wild encounters are judged on completion, not at assignment. Log them with the masterβs stated tier and point value.
π A Final Note
The Bestiary will grow. Creatures may be added, retired, or reweighted as the codex evolves. The masterβs word is final in any contested defeat.