Roadmap

:::info Source Sourced from docs/ROADMAP.md in the documentation repo. :::

This is the execution layer. The end-state specification lives in README.md and docs/01-14 + service docs in docs/03-microservices/. This roadmap sequences how to ship the full product without rework.

This file is the index. Detailed execution artifacts live under docs/roadmap/.

Companion Documents

File	Purpose
Slice → Epic → Story Mapping	Every US-1 … US-118 mapped to a slice + milestone + sprint-ready backlog
Service Readiness Gates	Per-service "ready" definitions per milestone (domain, API, events, sync, AI, security, perf)
Architectural Freeze Points	Which contracts must freeze before each milestone (PlayPackage, Sync, Events, AI Gateway, SCORM, RRULE)
Team Capacity & Load Model	Team composition per milestone, critical-path teams, parallelization
Slice-Level Risk Register	Risks, severity, impact, mitigation, owner per slice
Slice Release Readiness	Functional, NFR, AI, offline, security, multi-tenant, observability, docs gates per slice
Customer-Facing Packaging	What customers see, buy, pricing tier, onboarding, docs, support per slice
Migration & Backward Compatibility	Schema versioning, tenant migration, bundle migration, AI prompt evolution, SCORM/xAPI versioning

0. Guiding Principles

Every slice ships to customers. No dormant code. No "phase 2 dumping."
Foundations once, reused N times. Tenant isolation, event envelope, AI gateway, sync protocol are built in M0 and never re-architected.
AI-first and offline-first from M1. They are the moat; late-binding them forces rewrites.
Monetizable milestones. M2 produces revenue; every subsequent milestone grows ARR.
Architecture is non-negotiable. DDD boundaries, Clean Architecture, event-only integration, multi-tenant at every layer. Velocity comes from skipping features, never architecture.
Freeze before build. Contracts (schemas, protocols, ports) freeze before the code that uses them — see architectural-freeze-points.md.

1. Executive Roadmap

Milestone	Name	Duration	Cumulative	Customers	Primary Value	Revenue
M0	Platform Foundation	3 mo	M+3	Internal only	Tenant iso, event spine, AI gateway, sync spine	—
M1	First Marketable Product (FMP)	3 mo	M+6	3–5 paid design partners	Learner + AI tutor + offline + provisional certs	Pilot fees
M2	First Sellable Product (FSP)	3 mo	M+9	Self-serve customers	Authoring MVP + Marketplace + SCORM 1.2 + Billing	First recurring revenue
M3	Competitive Differentiator	3 mo	M+12	Enterprise + regulated	SSO + Compliance + SCORM 2004/xAPI + AI Co-Author full	Enterprise contracts
M4	Full Platform GA	3 mo	M+15	General availability	Full authoring + live collab + offline authoring + LTI	GA pricing, channel
M5	Post-GA Expansion	3 mo	M+18	Scale customers	Multi-region + HIPAA + AI admin v2 + mobile native	Expansion + enterprise upsell

Fastest path to first revenue: M+9 (M2 complete — marketplace + SCORM + billing live).

Month:   0      3          6          9          12         15         18
         │      │          │          │          │          │          │
Stream A │ M0 Platform Foundation     │
Stream A │      │   M1 FMP (Learner + AI Tutor + Offline)
Stream B │                 │   M2 FSP (Marketplace + SCORM + Billing)
Stream B │                            │   M3 Differentiator (Co-Author + SSO + Compliance)
Stream C │                                       │   M4 GA (Full Authoring + Collab + Offline Authoring)
Stream D │                                                  │   M5 Scale (Mobile + Multi-region + AI Admin)

         ▲          ▲                      ▲                            ▲
       Design    First Active           First Revenue                  GA & Scale
      Partners   Learners

2. Slice-to-Milestone Mapping

Each slice is independently deployable. Full story-level mapping in slice-epic-story-mapping.md.

Slice	Milestone	Headline	Epics Included	Stories (ranges)
S0 Foundation	M0	Tenant + event + AI gateway + sync core	EP-1 (partial), EP-2 (partial), EP-16 (core), EP-20 (core), EP-21 (GDPR primitives), EP-22 (a11y baseline)	US-1, US-3, US-4, US-6, US-9, US-115, US-79–US-83, US-102, US-104–US-106, US-109–US-114
S1 Minimal Learner	M1	Player + AI tutor + offline bundle	EP-8, EP-9 (minimal), EP-10 (core), EP-12 (minimal), EP-14, EP-16 (full), EP-17, EP-19 (core), EP-20 (resume), EP-22	US-22 (bundle), US-22a, US-40–US-46, US-49–US-51, US-56 (mini), US-69–US-73, US-79–US-83, US-84–US-91, US-95–US-99, US-100
S2 Authoring MVP + AI Co-Author MVP	M2	Block editor + AI co-author + publish saga	EP-3, EP-4 (HTML + SCORM 1.2 + bundle), EP-5 (core), EP-13 (MVP)	US-12–US-14, US-16, US-17, US-19, US-21, US-22b (import v1), US-23–US-26, US-60, US-62, US-67
S3 Marketplace MVP	M2	Listings + orders + licenses + payouts	EP-6, EP-9 (issue + verify), EP-10 (webhooks + receipts)	US-27–US-33, US-45–US-46, US-52
S4 Compliance + Enterprise	M3	Assignments + SSO + RBAC depth + SCORM 2004/xAPI	EP-1 (SAML), EP-2 (full), EP-4 (2004+xAPI), EP-7, EP-9 (templates + recert), EP-13 (full), EP-15 (v1), EP-16 (audit export)	US-2, US-5, US-7, US-8, US-10, US-11, US-116, US-117, US-118, US-20, US-34, US-35–US-39, US-47–US-48, US-61, US-63–US-66, US-68, US-74–US-78, US-83
S5 Full Authoring + Offline Authoring	M4	Live collab + offline drafts + full media + localization	EP-3 (collab + localize), EP-13 (images + TTS), EP-18, EP-4 (imports), EP-11 (search core), EP-22 (depth)	US-15, US-18, US-64–US-66, US-92–US-94, US-53
S6 Scale + Advanced Insight + Mobile	M5	AI admin v2 + recs + multi-region + mobile native + LTI	EP-11, EP-12 (full), EP-15 (v2), EP-20 (multi-device full), EP-21 (residency + Merkle)	US-54–US-55, US-57–US-59, US-74–US-78 (depth), US-101–US-103, US-107–US-108

3. Critical Path Analysis

3.1 Critical path to first revenue (M+9)

  tenant-service ──► identity-service ──► enrollment-service ──► delivery-service ──► progress-service ──► first LEARNER play
        │                                                                                                            │
        ▼                                                                                                            ▼
  ai-gateway-service ──► AI Tutor ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────► Learner demo  ──► DESIGN PARTNERS (M+6)
        │
        ▼
  sync-service ──► content-service (bundles) ──► Offline player ────────────────────────────► Design partner proof
        │
        ▼
  authoring-service ──► catalog-service ──► content-service (SCORM 1.2 export) ──► marketplace-service ──► billing-service ──► FIRST REVENUE (M+9)

3.2 Parallelization

See team-capacity-model.md for exact owner assignments. High-level:

Can run in parallel from M0	Rationale
Platform (tenant, identity, events, sync, AI gateway)	Foundation
Frontend design system + PWA shell	No domain dependency
AI Gateway + prompt registry	Freeze-first contract
Observability + security tooling	Cross-cutting

Unlocks at M0 end	Waiting stream
content-service PlayPackage builds	depends on frozen PlayPackage schema
authoring-service block editor	depends on frozen block schema
marketplace-service + billing	depends on authoring publish saga

4. Slicing Strategy

Each slice is documented in detail in slice-epic-story-mapping.md. Per-slice readiness gates in slice-release-readiness.md. Per-slice risks in slice-risk-register.md. Per-slice customer packaging in customer-facing-packaging.md. Per-slice migration rules in migration-backward-compatibility.md.

Summary:

Slice 0 — Platform Foundation (M0)

Multi-tenant platform skeleton, event backbone, AI gateway, sync protocol. No customer-facing product. Customer impact: internal only (design-partner NDAs in progress).

Slice 1 — Minimal Learner (M1)

Learner UX + AI tutor + offline playback. Authoring done via operator-assisted JSON ingestion. Customer impact: 3–5 paid pilot orgs.

Slice 2 — Authoring MVP + AI Co-Author MVP (M2)

Block editor with AI co-author (text + quiz + rewrite). Publish saga replaces operator ingestion. Customer impact: self-serve authors on the platform.

Slice 3 — Marketplace MVP (M2)

Listings, pricing, orders, licenses, payments, payouts, SCORM 1.2 export. Customer impact: first dollar; provider revenue.

Slice 4 — Compliance + Enterprise (M3)

Assignments with RRULE, SAML SSO, full RBAC/ABAC/dynamic groups, SCORM 2004 + xAPI + cmi5, certificate templates, AI admin insight v1. Customer impact: enterprise contracts; regulated industries.

Slice 5 — Full Authoring + Offline Authoring (M4)

Live collaborative authoring (Yjs), offline drafts with conflict UI, localization + AI translation, full media pipeline (TTS, images, captions), LTI 1.3. Customer impact: feature parity with Rise + Storyline plus AI + offline net-positives; GA announcement.

Slice 6 — Scale + Advanced Insight + Mobile (M5)

Multi-region data residency, marketplace scale (coupons, bundles, multi-currency payouts), AI admin insight v2 (board summaries, outdated detection, at-risk prediction), mobile native polish (biometric unlock, background sync, widgets), HIPAA healthcare tier, white-label, developer marketplace. Customer impact: scale customers; expansion revenue.

5. Service Readiness (Summary)

Full per-service, per-milestone readiness in service-readiness-gates.md. Each service has eight canonical gates:

Domain ready — aggregates implemented with invariants; pure TS; unit-tested.
API ready — OpenAPI published + versioned; idempotency + problem-json + cursor pagination.
Events ready — subjects + schemas registered; outbox + inbox; Pact contracts.
Sync ready — applicable services register with sync-service; conflict policy declared.
AI ready — consumers use AIClient port; provenance invariant enforced; prompts registered + eval'd.
Observability ready — SLOs defined; OTel end-to-end; dashboards; runbook.
Performance ready — k6 test meeting target; degradation plan documented.
Security ready — tenant isolation test green; threat-model updated; pen-test findings closed; audit events emitted.

Service	M0 gate	M1 gate	M2 gate	M3 gate	M4 gate	M5 gate
identity	L2 (all)	L3	L3	L4 (SAML)	L4	L4
tenant	L2	L3	L3	L4 (ABAC+DG)	L4	L4
ai-gateway	L3	L4	L4	L4	L4	L4
sync	L3	L4	L4	L4	L4	L4
delivery	—	L3	L3	L4	L4	L4
progress	—	L3	L3	L4	L4	L4
content	—	L3 (bundle+HTML)	L3 (+SCORM 1.2)	L4 (+2004+xAPI)	L4 (+imports)	L4
authoring	—	L1 (block runtime only)	L3 (MVP editor)	L4 (+AI flows)	L4 (+collab+offline)	L4
catalog	—	L2	L3	L3	L4	L4
marketplace	—	—	L3	L3	L4	L4
billing	—	—	L3	L3	L3	L4
enrollment	—	L3	L3	L3	L3	L3
assignment	—	—	L1 (manual only)	L4 (RRULE+DG+escalation)	L4	L4
assessment	—	L3 (serve+score)	L3	L4 (+AI gen + branching)	L4	L4
certification	—	L2 (provisional+issue)	L2	L3 (+templates+recert)	L4	L4
notification	L3 (core)	L3	L3	L4 (+webhooks)	L4	L4
media	—	L2 (upload+variants+captions)	L3 (+transcoding)	L3	L4 (+TTS+image+styles)	L4
search	—	L1 (lexical only)	L2	L3	L4 (+semantic+recs)	L4
analytics	L1 (skeleton)	L2 (learner mini)	L3 (provider dash)	L4 (+AI insight v1)	L4	L4 (+AI insight v2)

Level guide: L1 = skeleton-tested, not customer-facing. L2 = internally usable. L3 = customer-facing MVP meeting target SLOs. L4 = feature-complete per spec. Gate definitions in service-readiness-gates.md.

6. Architectural Freeze Points

See architectural-freeze-points.md for detail. Summary:

Contract	Frozen before	Owner	Evolution rule
`EventEnvelope` + schema registry	M0 end	Platform	Only additive; breaking → new `vN`
`TenantId` / `UserId` / `AIProvenance` VOs	M0 end	Platform	Never change shape
Sync protocol (pull/push/resolve + vector clocks)	M0 end	Platform	Additive only; breaking → `/sync/v2/`
`AIClient` port + `Prompt` registry format	M0 end	AI Services	Additive only
PlayPackage manifest schema	M1 start	Content-Packaging	New fields optional only; breaking → PlayPackage v2
Block registry schema	M2 start	Authoring	New block kinds additive; existing kind changes → block-kind `v2`
Navigation state machine	M1 start	Delivery	New states additive; transitions stable
SCORM 1.2 export shape	M2 start	Content-Packaging	ADL conformance is the contract
SCORM 2004 + xAPI vocab + cmi5	M3 start	Content-Packaging + Progress	ADL conformance
RRULE semantics	M3 start	Assignment	RFC 5545 is the contract
Conflict-resolution matrix	M0 end	Sync + DDD	Adding aggregates yes; changing policy rarely and documented
Error code registry (`/openapi/errors.json`)	M1 end	Platform	Codes never renamed; new codes additive
Webhook signature (HMAC + nonce + timestamp)	M2 start	Notification	Never changed
AI prompt semver rules	M2 start	AI Services	Prompt versions are append-only; deprecation per tenant
Certificate proof format (JWS + JSON-LD)	M3 start	Certification	Additions only
LTI 1.3 keys + format	M4 start	Tenant	LTI standard

7. Team Capacity & Load Model (Summary)

Full detail in team-capacity-model.md.

Team	M0 (26)	M1 (32)	M2 (40)	M3 (48)	M4 (55)	M5 (62)
Platform (tenant/identity/events/sync/AI-gateway)	6	5	5	5	5	6
Learner (delivery/progress/player)	2	6	4	4	4	5
Authoring	1	2	6	5	7	5
Commerce (marketplace/billing)	—	1	5	4	4	5
Enterprise (assignment/certification/SSO)	—	—	1	6	4	4
Content-Packaging	1	3	3	4	3	3
Data/AI/Insight	2	2	3	5	6	7
Media	1	2	3	3	5	5
Security + SRE	3	3	3	4	5	6
Design + UX	3	3	3	3	3	3
PM + Program	2	2	3	4	4	4
DevEx + Docs	2	2	2	2	3	3
Support + Solutions	0	1	2	3	4	4

Critical-path teams: Platform (M0), Learner (M1), Authoring + Commerce (M2), Enterprise (M3), Authoring + Collab (M4), Data/AI + Mobile + SRE (M5).

Idle / low-load periods and how to use them:

Enterprise team in M0–M1 → used for SSO prototyping + SOC 2 documentation.
Commerce team in M0 → used for billing ACL design + processor-vendor evaluation.
Authoring team in M1 → builds block runtime (learner side), not editor yet.

8. Slice Risk Register (Summary)

Full register in slice-risk-register.md. Top slice-level risks:

Slice	Top risk	Severity	Mitigation owner
S0	Tenant isolation regression	S1	Platform
S1	Offline bundle tamper/device-binding bugs	S1	Content + Security
S1	AI tutor hallucination at learner surface	S1	AI + Learning
S2	Publish saga half-failures	S1	Platform + Content
S3	Payment compliance + refund edge cases	S1	Commerce + Legal
S4	RRULE + timezone correctness	S2	Enterprise
S4	SAML edge cases per IdP	S2	Enterprise + Platform
S5	Offline authoring conflict UX	S1	Authoring + Sync
S6	Multi-region migration saga	S1	Platform + SRE

9. Timeline

9.1 Gantt (ASCII)

Month: 0           3           6           9          12          15          18
       │           │           │           │           │           │           │
       ├───────────┤───────────┤───────────┤───────────┤───────────┤───────────┤
  M0:  ███████████                                                             │   Foundation
       │           ├───────────┤                                               │
  M1:  │           ████████████                                                │   FMP
       │           │           ├───────────┤                                   │
  M2:  │           │           ████████████                                    │   FSP (Revenue)
       │           │           │           ├───────────┤                       │
  M3:  │           │           │           ████████████                        │   Differentiator
       │           │           │           │           ├───────────┤           │
  M4:  │           │           │           │           ████████████            │   GA
       │           │           │           │           │           ├───────────┤
  M5:  │           │           │           │           │           ████████████│   Scale

       ▲           ▲           ▲           ▲           ▲           ▲           ▲
      Start    Pilots      Revenue    Enterprise     GA        Multi-         ISO/
                                                              region         HIPAA

9.2 Milestone decision gates

Gate	Before next milestone
M0 → M1	Two-tenant isolation suite green; AI gateway + sync protocol frozen; SLOs green ≥ 2 wks; event schema registry live
M1 → M2	3 design partners with active learner sessions; offline play chaos-tested; AI tutor accept-rate > 50 %; pen-test #1 closed
M2 → M3	First revenue realized; SCORM Cloud pass; refund + payout loops healthy; SCORM 1.2 round-trip conformance
M3 → M4	First enterprise customer live; SOC 2 Type I; SAML tested across 4 IdPs; compliance engine live in production
M4 → M5	GA announcement live; ≥ 3 enterprise + ≥ 5 SMB reference customers; 99.9 % uptime sustained 2 quarters; SOC 2 Type II
M5 → steady-state	ISO 27001 attestation; multi-region live for ≥ 1 tenant; HIPAA BAA offered

10. Competitive Positioning (unchanged from v1)

Milestone	Unlocks	Beats competitor on
M1	Offline AI tutor + tamper-evident offline bundles	No LMS has real offline AI.
M2	Self-serve marketplace + AI co-author + SCORM 1.2 export	Articulate has no marketplace + no AI co-author; Docebo clunky authoring.
M3	Compliance + SCORM 2004/xAPI + SAML self-serve	Cornerstone/SAP charge premium; we include it.
M4	Full authoring parity with Rise + Storyline + AI + offline	Articulate 360 ~$1.4k/author/yr; we match + add.
M5	AI admin insight + multi-region + healthcare tier	360Learning has AI but no offline; Docebo scale but slow AI; we deliver both.

11. Cross-Cutting Checklists

11.1 Release readiness (every milestone)

11.2 Architecture guardrails (every PR)

Domain layer imports no framework.
Every write endpoint requires Idempotency-Key.
Every aggregate persists tenantId.
Every AI artifact carries aiProvenance.
Every replicable aggregate declares a conflict policy.
No cross-service DB reads.
No synchronous chain > 2 hops.
No AI call bypasses ai-gateway-service.

12. Why This Sequence

Moat first (M1). AI tutor + offline learning are features incumbents can't copy quickly.
Monetize early (M2). Real-world discipline from paying customers.
Enterprise checkboxes at M3. SSO + compliance + SCORM 2004/xAPI as a package.
Authoring parity at M4. Ship feature match with Articulate with AI + offline as net-positives.
Scale + regulated tiers at M5. Multi-region + HIPAA + white-label capture expansion revenue.
Architecture remains intact because every foundational concern lands in M0 and is never revisited structurally.

If this document ever conflicts with the end-state specification (01–14), the specification wins — this roadmap only sequences its delivery.

Companion Documents​

0. Guiding Principles​

1. Executive Roadmap​

2. Slice-to-Milestone Mapping​

3. Critical Path Analysis​

3.1 Critical path to first revenue (M+9)​

3.2 Parallelization​

4. Slicing Strategy​

Slice 0 — Platform Foundation (M0)​

Slice 1 — Minimal Learner (M1)​

Slice 2 — Authoring MVP + AI Co-Author MVP (M2)​

Slice 3 — Marketplace MVP (M2)​

Slice 4 — Compliance + Enterprise (M3)​

Slice 5 — Full Authoring + Offline Authoring (M4)​

Slice 6 — Scale + Advanced Insight + Mobile (M5)​

5. Service Readiness (Summary)​

6. Architectural Freeze Points​

7. Team Capacity & Load Model (Summary)​

8. Slice Risk Register (Summary)​

9. Timeline​

9.1 Gantt (ASCII)​

9.2 Milestone decision gates​

10. Competitive Positioning (unchanged from v1)​

11. Cross-Cutting Checklists​

11.1 Release readiness (every milestone)​

11.2 Architecture guardrails (every PR)​

12. Why This Sequence​