Founding cohort — the dojo is being built belt by belt, and White Belt opens the ladder
Master the loop that ships real work.
The tools keep changing. The loop won't.
You walk in with your work scattered across your head, your chats, and your half-finished lists. You walk out running a production loop that ships real work — a task engine you built yourself, belt by belt, with agents working your line and a head Sensei and an AI senpai corps in your corner the whole way.
The art
One discipline: Kotoshori — the art of matter handling
Kotoshori is the discipline of moving work out of your head into an inspectable loop. It is testable, for any piece of work you're holding:
- It carries its own context. Outcome, sources, acceptance, boundaries — written so a stranger could execute it.
- It is claimed by exactly one operator. Human or agent — never two, never nobody-knows.
- Every state change carries a receipt. Who moved it, and why.
- It stays visible on a board until it's done. No silent work, no vanished work.
Any "no" means it isn't Kotoshori yet. You practice the art in the domain of agentic engineering — designing, building, and shipping AI agents that do real, multi-step work — and it's the one Japanese term you'll use daily. Everything else is plain English.
The method
You direct. Your agents build.
No hand-coding, at any belt
You write task records and specs; your agents write the code. Writing is the craft at every belt — a task a stranger (your agent) can't execute isn't a task yet. Non-coders reach Black Belt on the same ladder.
Every lesson, four beats
Teaching (the principle, tool-free) → Kata (guided drill) → Ship (a small, real artifact of your own) → Review (during the founding beta, the head Sensei reviews Ships personally; automated senpai grading is being built).
Belts are earned, not attended
Each belt is designed to end in a Belt Test judged on cited evidence, with Black Belt additionally carrying the head Sensei's personal sign-off. Belt Tests, grading and credentials are not running yet — they are being completed during the founding beta, and no belt lessons have published yet.
Mentorship at scale
A human head Sensei sets the philosophy, answers in the threads, and personally signs off every black belt. An always-on AI senpai corps is being built to review Ships and answer you when you're stuck; during the founding beta that mentoring is human. The dojo's own agent team runs on the exact loop it teaches.
The ladder
Six belts. One machine — yours.
Each belt builds one component of your own agentic production system, by directing your agents — and teaches the principle that component exists to enforce.
Releasing belt by belt. White Belt — The Stance is published, and founders can begin now. Yellow through Black are under construction, and we do not promise release dates for unreleased belts. Each later belt is included as released, at no additional course fee.
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White Belt — The Stance available now
You build: your agents installed and connected, an organized workspace, everything in git and GitHub.
The principle: work leaves your head carrying its context — directing your agent is writing task records.
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Yellow Belt — The Vault under construction
You build: a wiki-style repository — the archive and log of all your work.
The principle: if it isn't written down, it didn't happen.
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Green Belt — The Engine planned
You build: your task engine — a queue with atomic claims, receipts, and history. The finale: an agent claims a task from your queue and works it.
The principle: the queue is the system of record; no silent state changes.
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Blue Belt — The Scrolls planned
You build: the kanban board, in your browser and on your phone — a view of the queue, never a second copy — plus locksmith habits for keys and secrets.
The principle: make work visible; flow beats effort.
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Brown Belt — The Voice planned
You build: a voice agent that writes task records into your queue — gated fail-closed, with a mini eval suite proving the gate holds.
The principle: capture at the speed of thought; spoken input is untrusted input.
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Black Belt — The Masterwork planned
You build: a real project of your own — planned by talking to the voice agent you built, executed through your whole machine, to done.
The proof: the evidence trail — task records, receipts, queue history, vault log — plus the head Sensei's personal sign-off.
Honest terms
Join while the dojo is under construction
Not everything is finished, and this page won't pretend otherwise.
The curriculum is being released belt by belt, starting with White Belt. Buying today makes you a founding member: you start climbing while the later belts are built — and the dojo is built by the very loop it teaches, an agent team run by the head Sensei, in the open.
$300 is the founding price for the whole six-belt course — every belt included as it releases, at no additional course fee. You pay it once. There is no subscription, no membership fee, and no future charge. You'll never be sold a belt twice.
The door is wide
Zero to black belt — technical or not
The ladder assumes nothing: no prior AI knowledge, no agents, no code. You'll never be asked to hand-code.
What you need
A computer (Mac-first; Windows works via WSL, best-effort) and a credit card for AI subscriptions.
Cost honesty, up front
Your AI costs are separate from the dojo: a Claude subscription at White Belt, and later (around Blue and Brown) an Anthropic API key. Two separate purchases — disclosed now so no billing moment surprises you.
Pricing
One door in. One payment.
$300 once — the only charge
- Permanent access to the Dojo Belt Course and all nine current Circle spaces
- Every belt as it is released — White Belt is available now
- No further course fee, ever — later belts included as they release
$300 today. That is the whole price — no subscription, no trial, no renewal, no future charge.
Refunds and chargebacks — as enforced, not as marketing
- Nothing to cancel. Your enrollment is a single payment, not a subscription. There is no recurring charge, and your course access cannot lapse for non-payment.
- Full refund within 14 calendar days of your payment succeeding, provided you have not yet earned White Belt. Message the head Sensei to request it.
- After 14 days, or once White Belt is earned — whichever comes first — the payment is final, except for duplicate charges, our material failure to provide the access you bought, rights you hold under law that cannot be waived, or a discretionary exception approved by the owner.
- A refund never erases a credential you legitimately earned.
- Chargebacks. If you dispute the charge with your bank we pause paid access while we respond factually. Resolved in our favour, access is restored; resolved in yours, we treat it as a completed refund. We never retaliate and never remove an earned belt over a payment dispute.
We make no promise about any future community-membership offer or its price. If one is ever offered it will be a separate, optional purchase, described at that time — it is not part of what you are buying here.
Questions
Asked before you ask
Do I need to know how to code?
No — and you won't learn to hand-code here. You learn to direct: you write task records and specs, your agents write the code, and you verify the result. That's the craft, at every belt including Black.
Is the whole course available today?
Not the whole course — the belts release one at a time. White Belt — The Stance is published, and founders can begin now. Yellow through Black are under construction, and we do not promise release dates for unreleased belts. Founding members join while the later belts are built — that's why the $300 is a founding price — and each later belt is included as released, at no additional course fee.
What does it cost beyond the $300?
Nothing to SkillDojo. $300 is the only charge — there is no subscription, no membership fee and no future charge. Separately, you'll buy your own AI access: a Claude subscription at White Belt and an Anthropic API key around Blue/Brown. Those are paid by you to the providers, and we disclose it up front so no billing moment surprises you.
How do refunds actually work?
There is nothing to cancel — it's a single payment, not a subscription. For refunds: full refund within 14 calendar days of your payment succeeding, provided you have not yet earned White Belt. After 14 days, or once White Belt is earned (whichever comes first), the payment is final — except for duplicate charges, our material failure to provide the access you bought, non-waivable legal rights, or a discretionary owner-approved exception. A refund never erases a credential you legitimately earned.
Are Belt Tests and grading running today?
No — and we won't pretend otherwise. Automated Belt Tests, senpai grading, credentials and automatic belt unlocking are being completed during the founding beta, and no belt lessons have published yet. During the beta the head Sensei works with founding members personally.
Who teaches?
A blended dojo: a human head Sensei sets the philosophy, drops into threads, and personally signs off every black belt. An always-on AI senpai corps is being built to do the scaled mentoring — reviewing Ships and answering when you're stuck — and during the founding beta that mentoring is human. Async by design; no scheduled live calls to miss.