Ontario Course Planning (OSSD) — Grades 9–12 + Top 6 (12U/M)

Generate and iteratively update Ontario Grade 9–12 OSSD course plans that meet graduation, school, and university Top 6 prerequisite rules with workload and...

Security Scan

The skill is an instruction-only course-planning assistant whose requested inputs and internal references align with its stated purpose and it does not request extra credentials, install code, or access beyond the included reference files and user prompts.

Purpose & Capability

The name/description (Ontario course planning, Top 6 strategy) matches the runtime instructions and bundled reference files. There are no unrelated environment variables, binaries, or install steps requested — everything needed (course catalog, graduation rules, summer-school catalog) is present as included reference files.

Instruction Scope

Runtime instructions are focused on: asking the user for inputs, reading and applying the included reference files, deriving prerequisites/Top 6 logic, producing/updating a 4-year plan, and recommending persistence of changes. The SKILL.md explicitly forbids overwriting included files in-place during chat. The instructions do suggest web searches to verify uncertain prerequisites — that is expected for this domain but means the agent may direct the user to external university pages for confirmation.

Install Mechanism

No install specification or code files are present; this is instruction-only. That minimizes risk because nothing is downloaded, written, or executed on the host by the skill.

Credentials

The skill requires no credentials, environment variables, or config paths. Its data needs are limited to the user-provided inputs and the local reference files bundled with the skill — proportional to the stated planning task.

Persistence & Privilege

The skill does not request always:true and is user-invocable with normal autonomous invocation allowed. It contains no install or write actions; maintenance guidance recommends the user persist changes into reference files manually. There is no evidence it modifies other skills or system-wide settings.

Assessment

This skill appears internally consistent and low-risk: it uses only the included course and rules documents and asks the user for required inputs. Before installing, confirm you are comfortable with the skill's web-search suggestions (it will recommend verifying program prerequisites on university sites). If you plan to persist changes to your local or shared catalog files, do so manually or after reviewing the proposed edits — the skill explicitly says not to overwrite files automatically during the chat. If you want extra caution, avoid granting any system-level file write access to the agent and only paste catalog/rules updates into the chat when you intend them to be used for planning.

Goal

Produce an iterable, updatable Ontario (OSSD) Grades 9–12 course plan that:

• Meets graduation requirements, school course-selection rules, and online-learning requirements
• Meets each target university/program’s prerequisites and common Top 6 (12U/M) counting patterns
• Optimizes the schedule based on user priorities (e.g., protect Grade 11/12 workload, front-load difficulty to Grade 9/10, disallow summer school, prefer easier electives for average)

Before you plan: required inputs (ask if missing)

Ask the minimum number of questions needed to fill these. If something is unknown, label it ASSUMPTION.

A) Targets (support multiple)

Record targets in working memory in this structure:

• Targets:
  • University: <name> Program: <program name> Campus/Faculty: <optional> Notes: <co-op? competitiveness?>

If the user says only “robotics/engineering”, ask whether they mean Engineering (e.g., Mechatronics/Computer/Electrical) vs CS/Math, and whether co-op matters.

B) Student + school constraints

• Current grade; completed / in-progress courses (if not starting from Grade 9)
• Special programs: French Immersion / IB / AP / etc.
• Whether the school allows: taking 12U early, cross-grade enrolment, spares in Grade 12, etc.
• Timetable constraints: typically 8 courses/year (4+4). Confirm whether 7-course years are allowed.

C) Planning priorities (must be editable)

Keep as toggles/weights:

• Workload distribution:
  • pressureFocus: "frontload" | "balanced" | "protect_11_12"
• Summer school:
  • summerSchool.enabled: true/false
  • summerSchool.maxPerYear: 1 (default)
  • summerSchool.useFor: "nonTop6" | "reachAhead" | "repeatImprove" (default: nonTop6)
• Grades/average strategy:
  • maximizeAverage: true/false
  • preferEasierElectives: true/false
• Risk tolerance:
  • planRobustness: "conservative" | "normal" | "aggressive"

Workflow (generate or update a plan)

Step 1 — Build the rule baseline (read references)

Read and apply:

• references/graduation-and-planning-rules.md
• references/summer-school-catalog.md
• references/required-bands-by-grade.md
• references/course-catalog.md

If the user provides new rules or new lists:

• Do not overwrite the files in-place during the chat.
• Clearly list what changed, and recommend writing the changes back into the appropriate references file (see “Maintenance & updates”).

Step 2 — For each target, derive prerequisites + Top 6 logic

For each (University, Program), produce:

• Likely hard prerequisites (e.g., ENG4U, MHF4U, MCV4U, SPH4U, SCH4U)
• Typical Top 6 (12U/M) composition patterns for that program

If prerequisites are uncertain:

1. Provide a conservative default for that program family (CS vs Engineering)
2. List what must be verified and provide web_search keywords/links the user can check

Step 3 — Schedule the 4-year plan

Objectives:

• Grade 9–11: satisfy “8 courses per year” rule if applicable
• Respect prerequisite chains while distributing workload
• If protect_11_12: avoid stacking multiple heavy 3U/4U courses in Grade 11/12
• If summer school is enabled and useFor=nonTop6: prioritize non-Top6 / non-admissions-impact courses (often Civics/Careers) to reduce timetable load

Planning method:

• Lock Grade 12 Top 6 candidate pool (>= 6 courses; ideally 7–8 for replacement)
• Back-plan prerequisites:
  • MHF4U/MCV4U usually require Grade 11 MCR3U
  • 4U sciences usually require corresponding 3U sciences
  • CS/Engineering interest: consider ICS/TEJ/TDJ pathways where available

Step 4 — Standardized output (required)

Output must follow this structure (do not omit sections):

1) Targets & assumptions

• Target universities/programs (multiple allowed)
• Active priorities config (pressureFocus, summerSchool, etc.)
• Key assumptions / items to confirm

2) Prerequisites + Top 6 summary (by target)

For each target:

• Prerequisite list
• Two Top 6 options (e.g., low-pressure vs high-relevance; conservative vs stretch)
• Risks and substitutes

3) 4-year course plan (by grade)

For each grade:

• Course list with: course name + code + course type (D/P/U/M/O/W/etc.) + whether it counts toward the 17 compulsory vs 13 elective credits
• End-of-year cumulative credits: total / compulsory / elective
• Rationale for that year (prereqs + workload distribution + average strategy + interests)

4) Validation checklist

• Graduation requirements met (17 compulsory, 13 elective, 2 online courses, etc.)
• Prereqs met for each target
• Grade 12 overload check (if user dislikes “overload/extra credits”, propose alternatives)

Maintenance & updates (must support)

When the user asks to modify/update anything:

1. Identify which bucket changed:

• Rules: graduation/online requirement, yearly course count, summer school limits
• Summer school: offerings, cancellations, whether a course may be used for Top 6
• Course catalog: add/remove/rename courses, codes, grade availability
• Priorities: pressureFocus, summer school on/off, risk tolerance

2. Apply minimal-change updates:

• Mark impacted grades/courses
• Provide before/after diffs
• Recalculate cumulative credits and Top 6 options

3. If the user agrees, recommend persisting updates into references:

• references/graduation-and-planning-rules.md
• references/summer-school-catalog.md
• references/course-catalog.md

Quality rules (hard)

• Never present uncertain items as facts; label them “TO VERIFY”.
• Course codes must come from references/course-catalog.md unless the user explicitly adds new ones.
• Output must include cumulative credits (total/compulsory/elective) and consistent classification.