Quest Ladder
TeachFORGE.ai
Quest Ladder / Subjects and dependencies
Subjects, subject change and the dependency graph
The one field at the top of a ladder that quietly sets a dozen defaults.
Set the subject first. Everything below it inherits.
What the subject does
A ladder's Subject is not a label. It is where every new path gets its defaults: the gate mode, the thresholds, the frustration limit and the path profile all load from it.
Save as my default subject makes it the starting point for your next ladder, which is worth doing on the subject you teach most.
This is the three-tier arrangement the engine guide describes: the platform has defaults, the subject refines them, and an individual path can override both. Most ladders should only ever touch the first two.
Changing the subject later
Changing the subject on a ladder that already has paths asks you what to do with them: keep the paths as they are, or apply the new subject's defaults to all of them.
Keep is the safe answer if you have tuned anything. Applying to all is what you want when the subject was simply wrong from the start — but it overwrites every customisation, including the ones you made deliberately and have forgotten about.
The dependency graph
Separately from your ladder, the platform holds a reference graph of how topics relate: which ideas come before which. Your own type dependencies add to it for your own material.
It is read in two places you will notice. Pull in prerequisites on the canvas uses it to bring the right types in, already connected. And the type picker's suggestions come from it.
It is advisory everywhere. Nothing stops you building a ladder the graph disagrees with, and sometimes the graph is wrong about your syllabus.
Where the detail is
The in-app Quest Ladder engine guide is the authority on all of this. Its ten sections cover the subject domains, how confidence is used, the formulas behind the gates, the gate modes, paths and branching, ladder settings, what happens on a subject change, the dependency graph, and inserting a ladder.
Read it once before designing a ladder you will use for a whole term. It is the difference between tuning numbers by feel and knowing what they do.