Pathways

A pathway is a rule attached to a target badge: when a recipient has earned the required combination of other badges, the target is awarded automatically. Nobody tracks a spreadsheet, and nobody gets missed.

How requirements work

A pathway is a list of requirement slots. Each slot is satisfied either by *all of* a set of badges, or by *any N of* a set. Combining slots covers most real program logic without exposing raw boolean syntax.

• •All of — every badge in the slot must be earned. This is your required core.
• •Any N of — learner choice. Pick any two electives from a list of six.
• •Nesting — slots can contain groups, for programs that genuinely need it.

So a certificate might be: all of *Orientation* and *Ethics*, plus any two of *Statistics*, *Field Methods*, *Data Visualization*, plus either *Capstone A* or *Capstone B*.

Stacking

A badge awarded by a pathway can itself be a requirement in another pathway. That's what makes multi-year and stackable programs work: certificates roll up into a diploma, which rolls up into a full credential.

Circular dependencies are detected and rejected — a badge can't require itself, directly or through a chain.

When pathways are evaluated

Every time anyone earns a badge, pathways that reference it are re-evaluated for that recipient (matched by email address). If a pathway is now satisfied, the target badge is issued straight away, with its own claim page and notification email.

What recipients see

Claim pages show a Counts toward section with progress against any pathway the badge contributes to — "3 of 5 requirements met". Recipients can see what they're working toward without you telling them.

Pathways can be deactivated without being deleted. A deactivated pathway stops auto-awarding; badges it already awarded are unaffected.