UIAO Academy

Learner-facing entry point — navigate the canon by track, level, or comic

One page to browse UIAO by track (Contributor, Operator), by the education comic arc, or by a reading level (Orientation → Capstone). All modules reference canonical UIAO_NNN specs; the Academy is a rendered consumer view, not a parallel curriculum.
Published

May 6, 2026

The UIAO Academy is the learner-facing entry point to the canon. It does not invent curriculum — it presents the canon in three reader-friendly paths: by track (contributor vs. operator), by comic (education arc), and by level (orientation to capstone). Every module below references a canonical UIAO_NNN document; the Academy is a rendered consumer view, governed by the canon it cites.

Canon anchors (the substrate this Academy consumes)

Anchor Purpose in the Academy
UIAO_125 Training Program Defines the two tracks (Contributor + Operator) and the shared core every learner takes
UIAO_126 Test Plans Program Catalogues the test-plan artifacts learners will produce or consume
UIAO_127 Project Plans Program Provides the agency templates used in the capstone
UIAO_128 Education Program Defines the comic-led learning arc for external (agency) onboarding
UIAO_131 Adapter Test Strategy Tier-1/2/3 test framework; learners on the Contributor track learn to produce evidence against it

Pick your path

If you’re new to UIAO — start with the comics

The Education Program (UIAO_128) uses eight illustrated comics as the top of the funnel. Each comic is one abstraction, one image, one short walkthrough. You don’t need to know anything yet.

Comic What it shows Companion reading
The Governance OS What UIAO is — an operating system for governance Narrative walkthrough
The Canonical Object How one object gets one canonical record UIAO_001 SSOT
The Unified Environment Map How adapters collapse many vendors into one map UIAO_003 Adapter Segmentation
Provenance Why every artifact traces back to a canonical source UIAO_113 Evidence Graph
The Modernization Lifecycle How a modernization runs end-to-end UIAO_124 Adapter Ops Runbook
Address Governance The directory / IPAM flow Governance-OS migration narrative
Drift Detection The closed loop: scan → classify → remediate UIAO_110 Drift Engine
Drift Remediation How a finding becomes a closed ticket UIAO_117 Recovery Layer

After the comics, pick a track below.

If you’re going to contribute — Contributor track

UIAO_125 §1.2. You come out of this able to land a canon-compliant PR without review blockers.

  • Foundation — Read UIAO_001 (SSOT), UIAO_003 (Adapter Segmentation), UIAO_200 (Substrate Manifest), UIAO_201 (Workspace Contract). Run uiao substrate walk on a clone.
  • Canon change protocol — Read CONTRIBUTING.md and ADR-028. Write and land one ADR.
  • Schema authoring — Read src/uiao/schemas/. Write a JSON Schema that validates cleanly against an existing registry.
  • Adapter development — Read UIAO_121 (Conformance Test Plan), UIAO_123 (Integration Test Plan), UIAO_124 (Ops Runbook), UIAO_131 (Test Strategy). Build an adapter against tier-1 (commercial tenant) + tier-2 (fixture-based) evidence.
  • Release engineering — Read UIAO_118 (Release Engineering). Cut a release with sigstore signing and CycloneDX SBOM.

If you’re adopting UIAO in an agency — Operator track

UIAO_125 §1.3. You come out of this able to run the substrate against your own environment and interpret its outputs.

  • Substrate walker — Run uiao substrate walk first on any fresh clone. Read Substrate Status to see the honest reality map.
  • Drift interpretation — Read the Drift Detection Standard. Map a P1/P2 finding to a remediation path.
  • Evidence pipeline — Read UIAO_107 (Collector Interface), UIAO_113 (Evidence Graph). Run an adapter and watch its OSCAL bundle land in impl/out/.
  • Canon-safe customization — Read UIAO_127 (Project Plans) for the four agency templates. Instantiate one.
  • KSI attestation — Generate and verify an evidence bundle.

Levels (alternative path — if you prefer reading by depth)

The Academy is also browsable by level. This is useful when you know the depth you want but not the role.

Level 0 — Orientation

Who UIAO is for. Why it exists. 30-minute read.

Level 1 — Foundations

What UIAO actually is. 90-minute read.

Level 2 — Governance & Compliance

How UIAO handles compliance as a product, not a project.

Level 3 — Data & Runtime Controls

Evidence, drift, consent, claims. The runtime mechanics.

Level 4 — Applied UIAO (capstone)

Produce a UIAO-aligned modernization plan for a real or hypothetical system.

  • Read UIAO_127 Project Plans Program and pick one of the four agency templates (greenfield / directory-migration / SCuBA conformance / OSCAL ATO).
  • Instantiate the template. Produce: current state, target UIAO-aligned state, control-plane mapping, governance objects, phased rollout.
  • Run uiao substrate walk on your plan. Address every P1 / P2 finding.

Not in this page (by design)

  • New curriculum doctrine. UIAO_125 / UIAO_128 already define the curriculum; this page is the reader-facing shell that surfaces them.
  • Sequencing enforcement. You can enter at any path. The Academy presents choices; it does not gate.
  • Certification. UIAO_125 §4 defines completion criteria (land a PR for Contributor track; clean walker/drift run for Operator track). No parallel certification system.

Why this page is aspirational

UIAO_125 and UIAO_128 are declared canon but not yet in routine operational use (no running Training cohorts, no facilitated Education sessions yet). The Academy is the rendered consumer view of programs that will become aspirational-free as they’re adopted and exercised. Tracking state lives on the Substrate Status page.

Next

Each path below goes to a dedicated page with stage-by-stage walkthrough:

  • New to UIAO? → Comic tour (~45 minutes, eight abstractions)
  • Contributing? → Contributor track (Stage 1 Foundation → Stage 5 Release engineering)
  • Adopting in an agency? → Operator track (Stage 1 Substrate walker → Stage 5 KSI attestation)
  • Just browsing? Pick a Level from the section above.
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