Tell learners about gated access before they do any setup - #233
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…rom it
Per-task section, difficulty and duration existed only as prose inside the
hand-written "Lab at a glance" tables on the three landing pages. Nothing
validated them against the task pages they described, and they had already
drifted.
Moves that data into each task's frontmatter (type, parent, order, section,
difficulty, duration, access) and generates the tables from it.
The tables are written into the markdown by tools/generate_lab_blocks.py
rather than rendered by a Liquid include. The lab pages are read directly by
platforms that never run Liquid - GitHub's own markdown API returns a bare
"{% include ... %}" where the table should be - so the generated content sits
between HTML comment markers, which are invisible in every renderer.
--check runs in content-checks and makes drift a build failure, matching the
Labfiles/_shared/sync.py pattern.
A lab landing page missing its markers is an error, so a new lab cannot
silently ship without a table. The access notice is treated differently: it
is generated only where its markers appear, because where that warning goes
is an editorial choice.
Fixes the drift the backfill exposed:
- level was 300 on every task page, inherited from its lab, while the tables
listed L200-L400. Level now matches difficulty everywhere.
- islab removed from task pages; a task is a step within a lab, not a lab.
- B2, B3 and B4 marked access: gated, each recording what it needs and how to
check, so the lock icons come from the same source as the requirement.
Verified: the generated tables reproduce the totals the prose stated by hand
(A 35 min core / 2h25, B 35/1h50, C 30/2h), the generator is idempotent, and
corrupting a block makes --check fail with a diff.
Co-authored-by: Copilot App <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
Copilot-Session: dc4690cc-57d6-48a7-abc8-bc8570113ab1
Tasks B2, B3 and B4 need permissions or licensing many learners don't have, but each buried that below the setup instructions. B4 was the worst case: it told you to create a Foundry project, clone the code and run a preflight check, and only then mentioned the whole task needs a Microsoft 365 Copilot licence. Adds a generated access notice at the top of all three, so a learner who can't do the task finds out in about thirty seconds rather than after provisioning. It states what the task needs, how to check, and - importantly - that skipping costs nothing, because nothing else in the lab depends on these tasks. The notice is written into the markdown by tools/generate_lab_blocks.py from the page's own frontmatter, so the requirement is stated once and cannot drift from the lock icons in the lab tables. It is generated only where its markers appear: where the warning belongs is an editorial choice, and a gated task may carry it in its own prose instead. Removes the prose notes this replaces. Verified: the notice renders on exactly the three gated pages and nowhere else, and produces a single blockquote rather than splitting in two when there is no command to run. Co-authored-by: Copilot App <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com> Copilot-Session: dc4690cc-57d6-48a7-abc8-bc8570113ab1
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What
Tasks B2, B3 and B4 need permissions or licensing many learners don't have, but each buried that below the setup instructions.
B4 was the worst case: it told you to create a Foundry project, clone the code and run a preflight check — and then mentioned the whole task needs a Microsoft 365 Copilot licence.
The fix
A generated access notice at the top of all three pages, so a learner who can't do the task finds out in about thirty seconds rather than after provisioning.
That last line matters as much as the requirement: skipping has to feel safe, not lossy.
How it's generated
tools/generate_lab_blocks.py(added in #231) writes it into the markdown from the page's own frontmatter, so the requirement is stated once and can't drift from the lock icons in the lab tables or the demo-only callouts in the workshop view.Unlike the task table, the notice is generated only where its markers appear. Where it goes is an editorial choice, and a gated task might reasonably carry the warning in its own prose instead — so a missing marker isn't an error here, whereas a landing page without a task table is.
Removes the prose notes this replaces.
Verification
generate_lab_blocks.py --checkpassStacking
Branches off
poc-lab-views(#231), which introduces theaccess/requires/verifyfrontmatter and the generator. Merge #231 first.