What you walk away with
Not videos watched. A working AI operating system you own, on files you control, that runs your week. Below is the exact list that counts as done. Ten items, all pass or fail.
Done means all ten
This course has a finish line, and it is not a feeling. Like a hard fitness challenge, the rules are short, pass or fail, and public. You did each item or you did not. No substitutions, no partial credit. COMPLETE equals the Optimum level. COMPLETE+ equals Expert. Minimum is a level, not completion. Cohort 1: voluntary, bring your result block to demo day. From cohort 2 on, this is the rule.
- One vault. A single folder of plain files on a disk you control. No vendor owns it.Verified: the graduation check opens and reads it. Start from: aios-install.md
- Constitution gate. One Constitution file, within its own stated token budget.Verified: layer score 75+. Start from: constitution-optimum.txt
- Memory gate. Every life area you track has exactly one honest index file.Verified: layer score 75+. Start from: sphere-index-template.txt
- Skills gate. A skills index plus at least 3 installed skills, at least 1 written or adapted by you.Verified: layer score 75+. Start from: the skills library
- Tools gate. At least one tool beyond files connected (a dedicated Google account is the recommended first), and an inventory stating the rule: read freely, internal act OK, external act asks first.Verified: layer score 75+, tools tested live. Start from: my-tools-inventory.txt
- Focus gate. One Focus file, 3 or fewer priorities, edited in the last 7 days.Verified: layer score 75+. Start from: focus-priorities.txt
- The loop, proven once. One outside input (a calendar week, an inbox pass, a call transcript) analyzed, and the analysis caused a written change in your files.Verified: the check quotes the input and the changed line. Taught in: the context deck
- Weekly review ran. Within the last 14 days, scored per priority, the Focus update approved.Verified: the dated review file carries an approved marker. Skill: weekly-review-focus.md
- Morning Brief runs. 3 briefs from 3 different days in the last 7, saved as dated files.Verified: the files exist, each under 200 words, 2+ sources. Skill: morning-brief.md
- One result with a number, posted. Money made, money saved, or hours saved, one sentence, one number, plus your result block on the accountability page.Verified: the post is up on livingoffai.nexus/accountability
How grading works
One skill grades you: graduation-check, trigger "grade my system". It reads your vault, scores all 5 layers 0 to 100 against a fixed rubric, cites evidence for every point, and prints the verdict. Pass is 75 or higher on every layer. Read-only, unlimited retakes, run it on your strongest model with maximum thinking (30 to 50 minutes). system-audit finds problems, content-audit checks order, graduation-check gives the verdict.
Get it: library/graduation-check.md · the whole prompt is inside the skill file.
COMPLETE+, the expert extras
Optional. All five map to Module 5. Any 3 of 5, on top of COMPLETE, is Expert on paper, and Expert never ends.
- One always-on job. A scheduled job ran without you in the last 7 days.Verified: its timestamped output file. (M5, the always-on agent)
- One advanced tool behind a gate. Connected, with the approval step written into the safety field of the skill that uses it.Verified: the skill file names the gate. (M5, APIs and integrations)
- One skill shared. A skill you wrote, posted for the community.Verified: link on the accountability page.
- One machine live. An app, automation, MCP server or site built on your brain, used by someone who is not you.Verified: URL or screenshot on the accountability page. (M5, the machines)
- One paying user. Someone pays for output your system produces.Verified: you say so on demo day, one sentence. (M5, SaaS on top)
Three levels, pick your depth
You understand it, and own the basics
You get it: what an AIOS really is, the 5 layers, cause and effect, and why you own your files instead of renting your context. You have a basic system: your own folder, a Constitution, the start of a memory. Even if you stop here, you will not use AI the shallow way again.
It runs your week
You use it every day. A Morning Brief that writes itself, a weekly review drafted for you, your business or your life managed through it. Ten or more skills (easy, EVAL7 is a fifteen-second skill to add), a few tools connected so it acts, not just remembers.
You build on it
You go past your own system and start shipping: your own SaaS, small apps, API integrations, your own MCP server. The second brain becomes the launchpad. Served by the Expert module plus a library that keeps growing and a community that keeps teaching, for a full year.
Where the checklist points next
Items 4 to 9 are built in Module 4, video by video: the tool list, the Google account, the skills library, the Morning Brief, the weekly review, calls and email analysis, and the graduation check itself. Module 5 is where COMPLETE+ lives: a client website machine, an SEO content machine, a data dashboard, this course site, your own product. The ladder and the five machines: the maintenance and growth deck · the video library.
How you actually get there
The path, 6 modules
Each module hands you one piece of the system. Theory modules build understanding. Build modules produce a real artifact you keep. Nothing is theory for its own sake.
The 8 weeks
A weekly rhythm, accountability, and a demo day. You are not doing this alone in a blank screen. The group sees, so you move.
One year of access
Keep watching after the cohort, not only these module videos but a growing library of standalone and practical videos heading past 100.
The community
Live calls where we cover new topics, and where members share their own second-brain builds. That value does not stop when the cohort ends.
Living Off AI · 8-week cohort · aim for Optimum, reach for Expert.