Prologue: Before You Begin
Status: drafted · Time: 5 min · Audience: everyone Outcome: Know what the Prologue covers and why it comes before the belts.
You are here. This is the orientation every Razorpayan goes through before picking a belt. Read it in order. It’s the shortest part of the whole playbook, and it’s the part that makes the rest make sense.
What the Prologue gives you
Section titled “What the Prologue gives you”By the time you finish the 12 chapters below you will:
- Know why this playbook exists and who it’s for — including you.
- Understand the origin story (why our first attempt failed and what changed on the second) and why every White Belt chapter ends with “what colour are you?”
- Have a working mental model of the 5-layer AI dev stack — the picture you can draw on a whiteboard.
- Know the 9-layer Enablement Stack — the map of what you’re climbing across the belts.
- Be able to tell Claude Code apart from Slash, Cowork, Compass, and Claude.ai in one sentence each.
- Know which roles and forums can unblock you, and where to ask (hint: start in
#ai-help). - Know how to read this playbook as a reader, and (if you lead a team) how to use it as a manager.
- Know which belt to start at.
- Know what never goes into a prompt (the safety brief).
- See what’s shipping this week, because this is a living program, not a static manual.
Table of Contents
Section titled “Table of Contents”| § | Chapter | For whom | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.1 | Welcome, and why this playbook exists | Everyone | 5 min |
| 0.2 | The origin story (and why setup is Layer 0) | Everyone | 8 min |
| 0.3 | The 5-Layer Mental Model of the AI Dev Stack | Everyone | 10 min |
| 0.4 | The Enablement Stack — the 9-layer map | Everyone | 10 min |
| 0.5 | Meet your tools — a 60-second tour | Everyone | 5 min |
| 0.6 | Meet the people — roles, forums, the support surface | Everyone | 5 min |
| 0.7 | Operating Principles — knowledge-base-driven development | Everyone | 10 min |
| 0.8 | How to use this playbook (as a reader) | Everyone | 5 min |
| 0.9 | How to use this playbook (as a team lead) | Managers, leads | 10 min |
| 0.10 | Self-assessment — which belt should you start at? | Everyone | 5 min |
| 0.11 | The safety brief — what never goes into a prompt | Everyone | 10 min |
| 0.12 | What’s shipping this week | Everyone | 3 min |
Total time: ~86 minutes if you read straight through. Most people spread it over a morning.
How to read the Prologue
Section titled “How to read the Prologue”- If you have 10 minutes right now: read 0.1, 0.2, and skim 0.5.
- If you have a morning: read all 12 in order.
- If you’re a manager planning adoption for your POD: read 0.1, 0.2, 0.4, and 0.9.
- If you’ve already attended a Builder Day: 0.1 and 0.10 (self-assessment) are the priority. You probably belong at Yellow Belt.
You don’t earn anything for finishing the Prologue — there’s no quest, no boss fight. The reward is that the rest of the playbook stops feeling like a pile of new vocabulary and starts feeling like a map.
README.md(this file)01-welcome.md02-bd1-bd2-origin.md03-mental-model.md04-enablement-stack.md05-tool-tour.md06-people-and-pocs.md07-operating-principles.md08-how-to-read.md09-how-to-lead.md10-self-assessment.md11-safety-brief.md12-whats-shipping.md