> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.optimism.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Learn track syllabus

> The governance artifact for the "Learn the OP Stack" track, including its scope contract, curriculum owner, stop list with rationale, design rules, and changelog.

This page is the syllabus for the
[Learn the OP Stack](/op-stack/learn/index) track: the maintainer-facing
record of what the track covers, why each stop sits where it does, who owns
the curriculum, and how the track changes. The reader-facing front door is
the [track index](/op-stack/learn/index); this page exists so the track has
an owner and a change history instead of drifting, following the MDN
curriculum pattern of a published syllabus with its own changelog.

## Scope contract

The track takes a reader **from newcomer to comfortable**. A finisher has
deployed a test chain, followed a transaction from submission to finality on
Ethereum, moved assets in both directions between layers, and run a node,
and knows where the deeper material lives. Exhaustive detail is out of
scope by design: depth lives in the reference sections and the
[OP Stack specifications](https://specs.optimism.io/), and the track exits
to them.

This sentence is the governance model. A proposed stop that adds depth
rather than progression fails the scope test, however good the page is;
route it through the "After the track" exits on the index instead.

## Ownership

* **Curriculum owner:** Matthew Cruz
  ([@sbvegan](https://github.com/sbvegan)).
* The owner arbitrates scope questions, reviews any change to the stop
  list or its order, and is the named reviewer when the track index comes
  up in the [curation sweep](/op-stack/contribute/curation-policy)
  (learning-track indexes sweep on the 180-day interval).
* A syllabus change merged without the owner's review is reverted on
  sight, not debated after the fact.

## The syllabus

Thirteen stops: three concept blocks punctuated by three hands-on projects,
so each block of ideas is consolidated by using it. Stops are existing
pages; the track adds only a framing note per stop, per the
[learning unit contract](/op-stack/contribute/learning-unit).

| Stop | Page                                                                                                | Kind             | What it adds at this position                                                                        |
| ---- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| 1    | [The OP Stack](/op-stack/introduction/op-stack)                                                     | Concept          | The mental model: what the stack is, what it powers, what you can build.                             |
| 2    | [Design philosophy & principles](/op-stack/protocol/design-principles)                              | Concept          | Why the stack is shaped the way it is; vocabulary the rest of the docs assume.                       |
| 3    | [Differences from Ethereum](/op-stack/protocol/differences)                                         | Concept          | Grounds "EVM equivalent" before any hands-on work; prevents false transfer from Ethereum experience. |
| 4    | [OP Stack components](/op-stack/protocol/components)                                                | Concept          | Names the layers and modules the learner is about to deploy in project 1.                            |
| 5    | [Creating your own L2 rollup testnet](/chain-operators/tutorials/create-l2-rollup/create-l2-rollup) | Project          | Consolidates part 1: deploy a rollup testnet with op-deployer and start each component just named.   |
| 6    | [Transaction flow](/op-stack/transactions/transaction-flow)                                         | Concept          | Reinterprets the components the learner just ran as stages in one transaction's life.                |
| 7    | [Transaction fees on OP Mainnet](/op-stack/transactions/fees)                                       | Concept          | The fee components of a transaction; the economic consequence of the flow in stop 6.                 |
| 8    | [Deposit flow](/op-stack/bridging/deposit-flow)                                                     | Concept          | First direction of cross-layer movement: L1-triggered L2 transactions.                               |
| 9    | [Withdrawal flow](/op-stack/bridging/withdrawal-flow)                                               | Concept          | Second direction: the initiate, prove, finalize sequence, and why it exists.                         |
| 10   | [Submitting transactions from L1](/app-developers/tutorials/bridging/cross-dom-bridge-eth)          | Project          | Consolidates part 2: walk a deposit and a withdrawal from code with Viem.                            |
| 11   | [Fault proofs explainer](/op-stack/fault-proofs/explainer)                                          | Concept          | Why the withdrawal the learner just proved can be trusted: permissionless proposals and challenges.  |
| 12   | [OP Stack interoperability explainer](/op-stack/interop/explainer)                                  | Concept          | Where the stack is going: a network of chains that feels like a single blockchain.                   |
| 13   | [Running a node with Docker](/node-operators/tutorials/node-from-docker)                            | Capstone project | Ends the track operating real infrastructure: run a node on a live network with the official images. |

## Design rules

1. **Stops are existing pages, never forks.** A stop that needs rewording
   gets an issue filed against the page, not a track-local copy. The only
   track-owned artifacts are the [index](/op-stack/learn/index), this
   syllabus, and the framing notes.
2. **Framing notes follow the
   [learning unit contract](/op-stack/contribute/learning-unit)** (framing
   header form): track name, stop position, one sentence of arrival
   context, one sentence of what the stop adds, link to the next stop.
   Nothing else on the page changes.
3. **Cap: 15 stops.** Past that the track has stopped being linear and
   started being a second navigation; split material into the "After the
   track" exits instead.
4. **Projects are spaced, not appended.** Each concept block ends in a
   hands-on stop that uses it (Rust Book cadence). A resequencing that
   leaves two projects adjacent or a concept block unconsolidated needs
   the owner's explicit sign-off.
5. **Resequencing procedure:** update the index, renumber every affected
   framing note ("stop N of M"), verify every next-stop link, and add a
   changelog entry below. Position lives only in framing notes and the
   index, never in page titles, so stops can move without retitling.
6. **Every change lands with a changelog entry.** The changelog is the
   curriculum's memory; an entry states what changed and why, one line
   each.

## Changelog

| Date       | Change                                                                                                                                                                                          |
| ---------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| 2026-07-21 | Initial syllabus: 13 stops (three concept blocks, three projects: deploy a chain, bridge both directions, run a node). Curriculum owner: Matthew Cruz ([@sbvegan](https://github.com/sbvegan)). |

## Next steps

* Reader-facing front door: [Learn the OP Stack](/op-stack/learn/index).
* Framing-note contract: [learning unit](/op-stack/contribute/learning-unit).
* Review cadence: [curation review policy](/op-stack/contribute/curation-policy).
