Layer5 Academy

Layer5 Academy is the official content repository for Layer5's learning platform, hosting all official learning paths, challenges, and certifications. It is built with Hugo and integrated into a multi-repository architecture for rapid local preview and automated cloud deployment.

📚 Overview

Role: Primary source of official Academy content

Features:

- Fully structured, production-ready reference - Rapid local preview loop for Markdown content changes - Integrated into the platform's build and deployment pipeline

Related Repositories

The Academy platform is composed of multiple repositories, each with a specific role:

academy-theme – Controls the site’s layout, styles, typography, and shortcodes. Included automatically via Go modules.

academy-example – Starter template for organizations to create their own content repositories following Academy standards.

academy-build – Central build and deployment pipeline. Aggregates content from multiple repos with the theme to generate and publish the complete Academy site.

For more detailed information: Academy / Platform Development

Quick Start (Local Preview)

Use this workflow for a fast preview loop when editing Markdown content.

# Clean up and verify Go module dependencies
 go mod tidy
 
 Install necessary tools and modules
 make setup
 
 Start the local Hugo development server
 make site
 
 Build the site for production
 make build
 
 Build the site for local consumption with custom base URL
 make build-preview
 
 Clean the Hugo cache and restart local setup
 make clean
 
 Fix Markdown linting issues
 make lint-fix
 
 Verify Go is installed before starting the local site
 make check-go
 
 Update the academy-theme package version
 make theme-update

Open your browser at:

://localhost:1313/academy

. Note: The local preview uses the

-theme

. In production, content is wrapped by the Layer5 Cloud UI, so minor visual differences may occur. For end-to-end validation, test with the

-build

repository.

Repository Structure

layer5-academy/
 ├── content/         # All learning paths, challenges, and certifications (Markdown)
 ├── layouts/         # Shortcodes or layout overrides (if any)
 ├── static/          # Static assets (images, videos, etc.)
 ├── hugo.yaml        # Hugo site configuration
 ├── go.mod           # Go module dependencies (includes academy-theme)
 └── Makefile         # Commands for local dev & build

Assessment Authoring

Assessment files use the Academy test layout and define their questions in Markdown frontmatter. Use short, stable IDs for assessments, questions, and options; question IDs must be unique within one assessment, and option IDs must be unique within one question. The Academy theme converts these author-facing IDs into deterministic UUIDs in the generated JSON consumed by Layer5 Cloud.

---
 title: "Assessment Example"
 id: "assessment-example"
 type: "test"
 layout: "test"
 passPercentage: 70
 maxAttempts: 3
 timeLimit: 30
 numberOfQuestions: 1
 questions:
   - id: "q1"
     text: "Layer5 Academy assessment files are authored in Markdown."
     type: "true-false"
     marks: 1
     options:
       - id: "true"
         text: "True"
         isCorrect: true
       - id: "false"
         text: "False"
 ---

Publishing

Official content: Merged changes are automatically integrated into the central academy-build pipeline and deployed to the Academy platform.

Organization-owned content: Use academy-example as a starting point.

After creating a release, the academy-build pipeline will fetch and publish your content to Layer5 Cloud (requires organization ID and token).

Community & Contributions

We warmly welcome contributions of all kinds! Whether you're improving documentation, creating learning paths, enhancing challenges and certifications, or proposing new features, your contributions help make the Layer5 Academy ecosystem better for everyone. Before getting started, please review this project's [contributing guidelines][contrib]. Contributors are expected to follow the CNCF Code of Conduct.

Helpful Resources

📚 Academy [documentation][docs] and [content creation guide][content-guide]

📖 Browse the official [Layer5 Academy repository][academy]

👥 Connect through the [Layer5 Discussion Forum][forum] and [Layer5 Community Slack][slack]

✔️ Join the Layer5 Slack Community.
✔️ Discuss in the Community Forum.
✔️ Explore the Community Handbook.
✔️ Start with the Newcomer's Guide.

[contrib]: ./CONTRIBUTING.md [docs]: https://docs.layer5.io/cloud/academy/ [content-guide]: https://docs.layer5.io/cloud/academy/creating-content [academy]: https://github.com/layer5io/layer5-academy [figma]: https://www.figma.com/file/5ZwEkSJwUPitURD59YHMEN/Layer5-Designs [figma-invite]: https://www.figma.com/team_invite/redeem/GvB8SudhEOoq3JOvoLaoMs [forum]: https://discuss.layer5.io [slack]: https://slack.layer5.io

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