Step 1 — Gather context
If references/learnings.md exists, read it first for accumulated platform knowledge.
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What are you trying to do?
- A) Enroll/unenroll a student from an external purchase or app (Zapier action)
- B) Route events out — New Student Enrolled, Course Completed, Subscription Canceled — into a CRM, ESP, or Slack (Zapier trigger)
- C) Set up affiliate tracking (Ruzuku has no built-in affiliate dashboard)
- D) Configure a module — courses, drip, quizzes/assignments, community, webinars, certificates
- E) Pick a plan — Free (≤5 students) vs Core vs Pro (certificates, white-label, storefront, Zoom)
- F) Fix a problem — tedious course builder, payments, student access, video limits
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Where does data need to flow? Into Ruzuku (enroll a student) or out of Ruzuku (sync a student, route a completion) — this decides Zapier action vs trigger.
Skip-ahead rule: if the user's prompt already provides enough context, skip to Step 2.
Step 2 — Route or answer directly
| If the question is about... | Route to... |
|---|---|
| Course/membership strategy, retention, completion, or platform comparison | /sales-membership {question} |
| Email sequence/broadcast strategy (in Ruzuku or a connected ESP) | /sales-email-marketing {question} |
| Email deliverability / inbox placement | /sales-deliverability {question} |
| Checkout / order-bump / upsell optimization across tools | /sales-checkout {question} |
| Designing an affiliate program (commission structure, recruiting) across tools | /sales-affiliate-program {question} |
| Webinar-based launch strategy | /sales-webinar {question} |
When routing, give the exact command, e.g. "This is a retention question — run: /sales-membership how do I reduce course churn".
Step 3 — Ruzuku platform reference
Read references/platform-guide.md for the full reference — the module map (what's Zapier-accessible vs UI-only), plan gates (the Free 5-student cap and the Pro-gated certificates/white-label/storefront/Zoom), the payment model (direct Stripe/PayPal, 0% fees, coupons, price points), the student/course data model with JSON shapes, and quick-start recipes (enroll from an external cart; route new enrollments into a CRM/ESP; run dunning off Subscription Canceled).
Read references/ruzuku-api-reference.md for the integration surface — there's no public REST API; it documents the Zapier connection (API Key + API Secret + Site URL), the full 7-trigger / 3-action inventory, and the Webhooks-by-Zapier pattern for systems Zapier can't reach natively.
Answer the user's question using only the relevant section. Don't dump the full reference.
Step 4 — Actionable guidance
Focus on the user's specific situation:
- No REST API — think in Zapier. Push students in with the Enroll a Student action; pull events out with triggers (New Student Enrolled, Lesson/Course Completed, Subscription Canceled). For systems Zapier can't reach, chain Webhooks by Zapier. For bulk reads, use the in-app student CSV export.
- Identity is email. Enroll a Student creates an account if one doesn't exist; match/dedupe on email everywhere.
- The Zapier credential is three parts — API Key + API Secret + Site URL, generated at Account → Integrations → Configure Zapier. You enter them once in Zapier but keep them to reconnect; treat the secret like a password.
- Affiliates are manual. There's no affiliate dashboard. Give each affiliate a unique coupon or a dedicated price-point link, then export sales and pay commissions yourself. Fine up to a few dozen affiliates; for a real engine, bolt on a tool (
/sales-affiliate-program). - 0% transaction fees on direct Stripe/PayPal — a genuine edge for low-margin creators vs platforms that take a cut.
- Mind the plan gates. Certificates, white-label/custom domain, public storefront, digital products, multiple instructors, AI transcription, and Zoom are Pro-only; the Free plan caps you at 5 students.
If you discover a gotcha, workaround, or tip not covered in references/learnings.md, append it there.
Gotchas
Best-effort from research (2026-06) — review these, especially plan-gated features and pricing, which change frequently.
- No public REST API. Don't promise API endpoints — the only programmatic surface is Zapier (+ Webhooks by Zapier). Plan around triggers and actions.
- Course-building is the top complaint. The teacher-facing builder is praised as easy to launch but tedious to design — set expectations and lean on templates/reusable activities rather than custom layouts.
- Free plan caps at 5 students. An auto-enroll Zap can silently hit the ceiling; size the plan to enrollment volume.
- Certificates, white-label, custom domain, storefront, and Zoom are Pro-only. Don't promise them on Free/Core.
- No built-in affiliate dashboard. Tracking is DIY via per-affiliate coupons or price points; affiliates have no self-serve stats page.
- Video upload caps per file (≈2 GB on Free/Core, ≈4 GB on Pro). Long lessons should be split or hosted externally and embedded.
- The Zapier API Key + Secret are credentials. They authorize student writes — store them securely, never client-side.
- Automated emails are basic. Ruzuku sends course/announcement emails, but for real nurture/marketing sequences connect an ESP via Zapier.
Related skills
/sales-membership— Course/membership strategy across tools (Ruzuku is one of the creator platforms covered), retention, completion, and platform comparison/sales-email-marketing— Email sequence and broadcast strategy (the ESP you connect to Ruzuku via Zapier)/sales-affiliate-program— Designing an affiliate program (commission structure, recruiting) — pairs with Ruzuku's manual coupon/price-point tracking/sales-checkout— Checkout, order-bump, and upsell optimization (external carts that enroll into Ruzuku)/sales-webinar— Webinar-based selling and live launch events (Ruzuku runs live sessions via Zoom)/sales-do— Not sure which skill to use? The router matches any sales objective to the right skill. Install:npx skills add sales-skills/sales --skill sales-do -a claude-code
Examples
Example 1: Enroll a student when someone buys on my external cart (developer/automation)
User says: "I sell my course through ThriveCart but host it in Ruzuku. How do I auto-enroll buyers?"
Skill does: Points to the Enroll a Student Zapier action (Recipe 1): trigger on the ThriveCart purchase, map the buyer's email (+ name + target course) into Ruzuku's Enroll a Student action, which creates the account if needed. Notes identity is email, the Zapier credential is the API Key + Secret + Site URL from Account → Integrations → Configure Zapier, and that Zapier is free on every Ruzuku plan.
Result: External purchases enroll students in Ruzuku automatically.
Example 2: Sync new enrollments into my CRM and email tool
User says: "When someone enrolls in Ruzuku, I want them added to HubSpot and tagged in Mailchimp."
Skill does: Uses the New Student Enrolled trigger (includes name, email, course, pricing/coupon) fanned out to a HubSpot create-contact action and a Mailchimp add/update-subscriber action (Recipe 2). Routes deeper sequence strategy: "For the nurture sequence itself — run: /sales-email-marketing my new-student onboarding sequence."
Result: Every enrollment flows into the CRM and ESP with zero manual entry.
Example 3: Recover failed/canceled subscriptions
User says: "Can Ruzuku tell me when a subscription cancels so I can run a win-back?"
Skill does: Explains the Subscription Canceled trigger fires on recurring-payment cancellations; pipe it into a Zap that adds the student to a win-back email sequence or a CRM task (Recipe 3). Notes Ruzuku itself has no dunning engine, so retry/recovery logic lives in the connected ESP/CRM, and routes retention strategy to /sales-membership.
Result: Cancellations trigger an automated win-back instead of going unnoticed.
Troubleshooting
My auto-enroll Zap stopped adding students
Symptom: New buyers aren't being enrolled via Zapier.
Cause: You've hit the Free plan's 5-student cap, the Zapier connection's API Key/Secret expired or was regenerated, or the wrong course is mapped.
Solution: Check the enrolled-student count and upgrade to Core/Pro if you've hit the cap. Re-copy the API Key + API Secret + Site URL from Account → Integrations → Configure Zapier and reconnect the Zap. Confirm the Enroll a Student action targets the correct course and sends the buyer's exact email.
Students can't get a certificate / my domain isn't branded
Symptom: No completion certificate option, or courses still show Ruzuku branding/URL. Cause: Certificates, white-label branding, and custom domain are Pro-plan features. Solution: Upgrade to Pro to unlock certificates, white-label, custom domain, public storefront, digital-product sales, multiple instructors, and Zoom. On Free/Core these are unavailable — don't promise them to students.
Building the course feels slow and tedious
Symptom: Setting up modules, activities, and drip is taking far longer than expected.
Cause: Ruzuku optimizes the student experience over the author workflow — the builder is the most-cited friction point in reviews.
Solution: Start with one module live and build as you go rather than completing everything first. Reuse activities/templates across courses, keep lessons short (split videos over ~10 minutes), and lean on drip to stagger the work. For course-structure strategy, use /sales-membership.