# Guided building: every builder knows what to do next

> Substrait coaches each builder inside the platform, from their first sign-in to their first tool in production, at the depth that fits what they already know. The Builder Academy is a separate, optional human service.

URL: https://substrait.build/capabilities/guided-building/  
Last updated: 2026-11-06

For a builder who is not an engineer, the coaching is the product. Substrait tells each person what to do next and why, from requesting access to a tool live in production, and says more or less depending on what they already know.

## How it works

**Five questions, asked once.**
At first sign-in, Substrait asks each builder five short questions about what they already know.
The answers set how much Substrait explains, and in what form.
The tool being built decides which topics come up, because Substrait can read the tool itself.

**Help at the moment it is needed.**
Guidance appears in the portal before a builder has an editor, and in their conversation with their AI model once they do.
Substrait notices when someone stalls, so the team can step in.

**Badges celebrate; they never grant access.**
A builder earns a badge when their tool does something new, such as reading real company data.
Badges are a record of practice.
Substrait never uses a badge to decide who may reach which data; access follows a person's role and job.

**Blocked on IT is not blocked on skill.**
Many builders first need a licence or a software request from IT.
Substrait treats that as its own step, so it gets a ticket, not more coaching.

## The Builder Academy

The Builder Academy is people teaching people.
It is an optional service, priced per engagement, separate from the coaching built into Substrait.

## Related

- [Build with the AI model you already use](https://substrait.build/capabilities/build-with-your-own-ai-model/): Substrait does not replace your people's AI model. A plugin for Claude Code, the Claude desktop app and Cursor connects it to Substrait, and a scaffold fitted to your company shapes what it produces.
- [How to get systems built when your people cannot build yet](https://substrait.build/problems/build-systems-when-staff-cannot-build-yet/): When work runs on spreadsheets, chat and paper and staff are not yet confident builders, Substrait's team builds the first systems with a named person from your team, and trains your people to keep building.
- [How we work, and how pricing works](https://substrait.build/how-we-work/): Substrait is a platform and a forward-deployed team in your region. It comes as one pre-configured system, with two paths in: teams that already build, and companies whose people do not build yet. Pricing is a monthly seat for each builder, approver and admin, with a one-time setup fee only when Substrait's team sets it up; there is no platform fee and viewers are free.
- [One click to live, through the security check](https://substrait.build/capabilities/one-command-go-live/): A builder sends a tool to Substrait with one command, through their AI model, and goes live with one click. Substrait promotes the exact build tested in dev to production, only through the security check.