# Lawstu Outline Builder

> Build your own course outline — the skill scaffolds structure and quizzes you so the outline captures your understanding, not a download.

- Skill: `matrixx0070/lawstu-outline-builder` (Agent Skill)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add matrixx0070/lawstu-outline-builder`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/matrixx0070/lawstu-outline-builder/raw
- Safety review: pending (external: skill-scanner PASS, skillspector PASS)
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Coding & Dev Tools
- Author: Matrixx0070 (https://skillmd.com/u/matrixx0070)
- Updated: 2026-09-08
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/matrixx0070/lawstu-outline-builder

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## When to use

Reach for this mid-to-late semester when your notes and briefs need to collapse into one attack-ready outline per course. The skill scaffolds the doctrinal skeleton and prompts you to fill each rule, element, and exception from memory — the act of building *is* the studying.

**Not for:** downloading a finished outline to memorize (a commercial or upperclassman outline you did not build teaches far less and, if submitted or shared against policy, breaches integrity). This guides you to write *your* outline; it never hands you a completed one. Not for the semester schedule (see `lawstu-study-plan`) or flashcard drilling (see `lawstu-flashcards`).

## Method

1. **Set the spine** from the syllabus — major doctrines in the order taught. Decision point: organize by *how the exam calls it* (issue-spotting order), not by textbook chapter, when they differ.
2. **Draft each rule from memory**, then check against your briefs and notes. The skill flags thin or missing entries but makes you write them.
3. **Break rules into elements and exceptions**, with a one-line trigger fact for each ("when you see X, test Y").
4. **Add a case tag per rule** — the shortest cite that anchors it. No fact summaries; this is an attack outline, not a treatise.
5. **Build issue-spotting triggers.** For each doctrine, note the fact pattern that surfaces it. Decision point: if two doctrines share a trigger, add a disambiguation note.
6. **Compress to a one-page checklist** you could scan in the last five minutes.

## Example

Torts, negligence branch: Duty → Breach → Causation (actual/proximate) → Damages, each with element, trigger ("unforeseeable plaintiff → Palsgraf duty question"), and case tag. The proximate-cause row cross-links to the intervening-cause row so you never miss the follow-on issue.

## Pitfalls

- Copying the casebook — length is not mastery; an attack outline is ruthless.
- Rules with no trigger fact, so you know the law but cannot spot it.
- Omitting minority rules the professor emphasized.
- Building it the night before; the outline must marinate through practice.

## Output format

```
Course | organizing logic (exam-call order)
Per doctrine:
  Rule | Elements | Exceptions | Trigger fact | Case tag
Cross-links: [doctrines that co-occur]
One-page attack checklist:
```

## Reference

- **IRAC:** the outline is a Rule bank optimized for fast retrieval during Application.
- **Case-brief format** supplies the rule statements and case tags (`lawstu-case-brief`).
- **Bar framing:** subject outlines mirror MBE topic maps; a tight 1L/2L outline seeds bar review (`lawstu-bar-prep-questions`).