---

name: "cs-dl-reading-path" description: "/cs:dl-reading-path — Build a prerequisite-closed reading path through the Deep Learning book from a goal, a background and the hours you actually have. Refuses to route a goal the 2016 book does not cover, and names what covers it instead." argument-hint: "[your goal — what you want to be able to do after reading]"

/cs:dl-reading-path — A route, not a page count

Command: /cs:dl-reading-path [goal]

The book's part order is not its dependency order. Front-to-back means weeks in Chapters 2–4 before touching a network, which is where most readers stop.

Procedure

1. Ask three things if the user has not said them, one at a time:
   • What do you want to be able to do afterwards?
   • Background: none / math / applied / research?
   • Realistic study hours per week?
2. Run the planner:

   python3 engineering/deep-learning-book/skills/deep-learning-book/scripts/reading_path_planner.py \
       --goal "<goal>" --background <bg> --hours-per-week <n>
   

3. Handle the refusals rather than working around them.
   • Exit 3 — the goal is outside the book. Relay what covers it; do not invent a path.
   • Exit 4 — the goal is unroutable. Ask the printed questions, one per turn.
4. Relay the path with the hour budget, and flag that the hours are a planning heuristic to recalibrate after chapter one.
5. Offer the study scaffolding: skills/deep-learning-book/assets/study_log_template.md and skills/deep-learning-book/assets/chapter_worksheet.md, plus the retrieval-practice cadence from skills/deep-learning-book/references/study_method_canon.md.

What to say about Part I

Most applied readers should skim Chapters 2–4 once for vocabulary, start at Chapter 5, and return to a specific section when Chapter 8 needs it. Readers heading for Part III should work Part I properly — those chapters compound, and so do the gaps. skills/deep-learning-book/references/prerequisite_map.md has the dependency graph and the three strategies.