---
title: "Platform Overview"
type: summary
created: 2026-04-18
updated: 2026-04-18
sources: ["raw/articles/00-overview.md"]
tags: [architecture, overview, pickatale]
---

# Summary: Platform Overview

**Source:** `raw/articles/00-overview.md` · v1.7 · 2026-04-18

## Key Takeaways

Pickatale is a children's reading platform (ages 4–11) built around an **invisible adaptive learning loop**. The child simply reads stories they love — the platform handles curriculum alignment, gap detection, and progress reporting behind the scenes.

### The Seven-Service Learning Loop

1. [[Curriculum Mapper]] defines what a child should learn per territory and year level
2. **Reader App** delivers books the child wants to read
3. **Telemetry** captures behavioral signals: page times, word taps, quiz scores
4. [[Learner Bot]] detects gaps, generates reports, recommends next content
5. [[Adaptive Engine]] re-levels any story to the child's exact Flesch-Kincaid grade
6. [[Teacher Portal]] shows curriculum progress and flags struggling readers
7. **Parent Portal** delivers warm digests ("Sofia had a great reading day!")

### Platform Pillars

| Pillar | Implementation |
|---|---|
| Invisible learning | Reinforcement woven into stories the child already wants to read |
| Per-child AI agent | Learner Bot with RAG memory per learner |
| Cross-nation analytics | School → District → Nation → Global roll-ups |
| All content is adaptive | Static content is an intermediate state only |
| Modular APIs | Every module can be sold/licensed independently |

### Inter-Service Communication Rule

⚠️ **Non-Negotiable (Sig):** Services communicate via REST API with `X-Internal-Key` header. Services **never** connect to each other's database directly. Build the endpoint in Service B first, then wire Service A to call it.

### Build Phases

- **Phase 1 (Complete):** Identity & Auth, Account Center, Roster, basic reading
- **Phase 2 (Current):** Intelligence loop — Orchestrator, Assessment Bot, Comprehension Quiz, Placement Test
- **Phase 3:** Fix siloed services (Fluency→Learner Profile, Azure TTS, Decodables)
- **Phase 4:** Real data, ML, Pickatale Create API, collaborative filtering

### Open Questions (as of v1.7)

- **OQ-1:** Azure Neural TTS — awaiting Sig's portal.azure.com signup
- **OQ-2:** SpeechAce phoneme API — awaiting Borja
- **OQ-3:** Staging environment — not yet built (MUST BUILD)
- **OQ-4:** CI/CD pipeline — not yet built (Phase 4)
- **OQ-6:** Class name display bug (Year3Blue → "Year 3 Red") — root cause unknown