# RetroDeck Academy

> Free, self-paced courses on turning the specialized knowledge you already have into a RetroDeck node that earns every time an AI retrieves it. Lessons open with a free RetroDeck account.

## Worth Retrieving: The RDK monetization masterclass

Turn the knowledge you already have into a node that earns every time an AI retrieves it. From cold vault to a monetized knowledge system. Index once, get retrieved a thousand times.

- [Welcome to Worth Retrieving](https://academy.retrodeck.ai/courses/worth-retrieving/orientation/welcome.md): What this course teaches, how each lesson works, and your first three moves.
- [Enter RDK World](https://academy.retrodeck.ai/courses/worth-retrieving/orientation/enter-rdk-world.md): Walk the whole RDK loop end to end in a short interactive game before you build it for real.
- [Install RDK](https://academy.retrodeck.ai/courses/worth-retrieving/orientation/install-rdk.md): Set up RDK Desktop, the RDK CLI, and the Claude connection in about ten minutes.
- [Let your agent install it](https://academy.retrodeck.ai/courses/worth-retrieving/orientation/let-your-agent-install.md): Hand one file to Claude Code or any coding agent and it installs and connects RDK for you.
- [Your knowledge is dead weight](https://academy.retrodeck.ai/courses/worth-retrieving/why-rdk-pays/dead-weight.md): Published knowledge trains models that answer other people's questions, and you see none of it. Agents changed that.
- [Retrieval-triggered settlement](https://academy.retrodeck.ai/courses/worth-retrieving/why-rdk-pays/retrieval-triggered-settlement.md): How your vault becomes a node, and how every retrieval of your chunk sends a tip straight to you.
- [Private and public](https://academy.retrodeck.ai/courses/worth-retrieving/why-rdk-pays/private-and-public.md): You decide what goes on the market. Private chunks stay yours. Public chunks earn.
- [Index once](https://academy.retrodeck.ai/courses/worth-retrieving/why-rdk-pays/index-once.md): Why a public chunk outearns anything you've published before, and the mental model the rest of the course runs on.
- [Bring your node online](https://academy.retrodeck.ai/courses/worth-retrieving/your-first-node/install-and-init.md): Confirm RDK is installed, run rdk init, and keep your node running so it can be retrieved.
- [Index your first vault](https://academy.retrodeck.ai/courses/worth-retrieving/your-first-node/index-your-first-vault.md): Index the knowledge you picked in Module 1, with private and public kept cleanly apart.
- [Your first retrieval](https://academy.retrodeck.ai/courses/worth-retrieving/your-first-node/your-first-retrieval.md): Ask Claude a question only your vault can answer, and watch your own chunk come back.
- [Your node on Android](https://academy.retrodeck.ai/courses/worth-retrieving/your-first-node/your-node-on-android.md): Run a full RDK node on your phone. Capture knowledge where it happens, keep it private, publish what earns.
- [The moment of retrieval](https://academy.retrodeck.ai/courses/worth-retrieving/making-knowledge-retrievable/the-moment-of-retrieval.md): Everything you earn depends on one moment, the agent choosing a chunk. Here's how that choice gets made.
- [Where you cut, and how big](https://academy.retrodeck.ai/courses/worth-retrieving/making-knowledge-retrievable/where-to-cut.md): Most dead chunks come from bad cuts. Cut where ideas change, and size each chunk to answer one question.
- [Write it like an answer](https://academy.retrodeck.ai/courses/worth-retrieving/making-knowledge-retrievable/write-it-like-an-answer.md): Agents retrieve answers. Lead with the question, answer first, add the specifics only an expert knows, and stand alone.
- [Survive the filter](https://academy.retrodeck.ai/courses/worth-retrieving/making-knowledge-retrievable/survive-the-filter.md): Before ranking, agents often filter. Metadata keeps your chunk in the running.
- [Where you compete](https://academy.retrodeck.ai/courses/worth-retrieving/making-knowledge-retrievable/where-you-compete.md): Generic knowledge competes in a crowd. Specific knowledge wins alone. Then run every chunk through the five-point test.
- [Anatomy of a tip](https://academy.retrodeck.ai/courses/worth-retrieving/the-earning-engine/anatomy-of-a-tip.md): What happens when a chunk earns, and why volume is the actual business.
- [Reading the dashboard](https://academy.retrodeck.ai/courses/worth-retrieving/the-earning-engine/reading-the-dashboard.md): Four numbers tell you almost everything. One of them tells you the truth.
- [Winners and dead chunks](https://academy.retrodeck.ai/courses/worth-retrieving/the-earning-engine/winners-and-dead-chunks.md): A few chunks do most of the earning. Your winners show what the network wants, and your dead chunks show what to fix.
- [The tuning loop](https://academy.retrodeck.ai/courses/worth-retrieving/the-earning-engine/the-tuning-loop.md): Measure, prune, re-chunk, re-index. Four steps, run forever, each pass making your vault denser with things worth retrieving.
- [Track it weekly](https://academy.retrodeck.ai/courses/worth-retrieving/the-earning-engine/track-it-weekly.md): Five minutes a week turns guessing into knowing. Fill one row, every week.
- [Pick your playbook](https://academy.retrodeck.ai/courses/worth-retrieving/monetization-playbooks/pick-your-playbook.md): Five business models operators run on RDK, and how to choose the one that fits you.
- [The specialist node](https://academy.retrodeck.ai/courses/worth-retrieving/monetization-playbooks/the-specialist-node.md): Index your own expertise, starting with the questions people already bring you.
- [The library](https://academy.retrodeck.ai/courses/worth-retrieving/monetization-playbooks/the-library.md): Build a deep, structured collection in one domain that agents return to again and again.
- [The agency](https://academy.retrodeck.ai/courses/worth-retrieving/monetization-playbooks/the-agency.md): Help experts who have the knowledge and lack the time. They own the node. You make it earn.
- [The repurposing pipeline](https://academy.retrodeck.ai/courses/worth-retrieving/monetization-playbooks/the-repurposing-pipeline.md): Turn the posts, videos, and memos you already produce into chunks that keep earning.
- [Where demand comes from](https://academy.retrodeck.ai/courses/worth-retrieving/distribution-and-demand/where-demand-comes-from.md): Agents retrieve when they lack something. Find the questions they can't answer, and answer them.
- [Get found](https://academy.retrodeck.ai/courses/worth-retrieving/distribution-and-demand/get-found.md): Make it easy for the network to find and trust your node.
- [Put RDK where agents work](https://academy.retrodeck.ai/courses/worth-retrieving/distribution-and-demand/put-rdk-where-agents-work.md): Demand grows with every agent connected to the network. Bring it there through tools and partnerships.
- [From one node to a system](https://academy.retrodeck.ai/courses/worth-retrieving/scale-and-automation/from-one-node-to-a-system.md): Scaling means more chunks that pass the test and a tuning loop that runs on its own. Quality comes first.
- [Pipelines that index at volume](https://academy.retrodeck.ai/courses/worth-retrieving/scale-and-automation/pipelines-that-index-at-volume.md): Scout, draft, gate, index, measure. A pipeline turns a steady stream of questions into a steady stream of chunks.
- [Automate the tuning loop](https://academy.retrodeck.ai/courses/worth-retrieving/scale-and-automation/automate-the-tuning-loop.md): Let an agent measure and propose every week. You approve the changes.
- [More than one node](https://academy.retrodeck.ai/courses/worth-retrieving/scale-and-automation/more-than-one-node.md): Each device runs its own node with its own vault. Use that structure on purpose.
- [What a knowledge operator does](https://academy.retrodeck.ai/courses/worth-retrieving/knowledge-operator/what-a-knowledge-operator-does.md): You run nodes, measure them, and tune them. That's a skill other people will pay for.
- [Package your offer](https://academy.retrodeck.ai/courses/worth-retrieving/knowledge-operator/package-your-offer.md): Three offers you can sell as an operator, and how to price them.
- [Prove it with your numbers](https://academy.retrodeck.ai/courses/worth-retrieving/knowledge-operator/prove-it-with-your-numbers.md): Your tracking sheet and your before-and-after chunks are the strongest proof you have.
- [The capstone brief](https://academy.retrodeck.ai/courses/worth-retrieving/capstone/the-capstone-brief.md): Ship a live, earning node and the plan behind it. Here's exactly what to deliver.
- [Write your monetization plan](https://academy.retrodeck.ai/courses/worth-retrieving/capstone/write-your-monetization-plan.md): One page that says what you index, who retrieves it, how you'll grow it, and how you'll measure it.
- [Review and launch](https://academy.retrodeck.ai/courses/worth-retrieving/capstone/review-and-launch.md): Check your work against the brief, then keep the loop running.