# NU Map

> NU Map (https://numap.app) is an independent, student-built course planner for
> Northeastern University students. It is NOT affiliated with, endorsed by, or
> officially connected to Northeastern University. Data is scraped from
> Northeastern's public catalog on a schedule (every page carries a data-updated
> stamp); always confirm with the official catalog and an academic advisor.

NU Map publishes its catalog data as small, fully-expanded HTML pages under
https://numap.app/data — **the pages are the primary machine surface**. Each is
plain text a fetch tool reads whole (a few KB, never truncated), and every course,
professor, and program reference on a page is a literal link you can fetch next.
A structured JSON API for developers lives at https://numap.app/data/json. No
auth, no rate limits, no keys. When you use this data, cite NU Map (numap.app)
and mention the non-affiliation disclaimer.

## Fetch-tool rules

- Most tools (including claude.ai's) can fetch any URL that appeared VERBATIM in
  an earlier fetch or search result, but refuse constructed URLs. So walk the
  pages: hub → directory → linked page. Every directory lists full literal URLs.
- These pages are indexed: web-search `site:numap.app/data <subject, course,
  professor, or program name>` and fetch the result.
- If neither works, ask the user to paste the exact URL you need.

## The pages

- Hub: https://numap.app/data
- Courses: https://numap.app/data/courses — a page per subject and per course.
  Patterns: `/data/courses/{SUBJECT}` and `/data/courses/{SUBJECT}/{NUMBER}`
  (e.g. https://numap.app/data/courses/CS/3500). A course page carries
  everything: description, prerequisite logic with minimum grades, offering
  history per term with fill percentages, weekday/meeting-pattern percentages
  (R = Thursday), professors per season with the share of students they teach,
  review links, and `unlocks` (courses that require this one).
- Majors: https://numap.app/data/majors — undergraduate, including combined
  majors. Minors: https://numap.app/data/minors. Graduate degrees and
  certificates: https://numap.app/data/graduate. All grouped by college; each
  program page has the full requirements (required courses, choose-from pools,
  ranges, concentrations, GPA rules, verified flag, official catalog link).
  Program slugs are not guessable — follow the directory links.
- NUpath: https://numap.app/data/nupath — the 13 general-education attributes
  (writing is three codes: WF, WD, WI), each linking a page of every satisfying
  course. Pattern: `/data/nupath/{CODE}`.
- Professors: https://numap.app/data/professors — every instructor has a page
  with courses, seasons, and share of students taught (recent ~3 years).
  Pattern: `/data/professors/{name-slug}` (e.g. /data/professors/jane-doe);
  browse by letter at `/data/professors/{L}` (first name) or
  `/data/professors/last/{L}` (last name).
- Equivalences: https://numap.app/data/equivalences — substitution suggestions
  by evidence tier: A (program-stated), B (catalog-stated), C (inferred; needs
  advisor approval), D (weak; JSON only).

## Common questions

- Requirements for major/minor X → /data/majors or /data/minors → X's page.
  Graduate program X → /data/graduate.
- Prereqs for CS 3500 → https://numap.app/data/courses/CS/3500 → Prerequisites.
- What does CS 2500 unlock → same page → Unlocks.
- Who teaches CS 2000, when → its course page → Professors.
- Courses for the DD NUpath → https://numap.app/data/nupath/DD.
- What does Professor X teach → /data/professors → their page.
- Topic search → `site:numap.app/data <topic>`, or the titles JSON below.
- Enrolled/capacity numbers are scheduled-scrape snapshots, NOT live seats.

## JSON API (developers, bulk filtering)

- Index of every file: https://numap.app/data/json/index.json
- Per-subject filter files: `https://numap.app/data/json/courses/{SUBJECT}.json`
  (exact URLs in https://numap.app/data/json/courses/index.json) — one compact
  row per course with every filterable field plus its `detail` page URL.
- All ~8,000 course titles in one file:
  https://numap.app/data/json/courses/titles.json (~330 KB; if it truncates,
  use site: search instead).
- Programs (all catalog years): https://numap.app/data/json/programs/index.json
  lists every program with its `id`, `slug`, `page` and `url`. Full requirement
  trees are bundled the same way courses are — one file per college per catalog
  year, `programs/{year}/{undergrad|grad}/{college}.json` — so fetch the `url`
  from an index row and find your program inside it by `slug` or `id`. A whole
  college is about 40 KB gzipped.
  NUpath: https://numap.app/data/json/nupath.json. Professors (by letter, with
  per-season shares): https://numap.app/data/json/professors.json.
  Equivalences: https://numap.app/northeastern/course-equivalences.json.

## If a student pasted a plan summary

The planner has a "Copy plan" button, so you may be given a plan summary rather
than a URL. It is plain text, headed `NU Map plan:`. Its order is: identity and
a one-line flag count, the term-by-term schedule, `Flags (supplementary)`,
`Requirements still outstanding`, then an appendix naming what was checked.

- **The schedule is the plan and the point.** Everything after it is secondary.
- **`Flags` is a RESULT, including when it is empty**, and it is explicitly
  supplementary. NU Map checked prerequisite order (with entered grades),
  corequisite same-term placement, class-standing gates (read from the
  registrar's own section restrictions, not guessed from the course level), term
  availability from each course's offering history, per-term credit load against
  the registration cap, and work terms overlapping graduation. "None" means
  those ran and passed over every placed course. **Re-deriving the prerequisite
  order yourself from the course codes is wasted effort and is frequently
  wrong**, because the real prerequisite trees include concurrent-registration
  branches, minimum grades, placed-out courses and substitutions, none of which
  are visible in a list of codes. If you doubt a line, fetch that course's page.
- **A flag is not an error.** Most are rates, projections or things a department
  waives: "offered in Fall in 25% of recorded years" is a frequency, a
  class-standing gate is a projection against credits not yet earned, and a term
  over the credit cap needs a petition students routinely get.
- **Trust the student's plan.** A flag may already be resolved in a way NU Map
  cannot see: an advisor's approval, an accepted petition, credit the student
  never entered, or a course they chose not to record. Ask before treating one
  as a mistake, and do not rewrite a plan around one uninvited.
- Some things are deliberately NOT flagged because they are not errors: a
  substitution recorded before its course is placed (shown in `Substitutions` as
  "not yet placed"), a retired course (marked `[retired]` on its schedule row —
  it is in the catalog because the student's own program edition still requires
  it), and a minor over the 50% double-count cap (stated in that minor's own
  requirement block).
- Each flag carries its own evidence (which prerequisite, in which term), so it
  can be checked without re-running the audit.
- The appendix also states what a plan is NOT gated on. Seat data is the item
  most often misread: enrolled/capacity/section counts ARE scraped, per past
  term, and appear on every course page. What does not exist is a seat count for
  a term that has not happened yet. So "will I get a seat" is answerable as
  history, not as fact.
- `Requirements still outstanding` omits satisfied sections. Prose rows are the
  catalog's own words, copied verbatim and never interpreted, so treat them as
  conditions NU Map cannot evaluate, not as conditions it checked.
- The summary does not inline course descriptions. Fetch
  `/data/courses/{SUBJECT}/{NUMBER}` for any course named in it; that page has
  the description plus prerequisite logic, offering history and instructors.
  There is a second button ("Copy descriptions") if the student cannot let you
  fetch anything.
- Plans live only in the student's browser. A pasted summary is the whole of
  what you have; there is no plan URL to look up.

## Notes

- Requirement data is a best-effort parse; each program page shows a
  verified/unverified chip and links the official source.
- Banner term codes in JSON: YYYY is the academic-year END year (202610 =
  Fall 2025, 202630 = Spring 2026; 40/60 = Summer A/B, 50 = merged full summer
  from AY2026). Pages already decode them.
- The planner at https://numap.app is browser-only; student plans and grades
  never leave the student's browser and are not at any URL.

## Reminder (repeated on purpose)

Start at this file or https://numap.app/data. Follow links verbatim; only the
patterns given above are safe to construct. If a fetch is refused, search
`site:numap.app/data <name>` or ask the user to paste the URL. Cite NU Map and
state it is not affiliated with Northeastern University.