Carpentries Workbench on The Carpentries

End of Support for Our Previous Lesson Infrastructure

Wed, 25 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Following the January 2025 announcement that The Carpentries would sunset support for our previous lesson infrastructure, styles, at the end of last year, the Curriculum Team has been archiving repositories that had not migrated to The Carpentries Workbench over the last few weeks.

All of our official lessons had been expertly transitioned by Zhian Kamvar, our former Lesson Infrastructure Developer and architect of the Workbench, during the initial rollout of the new tooling in 2023. By the beginning of 2025, the majority of the community’s lessons in The Carpentries Incubator and Carpentries Lab had either been created with the Workbench or already been converted to use it. This included many that were migrated to the Workbench during a hackathon session at CarpentryConnect Heidelberg 2024, led by Aleksandra Nenadic and Matthew Bluteau.

Introducing Cite This Lesson Pages to The Carpentries Workbench

Wed, 17 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

A new version of The Carpentries Workbench was released this month, and included several exciting new features.

Cite This Lesson Pages

Cite This Lesson pages will now be included in any lesson with a CITATION.cff file in the source repository. By displaying contributor information as a part of the lesson website, these pages will provide a lot more visibility to all the people who have made the lesson what it is. The Curriculum Team has been hoping to provide this kind of acknowledgement to lesson contributors for many years, and this is a major step towards the establishment of a regular release cycle for Carpentries lessons.

Release of Sandpaper 0.15.0

Mon, 27 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000

This is the eighteenth post continuing a series that we are calling “The Dovetail”, about the transition to The Carpentries Workbench (our new lesson infrastructure). In this series, we aim to keep members of The Carpentries community abreast of the current news about the Workbench. If you are unfamiliar with The Workbench, you can watch a video that describes the workbench and the beta phase in two minutes.

If you are interested in participating in discussions around The Carpentries Workbench, or if you have questions, head over to our GitHub Discussions forum.

Celebrating The Carpentries Workbench

Mon, 21 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

In May 2023, a significant milestone was reached as The Carpentries transitioned all 43 of its official lessons to a new lesson infrastructure, The Carpentries Workbench. This project, led by Zhian Kamvar our Lesson Infrastructure Developer, was a three-year coordinated effort requiring input and contributions from many members of our community. We asked six of them to provide their reflections on the project, its impact, and Zhian’s leadership.

Jennifer Stubbs, Assistant Professor, Bradley University

Community Roles: Community Session Host, Instructor, Maintainer

Updates on The Carpentries Lesson Infrastructure

Wed, 28 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000

In this bitter-sweet blog post, I want to start by noting that we quietly passed a milestone last month. On 15 May, we successfully rolled-out our new lesson infrastructure, The Carpentries Workbench to all 43 of our official lessons. The Workbench, which has been featured regularly on our blog brings major improvements to how our community creates, maintains, teaches, and learns our lessons.

Building Success

The Workbench Prioritises accessible design principles and uses automated testing to validate lesson content for compliance with WCAG AA+ accessibility best practices, Is built on tools we teach in our workshops and that are commonly used in our community, reducing barriers for new lesson developers, maintainers, and contributors, More accurately reflects lesson authorship by clearly separating the tools needed to build the lesson from the content. Employs a modular design that is intended for future growth to support our community.

The Dovetail #17: Updates from The Carpentries Workbench

Thu, 13 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000

This is the seventeenth post in a series that we are calling “The Dovetail”, about the transition to The Carpentries Workbench (our new lesson infrastructure). In this series, we aim to keep members of The Carpentries community abreast of the current news about the Workbench. If you are unfamiliar with The Workbench, you can watch a video that describes the workbench and the beta phase in two minutes.

If you are interested in participating in discussions around The Carpentries Workbench, or if you have questions, head over to our GitHub Discussions forum: https://github.com/carpentries/workbench/discussions

Workbench Beta Phase Complete

Tue, 04 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Beta Phase Complete

Since October 2022, we have been running a test of our new lesson infrastructure, known as The Workbench. If you are unfamiliar with The Workbench, you can watch a video that describes the workbench and the beta phase in two minutes. If you are interested in participating in discussions around The Carpentries Workbench, or if you have questions, head over to our GitHub Discussions forum: https://github.com/carpentries/workbench/discussions

If you have used the workbench and would like to provide feedback, please tell us about your experience.

The Dovetail #16: Updates from The Carpentries Workbench

Tue, 14 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

This is the sixteenth post in a series that we are calling “The Dovetail”, about the transition to The Carpentries Workbench (our new lesson infrastructure). In this series, we aim to keep members of The Carpentries community abreast of the current news about the Workbench. If you are unfamiliar with The Workbench, you can watch a video that describes the workbench and the beta phase in two minutes.

The Dovetail #15: Updates from The Carpentries Workbench

Tue, 14 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0000

This is the fifteenth post in a series that we are calling “The Dovetail”, about the transition to The Carpentries Workbench (our new lesson infrastructure). In this series, we aim to keep members of The Carpentries community abreast of the current news about the Workbench. If you are unfamiliar with The Workbench, you can watch a video that describes the workbench and the beta phase in two minutes.

The Dovetail #14: Updates from The Carpentries Workbench

Tue, 17 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000

This is the fourteenth post in a series that we are calling “The Dovetail”, about the transition to The Carpentries Workbench (our new lesson infrastructure). In this series, we aim to keep members of The Carpentries community abreast of the current news about the Workbench. If you are unfamiliar with The Workbench, you can watch a video that describes the workbench and the beta phase in twom minutes.

The Dovetail #13: Updates from The Carpentries Workbench

Wed, 21 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

This is the thirteenth post in a series that we are calling “The Dovetail”, about the transition to The Carpentries Workbench (our new lesson infrastructure). In this series, we aim to keep members of The Carpentries community abreast of the current news about the Workbench.

If you have used the workbench and would like to provide feedback, please tell us about your experience.

The Dovetail #12: Updates from The Carpentries Workbench

Wed, 07 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

This is the twelfth post in a series that we are calling “The Dovetail”, about the transition to The Carpentries Workbench (our new lesson infrastructure). In this series, we aim to keep members of The Carpentries community abreast of the current news about the Workbench.

If you have used the workbench and would like to provide feedback, please tell us about your experience.

The Dovetail #11: Updates from The Carpentries Workbench

Wed, 16 Nov 2022 00:00:00 +0000

This is the eleventh post in a series that we are calling “The Dovetail”, about the transition to The Carpentries Workbench. In this series, we aim to keep members of The Carpentries community abreast of the current news about the Workbench.

If you are interested in participating in discussions around The Carpentries Workbench, head over to our GitHub Discussions forum: https://github.com/carpentries/workbench/discussions

If you have used the workbench and would like to provide feedback, please tell us about your experience.

The Dovetail #10: Updates from The Carpentries Workbench

Wed, 02 Nov 2022 00:00:00 +0000

This is the tenth post in a series that we are calling “The Dovetail”, about the transition to The Carpentries Workbench. In this series, we aim to keep members of The Carpentries community abreast of the current news about the Workbench.

If you are interested in participating in discussions around The Carpentries Workbench, head over to our GitHub Discussions forum: https://github.com/carpentries/workbench/discussions

If you have used the workbench and would like to provide feedback, please tell us about your experience.

The Dovetail #9: Updates from The Carpentries Workbench

Wed, 19 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000

This is the eighth post in a series that we are calling “The Dovetail”, about the transition to The Carpentries Workbench. In this series, we aim to keep members of The Carpentries community abreast of the current news about the Workbench.

If you are interested in participating in discussions around The Carpentries Workbench, head over to our GitHub Discussions forum: https://github.com/carpentries/workbench/discussions

Beta Phase Updates

The beta phase is up and running with the first lesson: “Data Analysis and Visualisation in R for Ecologists”. The live version is at https://datacarpentry.org/R-ecology-lesson, while The Workbench version is at https://preview.carpentries.org/R-ecology-lesson. Note that The Workbench version of the lesson is a snapshot from 2022-10-17, which allows the Maintainers of the lesson to practise working with the new infrastructure before it becomes the default. On 2022-11-14, the underlying lesson repository will be converted to using the Workbench. During this time, the default URL will serve a snapshot of the lesson, and the live lesson will be served at the preview URL. Note that any pull requests that come into the lesson during that time should not come from forks created before 2022-11-14.

The Dovetail #8: Updates from The Carpentries Workbench

Wed, 05 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000

If you are interested in participating in discussions around The Carpentries Workbench, head over to our GitHub Discussions forum: https://github.com/carpentries/workbench/discussions

Beta Phase To Resume

As we enter into the Q4, I am pleased to announce that the long-delayed beta phase will commence from 2022-10-17 until 2023-03-13 with one lesson entering the beta phase per week. Details of the beta phase and the official table of lessons can be found below and on the Workbench Beta Phase page, with explanation of what the different stages of the beta phase will bring.

The Dovetail #7: Updates from The Carpentries Workbench

Wed, 21 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0000

This is the seventh post in a series that we are calling “The Dovetail”, about the transition to The Carpentries Workbench. In this series, we aim to keep members of The Carpentries community abreast of the current news about the Workbench.

If you are interested in participating in discussions around The Carpentries Workbench, head over to our GitHub Discussions forum: https://github.com/carpentries/workbench/discussions

We are hard at work drawing up plans for The Beta Phase, which will tentatively restart on 2022-10-17. I have recruited members from the Curriculum, Workshop Administration, Assessment, and Communications teams to help out with the effort. By the time the beta phase is over and we convert our lessons (current estimate: Q2 2023), the whole community should be aware of and excited for the changes!

The Dovetail #6: Updates from The Carpentries Workbench

Wed, 24 Aug 2022 00:00:00 +0000

This is the sixth post in a series that we are calling “The Dovetail”, about the transition to The Carpentries Workbench. In this series, we aim to keep members of The Carpentries community abreast of the current news about the Workbench.

If you are interested in participating in discussions around The Carpentries Workbench, head over to our GitHub Discussions forum: https://github.com/carpentries/workbench/discussions

A lot has happened since the last time I provided an update (2022-07-20), just not that much on The Workbench side of things. I attended and presented at the RStudio conference 2022, took a short “staycation” to decompress (with a broken aircon, no less!), attended and presented at CarpentryCon 2022, and sat on hiring committees for our new Director of Technology. During this time, I was able to tackle some superficial aspects of the Workbench itself.

The Dovetail #5: Updates from The Carpentries Workbench

Wed, 20 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000

This is the fifth post in a series that we are calling “The Dovetail.” In this series, we aim to keep members of The Carpentries community abreast of the current news for The Carpentries Workbench.

If you are interested in participating in discussions around The Carpentries Workbench, head over to our GitHub Discussions forum: https://github.com/carpentries/workbench/discussions

Announcements

Workbench Beta Phase On Hold

The Workbench Beta phase is on Hold until after CarpentryCon, and it is likely that it will be on hold until mid-September. Over the last few weeks, like an unexpected late spring ice storm, situations unrelated to development of The Workbench both personal and professional ([such as the departure of a good friend and colleague]({{ site.url }}/blog/2022/07/thank-you-francois/)) have arisen, which forced me to stop pedaling and gently squeeze the brakes on this project so that the Dovetail does not turn into a fishtail.

The Dovetail #4: Updates from The Carpentries Workbench

Sun, 03 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000

This is the fourth post in a series that we are calling “The Dovetail.” In this series, we aim to keep members of The Carpentries community abreast of the current news for The Carpentries Workbench.

If you are interested in participating in discussions around The Carpentries Workbench, head over to our GitHub Discussions forum: https://github.com/carpentries/workbench/discussions

Announcements

For anyone who has questions about The Workbench, I will be hosting two themed community discussions:

(UTC) Friday 08 July 2022 14:00 (find your time)
(UTC) Tuesday 12 July 2022 00:00 (find your time)

Updates to The Carpentries Workbench

Since 2022-06-08,

The Dovetail #3: Updates from The Carpentries Workbench

Wed, 22 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000

This is the third post in a series that we are calling “The Dovetail.” In this series, we aim to keep members of The Carpentries community abreast of the current news for The Carpentries Workbench.

If you are interested in participating in discussions around The Carpentries Workbench, head over to our GitHub Discussions forum: https://github.com/carpentries/workbench/discussions

Updates to The Carpentries Workbench

Since 2022-06-08,

{sandpaper} version 0.5.8 -> 0.6.0
- create_episode() will now accept titles with spaces and UTF-8 characters. A slugified file name will be created from the title. Now you can create a new episode like so: sandpaper::create_episode("안녕 고양이 😹 Hello Kitty!") and the corresponding file name will be: 02-안녕-고양이-😹-hello-kitty.Rmd
- create_episode() now has the variants create_episode_rmd() and create_episode_md(), for lesson developers who want to create episodes of a specific file type.
- create_lesson() gains the rmd = TRUE argument, which allows lesson developers to opt out of creating an R Markdown-based episode if they want.
{varnish} version 0.1.14 -> 0.2.0
- The search field has been disabled to avoid confusion (it is a future endeavour)
- The heading above the sidebar has been renamed to EPISODES to avoid confusion
- The sidebar will stay collapsed across page refreshes
{pegboard} (no updates)
Both the markdown template and R Markdown template now default to creating incubator lessons, as these are more common than lessons that are purely carpentries.

To update your local Workbench installation, open R and use the following code:

The Dovetail #2: Updates from The Carpentries Workbench

Wed, 08 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000

This is the second post in a series that we are calling “The Dovetail.” In this series, we aim to keep members of The Carpentries community abreast of the current news for The Carpentries Workbench.

If you are interested in participating in discussions around The Carpentries Workbench, head over to our GitHub Discussions forum: https://github.com/carpentries/workbench/discussions

Updates to The Carpentries Workbench

Since 2022-05-25,

{sandpaper} version 0.5.5 -> 0.5.8
- pull request workflow updated to include validation for lesson accessibility. Links and images that could be improved for accessibility will now be highlighted in the pull request.

The Dovetail: Updates from The Carpentries Workbench

Wed, 25 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

This is the first post in a series of posts that we are calling “The Dovetail.” In this series, we aim to keep members of The Carpentries community abreast on the current news for The Carpentries Workbench.

If you are interested in participating in discussions around The Carpentries Workbench, head over to our GitHub Discussions forum: https://github.com/carpentries/workbench/discussions

Updates to The Carpentries Workbench

Since 2022-05-05,

{sandpaper} version 0.5.1 -> 0.5.5
- This incorporates important updates for R-based lessons and introduces the workbench-beta config variable to indicate that a lesson is in the workbench beta phase
{varnish} version 0.1.11 -> 0.1.13
- Workbench beta phase alert added
- dropdown navigation no longer is hidden by the sidebar on XXL screens (thanks @brownsarahm!)
- blockquotes are now more clearly delineated from the rest of the content (thanks @fiveop!)
{pegboard} version 0.2.4 -> 0.2.6
- Link validation no longer treats alt="" as invalid as this can indicate decorative images that are ignored by screen readers.

To update your local Workbench installation, open R and use the following code:

The Carpentries Workbench: Beta Phase and Beyond

Thu, 05 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Updated 2022-10-03 to reflect that the beta URL will not be the permanent URL

This is an ongoing series of blog posts about The Carpentries Workbench, (the next iteration of the [Lesson Infrastructure]({{ site.url }}/posts-by-tags/#lesson-infrastructure)). Find more about our Design Principles, our Path to the Design for the Lesson Website, the Alpha Test of the Workbench, and our Official Announcemnt of The Carpentries Workbench.

TL;DR

We will be transitioning some of the lessons to The Carpentries Workbench in the next few months as a beta test. The beta test will live in parallel to the current lessons for at least two months before fully transitioning. If you are a Maintainer, and would like to have your lesson enter the beta test, please sign up and tell us about your lesson and when is the earliest time for you to start the beta testing.