Check Progress Toward Next Level

You need to check whether your evidence record shows movement toward the bar for the next level -- without waiting for a formal review to find out.

Prerequisites

Complete Find Growth Areas and Build Evidence first. That guide covers setting up Guide and Landmark, identifying your gaps, and starting to build evidence. The steps below assume you have an existing evidence record and want to measure whether it is growing.

You need:

npx fit-landmark installed and connected to Map's activity layer (see Getting Started: Landmark for Engineers)
Your email address registered in the organization roster
At least one round of artifacts ingested (pull requests, design documents, or code reviews)

Check your readiness checklist

The readiness command shows a checklist of next-level markers -- which ones your work has already evidenced and which are still outstanding:

npx fit-landmark readiness --email you@example.com

Expected output:

  Readiness: you@example.com (J060 -> J070)

    Architecture Design (practitioner):
      [x] Designs services with clear API boundaries (PR #142)
      [x] Documents trade-offs in design decisions (design-doc-auth)
      [x] Defines module boundaries for a bounded domain (RFC-019)
      [ ] Leads architecture for a product or platform area

    Code Review (practitioner):
      [x] Provides actionable feedback on design intent, not just style (PR #198)
      [ ] Mentors others on review quality
      [ ] Defines review standards for the area

    5/7 markers evidenced.
    Missing: Leads architecture for a product or platform area; Mentors others
    on review quality; Defines review standards for the area

Without --target, readiness checks against the next level above your current level. To check against a specific level:

npx fit-landmark readiness --email you@example.com --target J080

The summary line at the bottom is the quickest signal: compare the evidenced/total ratio to your last check. If the ratio has grown, recent work is producing visible results.

Review the evidence behind each marker

When a marker shows [x], the readiness output names the artifact that evidenced it. To see the full rationale -- why Landmark matched that artifact to that marker -- use the evidence command filtered to a specific skill:

npx fit-landmark evidence --skill architecture_design --email you@example.com

Expected output:

  Evidence

    architecture_design: 3 matched, 1 unmatched
      [matched] Designs services with clear API boundaries
        rationale: PR #142 introduced a new service boundary with documented...
      [matched] Documents trade-offs in design decisions
        rationale: Design doc for auth migration weighed three approaches...
      [matched] Defines module boundaries for a bounded domain
        rationale: RFC-019 established module boundaries for the billing...
      [unmatched] Leads architecture for a product or platform area

    Evidence covers 18/24 artifacts.

Each matched row includes the artifact reference and a rationale explaining the match. Reviewing rationales helps you understand what kind of work is being recognized -- and what kind is not yet strong enough to match.

Check your growth timeline

The timeline command shows the highest evidenced proficiency level per skill per quarter. A level appearing for the first time means the evidence record has caught up to growth in that area:

npx fit-landmark timeline --email you@example.com

Expected output:

  Growth timeline for you@example.com

    2025-Q1     architecture_design  working
    2025-Q2     architecture_design  working
    2025-Q3     architecture_design  practitioner
    2025-Q1     code_review          working
    2025-Q2     code_review          working

In this example, architecture_design moved from working to practitioner in Q3. That is a visible shift -- the evidence record now reflects growth that previously existed only in practice.

Filter to a single skill to focus on one area:

npx fit-landmark timeline --email you@example.com --skill architecture_design

If the timeline shows the same proficiency level across multiple quarters with no change, either the work has not yet produced artifacts that match the next-level markers, or the relevant artifacts have not been ingested. Check whether recent pull requests and design documents have been processed.

Look up what the missing markers expect

When the readiness checklist shows outstanding markers, use the marker command to see what the standard defines for that proficiency level:

npx fit-landmark marker architecture_design --level practitioner

  Markers: architecture_design (practitioner)

    - Leads architecture for a product or platform area
    - Defines module boundaries and integration patterns
    - Evaluates architectural trade-offs across multiple dimensions
    - Documents architectural decisions with context and rationale

These are the observable indicators your standard defines for that proficiency level. Knowing the full set helps you identify which kinds of work would naturally produce evidence for the missing markers.

Verify

You have completed this guide when you can answer these questions:

Is your evidence record growing? You have run npx fit-landmark readiness and compared the evidenced/total ratio to a previous check. The ratio has changed -- or you understand why it has not.
Do you know which markers are still missing? The readiness summary names the outstanding markers, and you can describe what each one expects.
Can you see the trajectory? You have run npx fit-landmark timeline and can point to at least one skill where the proficiency level has changed across quarters -- or you have identified why no change appears yet.
Do you understand the rationale behind matched markers? You have run npx fit-landmark evidence for at least one skill and reviewed the rationale for each match.

If any of these are unclear, revisit the relevant step. The readiness checklist is the most direct measure -- when missing markers from a previous check start showing as evidenced, recent work is producing visible movement toward the bar.