Two lanes — roadmap vs free play
Read this page. If you only read one page in this section, make it this one. Misunderstanding the two lanes is the most common reason users feel stuck.
The split
Every session you run on ClaudeLab is one of two kinds:
| Lane | Counts toward milestone? | Counts toward streak? | Counts toward pass guarantee? | Improves readiness? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Roadmap task | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Free play | No | No | No | Yes |
Both improve your readiness score. Only one advances your roadmap.
How I label them
Internally, every exam session has an is_roadmap_task flag. The Today Task card on your dashboard is always a roadmap task — that is the whole point of the card. 
ARIA picks it; you run it.
Free play is anything you launch yourself outside that card — a random practice session from the exam tab, a topic drill, a session you start "just to warm up." It is useful. It is not your roadmap.
Why the split exists
Your milestone counter exists for a reason: I can only certify you as exam-ready if I have watched you perform on the topics I chose, in the order I chose, against the validation gates I set. Letting any session you happen to run advance the milestone would let you cherry-pick — and cherry-picking is exactly what the evaluation was designed to catch you doing.
Free play exists for a different reason: between roadmap tasks, your readiness drifts. Practicing anything keeps your skills warm and your retention factor high. So free play improves your readiness score (which feeds pass-probability and unlock gates) without polluting the milestone counter.
The mistake users make
"I have done ten sessions this week and my milestone progress is still 0/3. What is broken?"
Nothing is broken. You ran ten free-play sessions. None of them were the task on your Today Task card.
If your milestone counter is not moving, you are doing free play instead of roadmap tasks.
Open the dashboard. Find the Today Task card — the one ARIA chose for you. Run that. Only that advances milestones. Only that counts toward your streak. Only that counts toward the pass guarantee.
Free play is fine in addition. It is not a substitute.
How to tell which lane you are in
Before you launch any session, look at where you launched it from:
- Today Task card on dashboard → roadmap task.
- Milestone detail screen → "Start session" → roadmap task (targets that specific milestone).
- Anything else → free play.
After the session, the report screen shows the lane. Roadmap-task reports include the milestone title and the updated session counter. Free-play reports do not.
When free play is the right move
Free play is the right move when:
- You have already completed today's roadmap task and want to keep going.
- Your readiness score has dropped from inactivity and you want to recover before the next roadmap task.
- You want to drill a specific topic that is not currently on a milestone.
Free play is the wrong move when you are trying to advance your milestone counter, qualify for the pass guarantee, or extend your streak. For any of those, run the Today Task.