# Maker Skill Trees: printable hex-tile skill maps, and the generator behind them > Maker Skill Trees is a collection of printable 73-tile skill trees plus a browser-based generator for making your own. The repository itself is a Jinja-based template set, and the licence, not the code, is the part you need to read first. **sjpiper145/MakerSkillTree** — A repository of Maker Skill Trees and templates to make your own. - Repository: https://github.com/sjpiper145/MakerSkillTree - Stars: 3,437 · Forks: 178 - Language: Jinja - License: not declared - Published: 2026-09-23 · Updated: 2026-09-23 · Language: en - Canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/sjpiper145-makerskilltree ## What problem Maker Skill Trees solves, and who it is for Most skill lists are linear: a course syllabus, a badge ladder, a checklist. Maker Skill Trees arranges skills as a hex grid instead. The README states each tree has 73 skill or experience hexagonal tiles, ordered from basic skills at the bottom to more advanced skills at the top, and you colour in boxes as you go. That layout does two things a checklist cannot. It shows proximity, so adjacent tiles read as related competences, and it makes partial completion legible, because a half-filled tree is a picture of where you stopped rather than a failed list. The README names the audiences directly: individual goal tracking and upskilling, makerspace members upskilling on tools, training new staff, school students on self-directed activities, and recruitment, competency checking, careers counselling or coaching. The repository layout backs this up. There are top-level folders for 3D Printing, Electronics, Kubernetes, IT Security, Cooking, Crochet, Cattle Showing, Gyroplane and dozens more, plus a Kids STEAM Skills folder and a Makerspace Skill Trees folder. That breadth is the point: the same 73-tile format is reused across subjects, so a facilitator learns one worksheet shape and applies it everywhere. ## The 73-tile hex grid and the colouring convention The mechanism is deliberately low-tech. You print a tree or use it digitally, start at the base, and colour in the boxes for things you have already done. The README describes a colouring convention for tailoring the tree to your own journey and mentions sticker templates under the templates folder for making goal replacement stickers on a vinyl cutter, so an existing printed sheet can be edited without reprinting. Two rules matter more than they look. First, tiles can be completed out of order, but the README advises beginners to start at the base in the basics. Second, and this is the design decision worth noting, the README says skill trees do not need to be completed to 100 percent, and that tiles are suggestions that can be changed based on your priorities and ability. That is a real departure from badge systems, where an unearned badge is a gap. Here an untouched tile is just an option you declined. The trade-off is obvious: a tool that refuses to score you cannot certify you either, which is why the README routes competency checking toward human judgement rather than the sheet itself. ## Making your own tree with the Skill Tree Generator The repository does not require you to draw hexagons. The README points to the Skill Tree Generator, a browser tool designed by @schme16, for building your own templates. The documented controls are short: heading text is editable, click and drag moves tiles, right click on a tile edits its text, Save downloads an SVG, and left clicking the credit at the base lets you add your own name or remove the original one for personal use. That last control is the one to be careful with. The credit line is how the licence is satisfied, so removing it is described in the README as acceptable for personal use, but the licence section is explicit that sharing, adapting or remixing requires giving credit to Steph Piper / Maker Queen or leaving the credit at the bottom of the page. If you are generating a tree for a workshop handout, keep the credit. Once you have an SVG, the README names a second tool, the Skill Tree Tool by @josephlewis42, which converts between generator-produced SVG files and machine readable YAML, and includes a changelog generator that shows what changed during peer review between an old skill tree and a refreshed one. That YAML path is the only machine-readable surface the project documents. ## Installing nothing: a first session from clone to print There is no package to install. The project is a repository of printable templates plus Jinja sources, and the README's instruction is simply to print your chosen template or use it digitally. The practical first step is to get the files locally so you can pick a folder. ```bash git clone https://github.com/sjpiper145/MakerSkillTree.git cd MakerSkillTree ls -d *Skill\ Tree* | head ``` The listing shows the top-level subject folders, each named for a skill area such as Electronics Skill Tree or Kubernetes Skill Tree. Pick one, open it, and print or open the artwork inside. If nothing matches your subject, the generator is the next step. ```bash # open the generator in a browser, then: # 1. edit the heading text # 2. click and drag tiles into place # 3. right click a tile to edit its text # 4. left click the credit at the base to set your name # 5. click Save to download the SVG ``` The generator lives at schme16.github.io/MakerSkillTree-Generator, so there is no build step and no dependency file to read. What you should see after Save is a downloaded SVG containing your heading, your tiles and your credit line. If you want the tree in a machine readable form instead, feed that SVG to the Skill Tree Tool at josephlewis42.github.io/skilltreetool and export YAML. ## Where Maker Skill Trees is the wrong tool The README is honest about the boundary, and it is worth taking at face value. This is not tracking software. There is no account, no progress database, no API and no sync between a printed sheet and anything else. If you need to see forty learners' progress on one screen, this repository gives you forty pieces of paper. The README's answer is to point elsewhere: Skill Quest, described as free and open source skill tracking software by @IvanR3D, is the project's recommended route for tracking skill growth, with collaboration invited on future goals such as how-to guides and profile sharing. So the honest split is that Maker Skill Trees produces the artefact and Skill Quest handles the record. A second limitation is licensing. The README states that if you want to use the skill trees project to build skill tracking software, apps or systems, you need a commercial licence obtained by sponsoring the project. Open source software built on it is welcomed; commercial software is not covered by the CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 terms. A third is maintenance shape: there are no releases in the repository, so there is no version to pin and no changelog to diff. The last push was on 2026-08-28, and the README describes the repository as always growing, which means content arrives as new folders rather than as tagged versions. ## How it differs from a spreadsheet skill matrix The obvious alternative is a spreadsheet. A Google Sheets skill matrix gives you sortable rows, formulas, conditional formatting and a shared link that updates live. Maker Skill Trees gives you none of that. What it gives instead is spatial arrangement: because tiles sit in a hex grid ordered from basics at the bottom to advanced at the top, the shape of a person's filled area communicates something a sorted column does not, namely which neighbouring skills they have and have not touched. That difference cuts both ways. A spreadsheet is better for aggregation, comparison across people and any kind of reporting. A printed tree is better for a single person deciding what to try next, and for a wall in a makerspace where the point is inspiration rather than audit. The README's own usage list reflects this: individual goal tracking, upskilling, training new staff, school self-directed work, careers counselling. Notice that recruitment and competency checking appear too, but those are the cases where the sheet is an aid to a conversation, not the record of it. If your process needs the artefact to be the record, a spreadsheet or Skill Quest is the better fit. ## Licence, credit and what a remix owes The README states the trees are released under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. In practice that means you may share, adapt, remix or transform the printables and templates, and use them in teaching, workshops, businesses, conferences, schools and makerspaces at no cost. Two conditions come with that permission. You must give credit to Steph Piper / Maker Queen, or leave the credit at the bottom of the page, and if you release a remix it must carry the same licence. The non-commercial clause is where teams get caught. The README draws the line at building skill tracking software, apps or systems: that requires a commercial licence via sponsorship, and the sponsorship page links to an exclusive repository of high quality resources. The README also states plainly that if your software is open source, you are welcome to build and experiment as you please. So the dividing question is not whether money is involved anywhere in your organisation, it is whether the skill trees become part of a commercial product. This is a description of what the README says, not legal advice; if your use sits near the boundary, read the linked licence text and the sponsorship page rather than this summary. ## Conclusion Adopt Maker Skill Trees if you want a printed or SVG worksheet for a workshop, classroom, makerspace onboarding or personal upskilling, and you are comfortable with CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 terms. Do not adopt it if you need a database, progress API or multi-user tracking: the repository ships printable templates and Jinja sources, and the README points to Skill Quest for software. Before you print anything, verify the credit line at the base of the page is intact, check which folder holds the tree you want, and read the licence page for the commercial-licence condition if the output will sit inside a paid product. ## FAQ ### How can I create my own Maker Skill Tree? Use the Skill Tree Generator linked from the README: edit the heading text, click and drag tiles, right click a tile to edit its text, left click the credit at the base to set your name, then click Save to download an SVG. The README notes this makes it much easier to build templates for personal use or for adding to the repository. ### What are maker skills in the Maker Skill Trees project? The repository organises them as subject folders, each containing a 73-tile tree ordered from basic skills at the bottom to more advanced skills at the top. The folder list covers areas such as 3D Printing, Electronics, Coding, Cooking, Kubernetes, IT Security, Metalworking and many others, plus a Kids STEAM Skills set. ### Does Maker Skill Trees cost anything to use? The README states the trees are released under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 and that you may share, adapt, remix or transform them and use them in teaching, workshops, businesses, conferences, schools and makerspaces at no cost. Credit to Steph Piper / Maker Queen must be given, remixes must use the same licence, and building skill tracking software, apps or systems requires a commercial licence via sponsorship. ### Can I get a machine readable version of a Maker Skill Tree? Yes, via the Skill Tree Tool linked from the README, which converts between generator-produced SVG files and YAML. The README also mentions a changelog generator built into that tool, which shows the changes made during peer review between an old skill tree and a refreshed one. ### Is there an app for tracking progress on a Maker Skill Tree? Not in this repository. The README points to Skill Quest, described as free and open source skill tracking software by @IvanR3D, for tracking skill growth, and states that building your own skill tracking software for commercial purposes requires a commercial licence through sponsorship. ## Sources - [Issues](https://github.com/sjpiper145/MakerSkillTree/issues) - [README](https://github.com/sjpiper145/MakerSkillTree/blob/main/README.md) - [sjpiper145/MakerSkillTree on GitHub](https://github.com/sjpiper145/MakerSkillTree) --- Hysen Labs editorial analysis, written from the project's own repository and release notes. Cite the canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/sjpiper145-makerskilltree