> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://herd-security.gitbook.io/herd-security-docs/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://herd-security.gitbook.io/herd-security-docs/trainings/getting-started-with-trainings/creating-trainings.md).
# Creating Trainings
Create tailored training content for compliance, onboarding, or team-specific needs with full control over structure and delivery.
## Create Trainings
Custom Trainings allow you to build learning content from the ground up that is tailored specifically to your organization’s needs. Whether it’s for compliance, onboarding, or a team-specific topic, Custom Trainings give you full control over the structure, materials, and delivery.
Custom Trainings are ideal when you need to:
* Share **organization-specific knowledge** (e.g., internal policies, tools, or processes).
* Deliver targeted content for a **specific department, project, or role**.
* Supplement Herd’s **Out-of-the-box Trainings** with material unique to your team.
### Starting a Custom Training
**Step 1:** On the **Trainings Page**, in the top right corner click **“New Training.”**
**Step 2**: Choose how you’d like to build your training. You have three options: **Create with HerdAI** (recommended), **Create manually** from a blank form, or **Import a SCORM package** to build a training from an existing SCORM `.zip` file.
If you choose to create your training with HerdAI, you'll be taken to HerdAI where it'll ask you what details such as topic, number of steps, quiz questions, or tone or style.
If you choose to create your training manually, you land on the create page. A short **Details / Build the steps / Assign & track** rail at the top shows where this form sits in the process. Enter a **title (required) and description (optional)** to help your team quickly understand the purpose of the training. Under **Tags**, add up to 10 tags (optional): pick from the **Quick add** suggestions or type your own custom tag. Under **Delivery**, the **Automatically remind assignees (recommended)** toggle attaches Herd's default reminder schedule to the training when it's assigned. Later, on the training's page, tags and **compliance frameworks** are edited together in a single pill row; typing a framework name (like "PCI" or "SOC 2") suggests the framework instead of creating a duplicate tag.
If you choose **Import a SCORM package**, the **Import a SCORM package** dialog asks you to **Choose a .zip file** (up to 1 GB) and click **Import**. Herd creates a new training from the package's content and opens it, ready to edit like any other training. Packages exported from **Articulate Rise 360** are supported: sections, text, lists, images, notes, flashcards, tabs, timelines, buttons, embedded and packaged video, and quiz questions are mapped onto Herd steps (packaged video becomes a media attachment rather than a link). A package whose format Herd can't read is refused with a message saying so, rather than producing an empty training.
**Step 3:** Once you've entered the training information, click **Create training** in the bottom right corner to create your training overview.
## Building Your Content
**Step 1:** After you press **Create training,** you'll be prompted to start creating step content. The training's page shows a live length estimate in its header (for example *About 2 min 10 sec*) that updates as you write; if the training grows past the recommended course length it says so in plain words.
**Step 2:** To add more steps, click on **Add New Step**. To edit the content within the step, click on the message you wish to edit.
**Step 3:** Click into any step within the training to customize the content your users will see.
Here’s what you can do in the step editor:
* **Message Body**\
Type your content into the **Message Body** box.\
A **Preview** panel on the right side of the **Message Body** will show how the message will appear in **Slack or Microsoft Teams**.
* **Formatting Tips**\
Just below the message box, you’ll find formatting shortcuts:
* **Bold**
* *Italics*
* Underline (kept in Slack, Microsoft Teams and the web player)
* ~~Strikethrough~~
* [Links](https://example.com)
* Numbered and bulleted lists — with **Indent** / **Un-indent** buttons (or **Tab** / **Shift+Tab**) for nested lists, rendered faithfully in Slack, Teams, and the web player
* Blockquote
* Inline code and code blocks
* **Insert variable** — a dropdown of placeholders that fill in each recipient's details at delivery: **Mention** (`{{tag_user}}`), **Name**, **Email**, **Org**, **Training name** (`{{training_title}}`) and **Track name** (`{{track_title}}`) — plus any [custom variables](/herd-security-docs/settings/settings/general-and-approvals.md#custom-variables-directory-lookup-variables) your organization has defined (e.g. a per-department `{{security_lead}}`).
* **Training name and track name** are handy for closing or hand-off steps such as "You've completed {{training\_title}}." They fill in everywhere a step is delivered: Slack, Teams, reminders and the web player. **Track name** is blank when the training wasn't assigned through a track; when a learner reaches the training through a second track, it shows the track that first assigned it. In the editor preview, **Track name** shows blank. If your organization already had a custom variable named `track_title` or `training_title`, yours keeps working and takes precedence.
* **Paste a YouTube or Vimeo link** on its own and it attaches as an inline video — learners play it right inside the step (the player loads only when they press play). No special button needed.
* Click **“+ Add Button”** to insert response options or quiz prompts.
* These buttons help guide users to the next step or capture answers.
* **Limit: 30 characters** to ensure proper display in Slack.
* **Steps without buttons pace themselves.** If a step (other than the last one) has no buttons, Herd adds a **Continue** button when it delivers the step, so learners move through at their own pace instead of receiving several steps at once. The step editor's preview shows this button with the caption *Added automatically so the learner sets the pace*.
* **Wait for the learner to reply before continuing** — turn this toggle on (it appears on button-less steps) to remove the automatic Continue button and hold the step until the learner types a reply, such as "next". In Slack and Teams they reply in the thread; learners taking the training in a browser get a reply box. Ask HerdAI for it too: *"the second step should wait for the learner to reply"*.
* Use the **Correct Answer** field to select the correct response for quiz steps.
* **Explanation (optional)** — on any step with answer buttons, add an explanation of why the correct answer is correct. It's shown to the learner **after they answer**, in Slack, Teams, and the web player alike, turning every quiz question into a teaching moment.
* **Ungraded check-ins** — for a "what would you do?" question with no right answer, give the step two or more answer buttons and an **Explanation**, and leave **Correct Answer** empty. Whatever the learner picks, they see *You chose: …* and the explanation, and the training moves on. A check-in is never scored, doesn't count toward a passing score, and isn't shown in peer stats or retakes. Navigation and link buttons (such as **Continue** or **Next**) don't count as answers.
* **Routing questions** — for an if/then question with no right answer, such as "Do you handle cardholder data?", turn on **Routing question (no right answer)** (offered on steps with two or more buttons). A routing question needs only one answer button, so a step with **Next** and one answer still records the answer for routing; a navigation button such as **Next** just moves the learner on. The **Correct Answer** picker is hidden, and learners see the answer they picked (*You chose: …*), never Correct or Incorrect. The answer doesn't count toward the quiz score or passing score. Use **Branching Rules** to send each answer to a different step. Turning it on converts existing correct/incorrect rules for you: on a yes/no step with "Yes" correct, *correct → Step 6, incorrect → Step 7* becomes *Yes → Step 6, No → Step 7*. A rule that can't be converted shows "This rule never fires until you pick one of the question's answers." Collapsed routing steps show **Routing question — no right answer**. Inside a [track](/herd-security-docs/tracks/training-tracks.md#routing-to-a-later-item), a routing answer can also skip the learner ahead to a later item of the track.
* **Branching Rules** — on quiz and routing steps, route learners to a different step based on their answer. Add rules that read as sentences: *If answer is* **correct** / **incorrect** / **a specific value** *→ go to* **Step N** (on a routing question, each rule picks one of the step's answers). Rules are checked in order; if none match, the training continues to the next step as usual. Up to 10 rules per step, working identically in Slack, Teams, and the web player. Collapsed steps with rules show a **Has branching rules** marker. The editor warns about rules that can never fire (a correct/incorrect rule on a step with no correct answer) or that do nothing (the target is already the next step), and the step card flags rules that never fire.
* **Scoring with branches.** Only the questions a learner was actually asked count. A graded quiz they were routed past is recorded with no answer and no points, and progress and the completion screens count only questions asked. A retake restarts at the first quiz on the learner's own path, never at the routing question, and the routing answer they gave stands for the rest of the run, so they can't answer differently to skip a quiz they failed. The exception is an assignment set to restart from the beginning, where the routing question is asked again.
{% hint style="info" %}
If you do not align the **Correct Answer** with the corresponding button, users will be marked incorrect even if they selected the right choice. This is essential for **accurate scoring**—at least one correct answer must be marked, unless the step is an ungraded check-in.
{% endhint %}
* **Attach Images or Videos**
* Everything goes through the step's **Attach Content** menu: **Upload** images, videos or audio directly, or generate them with AI. **Attach Content → Generate AI video** opens the **Generate AI video** page described in [Create Training with AI](/herd-security-docs/trainings/getting-started-with-trainings/create-training-with-ai.md#ai-video-generation).
* Or reuse something your organization already has: **Attach Content → From library** opens your saved media with a folder filter. Folders, smart auto-filing, previews, and bulk organization live on the standalone [Media Library](/herd-security-docs/trainings/getting-started-with-trainings/media-library.md) page (the picker's **Manage library** button takes you there). Steps already using an asset always keep their copy.
### Phishing simulation steps
A **Phishing simulation** step sends the learner a simulated phishing email in the middle of the training and teaches from what they do with it. The step has four settings:
* **Phishing Template** (required) — the email template that will be sent. The editor flags it as required and shows *Select a phishing template to continue. The step stays a draft and can't be assigned until one is chosen.* A training with an unconfigured phishing step can't be assigned, and neither can a track or campaign that includes it (see [Assigning Users to Training](/herd-security-docs/trainings/getting-started-with-trainings/assigning-users-to-training.md#due-dates-nudges-and-escalations)).
* **Instruction Message (shown in Slack)** — what the learner is told to do, for example *Check your email — you should have received a suspicious message…*
* **Success Message (after interaction)** — shown once the learner has dealt with the email.
* **Show Continue button after (minutes)** — if the learner neither reports nor clicks the email, a **Continue** button appears in Slack or Teams after this many minutes so the training can move on.
In Slack or Teams the step finishes in any of four ways: the learner **reports** the email through your reporting flow, **clicks** it, presses **I spotted it** in the chat (Herd then asks them a quick multiple-choice check on the email's subject line to confirm they really looked at it), or presses the timed **Continue** button. Whichever way it ends, the training carries on to the next step.
The training's **Results** tab shows how everyone handled each simulation: a **Simulation results** strip counts **Sent**, **Reported**, **Spotted it**, **Clicked**, and **Continued after timeout**, and each person's row carries the outcome for every phishing step (or **Not sent** if it hasn't reached them yet). A track's results roll each person's worst outcome across its trainings up into a single **Simulation** pill.
**Step 4:** Your edits **save automatically**—a **Saving…** / **Saved** indicator at the top of the editor confirms when changes are stored. There's no separate Save button to press.
Once complete, you can preview your Custom Training, make edits, and then choose to [**send it immediately**](/herd-security-docs/trainings/getting-started-with-trainings/sending-trainings.md) or [**queue it for later release**](/herd-security-docs/trainings/getting-started-with-trainings/queue-trainings.md).
***
## Tags & compliance frameworks
A training's detail page has one row of pills for both **tags** and **compliance frameworks**. Use the add (**+**) button to add either. Framework pills carry a shield icon and sit alongside your freeform tag pills. The picker lists the frameworks you haven't selected yet (SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA, PCI DSS and the rest) and understands short forms, so typing *pci* surfaces PCI DSS. Tracks have the same row.
Tagging a training or track with a framework makes its enrollments and completions count as **evidence for that framework**, in the framework completions API feed and in the [Drata push](/herd-security-docs/campaigns/drata-integration.md).
***
## Recognizing completion
To celebrate learners when they finish, Herd can send an org-branded PDF **completion award** — automatically on completion or on demand from the results view. See [Completion Awards](/herd-security-docs/trainings/getting-started-with-trainings/completion-awards.md).
***
