Your Forge Score is a composite number (0-100) that answers one question: how well are your verified skills aligned with where the market is heading?
It's not a measure of how much you know in total. It's a measure of whether what you know is what the market values right now.
The Three Components
Alignment (40%)
Alignment measures the market trajectory of your verified skills. Each skill on the ForgeCoach Index has a trend rating: Rising Fast (100), Rising (80), Stable (50), Declining (20), At Risk (0).
Your Alignment score is the weighted average of those trend scores across your credentials. A portfolio of Rising Fast credentials scores near 100 on Alignment. A portfolio of declining skills scores low.
What moves it: Earning credentials in rising skills. The fastest way to improve Alignment is to get verified in skills that are trending up — especially Rising Fast ones.
Velocity (30%)
Velocity measures how active you've been recently — specifically, credentials earned in the last 90 days, divided by 5, capped at 100.
Five credentials in 90 days = 100 Velocity. Two credentials = 40. Zero = 0.
What moves it: Taking and passing challenges regularly. Velocity decays over time, so consistent credentialing keeps this component strong.
Depth (30%)
Depth is your average score percentage across all challenge credentials. It measures how well you performed, not just whether you passed.
What moves it: Scoring higher on challenges. The passing threshold earns the credential, but your Depth score reflects your actual performance level.
The Tier System
Forge Scores map to four tiers:
- 🏆 Vanguard (90+): Top alignment with the market's leading edge
- 🔥 Forging (75-89): Strong active skill development in rising areas
- 🌱 Awakening (50-74): Building toward market alignment
- ⚠️ At Risk (0-49): Significant gap between current skills and market direction
New User State
With zero credentials, your Forge Score is 0 and your tier is "Not Yet Forged." There's no score until you pass your first challenge — by design. The score should reflect verified skills, not self-reported ones.
Why It's Publicly Verifiable
Every component of your Forge Score is backed by verified credentials with public URLs. Your profile page shows the breakdown, and anyone can click through to verify the underlying credentials. There's no black box.