Outcome
By the end of this lesson, you will be able to assemble the evidence a certification requires, explain which two facts are checked and why, and keep a record that survives you deleting the sandbox.
| Prerequisites | M1.8.L1 through L4 |
| Time | 9 minutes |
1. Concept
Every certification in this University asks for two practical facts on top of the lessons and the exam:
1. YOU DID REAL WORK THROUGH MCP2. YOU DEPLOYED SOMETHING ON ZOPCLOUDNot because deploying is the hard part, but because a cost-discipline certificate held by somebody who has never shipped anything is a quiz result. The requirement applies to all three tiers: Associate, Professional and Expert.
What counts
A DEPLOYMENT COUNTS IF it was created after you started the course OR it is a service still running now, whenever it was created
MCP USAGE COUNTS IF at least one assistant action succeeded against your organisation AND it is in the audit log with source mcpBoth are deliberately generous. The requirement is evidence that you have done the thing once, not a scored exercise. Every call an assistant makes through MCP, a read included, is written to the audit log with the source mcp, so the tier 2 write from L2 qualifies, and so does a read.
Where each fact comes from
The two facts are read from your ZopDev organisation, not from your cloud. The MCP fact is the audit log entry. The ZopCloud fact is the deploy, and a ZopCloud deploy needs no cloud account of your own.
The course itself still asks for a sandbox or trial cloud account, because Part 1 of this capstone, and the hands-on from M1.3 onwards, act on resources in it. If you are studying without an employer’s account, open a free-tier or trial account on any of the three supported providers.
2. Demo
WHAT A FINISHED CAPSTONE LOOKS LIKE
service URL https://hello-api-<id>.<your-zopcloud-domain> organisation acme-platform project / env university-capstone / dev deploy shipped 12 Sep, rolled back and redeployed once through MCP read the sandbox VM's state history, set a two-hour override (audit log: source mcp), deployed hello-api-2 schedule sandbox VM, nightly, 19:00 stop, 08:00 start, fired 6 nightsNothing there is a screenshot. Every line is a fact the platform already holds about your organisation.
3. Hands-on (6 min)
1. Write down the four identifiers below. They are what the requirement is read from.2. Confirm your service either still runs, or was created during this course.3. Confirm at least one action you took through the assistant is in the audit log with source mcp, and your name on it.4. If you are about to delete the sandbox, do step 3 first.Do it through MCP. The same task you just did in the console, asked in one sentence.
BEFORE Everything from L1 through L4, in one organisation.ASK "List my services and their last deploy, and show what I have done through the assistant this week."CHECK both answers name you. An action with no actor against it is the finding, not the noise.Tools behind it: list_services (read, Ship), list_deploys (read, Ship), list_audit_logs (read, Govern), get_my_permissions (read, Introspect). Connection details are in the MCP integration docs.
4. Knowledge check
Q1
Which of these satisfies the deployment half of the requirement?
A. A service you deployed last year and deleted in March
B. A service you deployed last year that is still running now
C. A project you created but never deployed into
D. A service somebody else on your team deployed
Show answer
Correct: B. The rule admits either a deploy created after you started the course, or a service still running now whenever it was created. A is neither: it predates the course and no longer runs. C has no deploy at all, and D is somebody else’s evidence.
Q2
You have read data through the assistant all week but never changed anything. Does that satisfy the MCP half?
A. No, a write is required
B. Yes, one successful tool call is the bar
C. Only if it was a tier 2 call
D. Only on the Professional tier
Show answer
Correct: B. One successful call counts, and reads are calls: MCP reads are written to the audit log with source mcp, just as writes are. The requirement is evidence that you have used the surface once, not proof that you changed production with it.
Q3
You are studying on your own and have no employer cloud account. What does the course expect?
A. Borrow a shared classroom cloud account that somebody else owns and pays for
B. Skip the capstone entirely and go straight to the certification exam instead
C. Open a sandbox or trial account; certification reads the MCP and ZopCloud facts
D. Complete the hands-on against a simulated estate, with no real cloud behind it
Show answer
Correct: C. The hands-on in Part 1 needs resources you own, so a sandbox or trial account is the expectation. The two certification facts are read from your organisation: an assistant action in the audit log with source mcp, and a ZopCloud deploy, which needs no cloud account of its own.
5. Apply
Keep this block somewhere you can find it. It is the whole evidence set, and it costs nothing to record now and a rebuild to reconstruct later.
EVIDENCE CHECKLIST
ORGANISATION the org the work happened in SERVICE URL the deployed service, or its name if it is gone DEPLOY when it shipped, and whether it still runs MCP one action you took through the assistant, when, and its audit log entry (source mcp) SCHEDULE the sandbox resource you scheduled, and its first firingThen delete the sandbox if you want to. The record above outlives it, and the platform’s own audit trail outlives it too.
Related lessons
Glossary terms touched
MCP audit log · Deployment · Schedule · PAT