A manifest is the machine-readable table of contents that sits at the root of a content package and tells the LMS everything it needs to know before launching the course. In SCORM packages the manifest is the file imsmanifest.xml; in cmi5 packages it is cmi5.xml. Both are XML documents, though their schemas differ. The manifest records the list of SCOs (Sharable Content Objects) or assignable units, the launch URL for each, the sequencing and navigation rules (in SCORM 2004), and metadata such as title, description, and schema version. An LMS reads the manifest on import to build its internal course record; it does not re-read it at launch time. Errors in the manifest — wrong launch paths, missing schema declarations, incorrect sequencing rules — are among the most common causes of a package that imports successfully but fails to launch or track correctly. For teams building authoring tools or content export pipelines, validating the manifest against the relevant schema (SCORM 1.2, SCORM 2004 4th edition, or cmi5) before packaging is a non-optional quality gate.
