rohitg00/ai-engineering-from-scratch

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From the creator of Agent Memory - #1 Persistent memory ⭐ which naturally works with any agents or chat assistants.

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84% of students already use AI tools. Only 18% feel prepared to use them

professionally. This curriculum closes that gap.

> 523 lessons. 20 phases. ~342 hours. Python, TypeScript, Rust, Julia. Every lesson ships

a reusable artifact: a prompt, a skill, an agent, an MCP server. Free, open source, MIT.

> You don't just learn AI. You build it. End-to-end. By hand.

_{114,584 readers  ·  181,995 page views in the last 30 days  ·  as of 2026-08-29}

Start here: choose what you want to build

You do not need to scan 523 lessons before beginning. Pick one goal. Each link opens the same curriculum on GitHub or the website, and both versions use the same lesson code.

| Your goal | Learn on GitHub | Learn on the website | |---|---|---| | I am new and want the complete foundation | Phase 0: Setup and Tooling | Dev Environment | | I know Python and want math plus ML foundations | Phase 1: Math Foundations | Linear Algebra Intuition | | I want to build production LLM applications | Phase 11: LLM Engineering | Prompt Engineering | | I want to build agents | Phase 14: Agent Engineering | The Agent Loop | | I want to use coding agents on real repositories | Agent-Assisted Engineering path | Agent-Assisted Engineering | | I want to shape the right build before implementation | Product Judgment and Delivery path | Product Judgment and Delivery | | I want to build with Model Context Protocol (MCP) | Model Context Protocol (MCP) route | Model Context Protocol (MCP) path | | I want to write and ship Agent Skills | Focused Agent Skills route | Agent Skills path | | I want to prepare for a Claude certification | Certification onboarding | Certification Academy |

Not sure where you fit? Use the start-learning placement tutor or the website prerequisites guide.

Compare four core domains and six career routes in the AI Engineering Learning Paths.

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Thank you to our sponsors.

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Use every lesson the same way

1. Read docs/en.md and explain the core idea in your own words. 2. Type and build the important code instead of treating the code block as decoration. 3. Run the lesson command from the repository root, the directory containing README.md and phases/. 4. Keep evidence: the command, working directory, exit code, meaningful output, and the artifact you changed or produced. 5. Continue only when you can explain the output and make one small change without guessing.

Commands in lesson pages are paths from the repository root unless the lesson explicitly says to change directories. If a lesson offers several languages, run the implementation for the language you are learning.

Clone it and produce your first evidence

git clone https://github.com/rohitg00/ai-engineering-from-scratch.git
cd ai-engineering-from-scratch
python3 phases/00-setup-and-tooling/01-dev-environment/code/verify.py --route beginner
python3 phases/01-math-foundations/01-linear-algebra-intuition/code/vectors.py

The preflight separates requirements needed now from tools needed later. Every required failure includes the detected reason and a corrective command. The second command is a dependency-free lesson and ends by showing that a matrix times a vector is the operation inside a neural network layer. Save that terminal output as your first evidence.

Add the AI tutor in 30 seconds

If Node.js, npx, and a skill-capable coding agent are already installed, your coding agent can become your tutor in two commands. A repository clone is not needed to install or read the tutor. Runnable focused-path labs need python3. Agent Skills host labs also need a selected host and a writable user or project skill scope.

Check the local requirements first:

node --version
npx --version
python3 --version

Then install the curriculum skills and choose the host and scope you intend to use when the installer asks:

npx skills add rohitg00/ai-engineering-from-scratch

Invocation syntax belongs to the host, not to the portable SKILL.md format:

| Host | Start the course | Start Model Context Protocol (MCP) | Start Agent Skills | Run a phase quiz | |---|---|---|---|---| | Codex | start-learning, or choose it from /skills | learn-mcp, or choose it from /skills | learn-agent-skills, or choose it from /skills | check-understanding 13, or choose it from /skills | | Claude Code | /start-learning | /learn-mcp | /learn-agent-skills | /check-understanding 13 | | Other compatible hosts | Use start-learning to begin the course. | Use learn-mcp to start the Model Context Protocol (MCP) path. | Use learn-agent-skills to start the Agent Skills Engineering path. | Use check-understanding to quiz me on Phase 13. |

A ten-question placement quiz maps what you already know to a starting phase and saves a personalized study plan to LEARNING.md. From there, the learn skill teaches one lesson per session: concept, math, code, quiz. It streams lessons straight from this repo, and the course-guide skill jumps you to the exact lesson that covers anything you are stuck on. In Codex, invoke these skills with learn and course-guide; in Claude Code, use /learn and /course-guide; in other compatible hosts, ask to use the skill by name.

Only want Model Context Protocol (MCP)? Use the MCP invocation for your host. It creates MCP-LEARNING.md and follows one 17-lesson route through stateless requests, transports, bidirectional work, security, reliability, registry governance, and conformance evidence. The exact order and checkpoints live in the Model Context Protocol (MCP) manifest.

Only want Agent Skills? Use the Agent Skills invocation for your host. It creates AGENT-SKILLS-LEARNING.md and follows one coherent five-lesson route: contract, discovery, invocation, sandbox boundaries, then release evals and real-host portability. Start on the web with the Agent Skills path.

The installer lists the hosts it can configure and asks where to install. If you do not have Node.js, npx, python3, a supported host, or a writable scope yet, use the website or read docs/en.md manually. That path teaches the concepts, but real-host discovery, invocation, script, and uninstall evidence remains pending until the preflight is available. Read the lessons at aiengineeringfromscratch.com.

How this works

Most AI material teaches in scattered pieces. A paper here, a fine-tuning post there, a flashy agent demo somewhere else. The pieces rarely line up. You ship a chatbot but can't explain its loss curve. You hook a function to an agent but can't say what attention does inside the model that's calling it.

This curriculum is the spine. 20 phases, 523 lessons, four languages: Python, TypeScript, Rust, Julia. Linear algebra at one end, autonomous swarms at the other. Every algorithm gets built from raw math first. Backprop. Tokenizer. Attention. Agent loop. By the time PyTorch shows up, you already know what it's doing under the hood.

Each lesson runs the same loop: read the problem, derive the math, write the code, run the test, keep the artifact. No five-minute videos, no copy-paste deploys, no hand-holding. Free, open source, and built to run on your own laptop.

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The shape of the curriculum

Twenty phases stack on top of each other. Math is the floor. Agents and production are the roof. Skip ahead if you already know the lower layers, but don't skip and then wonder why something at the top is breaking.

%%{init: {'theme':'base','themeVariables':{'primaryColor':'#fafaf5','primaryTextColor':'#1a1a1a','primaryBorderColor':'#3553ff','lineColor':'#3553ff','fontFamily':'JetBrains Mono','fontSize':'12px'}}}%%
flowchart TB
  P0["Phase 0 — Setup & Tooling"] --> P1["Phase 1 — Math Foundations"]
  P1 --> P2["Phase 2 — ML Fundamentals"]
  P2 --> P3["Phase 3 — Deep Learning Core"]
  P3 --> P4["Phase 4 — Vision"]
  P3 --> P5["Phase 5 — NLP"]
  P3 --> P6["Phase 6 — Speech & Audio"]
  P3 --> P9["Phase 9 — RL"]
  P5 --> P7["Phase 7 — Transformers"]
  P7 --> P8["Phase 8 — GenAI"]
  P7 --> P10["Phase 10 — LLMs from Scratch"]
  P10 --> P11["Phase 11 — LLM Engineering"]
  P10 --> P12["Phase 12 — Multimodal"]
  P11 --> P13["Phase 13 — Tools & Protocols"]
  P13 --> P14["Phase 14 — Agent Engineering"]
  P14 --> P15["Phase 15 — Autonomous Systems"]
  P15 --> P16["Phase 16 — Multi-Agent & Swarms"]
  P14 --> P17["Phase 17 — Infrastructure & Production"]
  P15 --> P18["Phase 18 — Ethics & Alignment"]
  P16 --> P19["Phase 19 — Capstone Projects"]
  P17 --> P19
  P18 --> P19

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The shape of a lesson

Each lesson lives in its own folder, with the same structure across the entire curriculum:

phases/-/-/
├── code/      runnable implementations (Python, TypeScript, Rust, Julia)
├── docs/
│   └── en.md  lesson narrative
└── outputs/   prompts, skills, agents, or MCP servers this lesson produces

Every lesson follows six beats. The Build It / Use It split is the spine — you implement the algorithm from scratch first, then run the same thing through the production library. You understand what the framework is doing because you wrote the smaller version yourself.

%%{init: {'theme':'base','themeVariables':{'primaryColor':'#fafaf5','primaryTextColor':'#1a1a1a','primaryBorderColor':'#3553ff','lineColor':'#3553ff','fontFamily':'JetBrains Mono','fontSize':'13px'}}}%%
flowchart LR
  M["MOTTO
one-line core idea"] --> Pr["PROBLEM
concrete pain"]
  Pr --> C["CONCEPT
diagrams & intuition"]
  C --> B["BUILD IT
raw math, no frameworks"]
  B --> U["USE IT
same thing in PyTorch / sklearn"]
  U --> S["SHIP IT
prompt · skill · agent · MCP"]

Getting started

Three ways in. Pick one.

**Option A — learn in your terminal (recommended). After the Node.js, npx, host, and scope preflight above, install the learning skills into a compatible agent and let the course drive itself:

npx skills add rohitg00/ai-engineering-from-scratch

Option B — read. Open any completed lesson on aiengineeringfromscratch.com or expand a phase under Contents. No setup, no cloning.

Option C — clone and run.

git clone https://github.com/rohitg00/ai-engineering-from-scratch.git
cd ai-engineering-from-scratch
python3 phases/01-math-foundations/01-linear-algebra-intuition/code/vectors.py

• You can write code (any language; Python helps).
• You want to understand how AI actually works**, not just call APIs.

Prepare for Claude certifications

The Claude Certification Academy is a free, open-source preparation program for all four official Claude certification tracks: Associate Foundations, Developer Foundations, Architect Foundations, and Architect Professional. Each route combines blueprint-mapped lessons, runnable labs, a diagnostic, capstone work, and a full-length original practice exam.

Use the AI-native GitHub onboarding guide with Claude Code, Codex, ChatGPT, Cursor, or another agent. Run claude-certification in Codex, /claude-certification in Claude Code, or ask another host to use claude-certification. It chooses a track, creates a persistent route in CLAUDE-CERTIFICATION.md, teaches one step at a time, runs the real labs, and gives artifact-based feedback. The same curriculum remains available on the certification website.

The academy is independent study material based on public exam objectives. It is not affiliated with Anthropic, does not reproduce live exam questions, and cannot guarantee a passing score.

The learning skills

| Skill | What it does | |---|---| | start-learning | One-time onboarding: why you're learning, placement quiz, personalized plan saved to LEARNING.md. | | learn | The tutor loop. Warm-up recall, then the next lesson taught interactively, then its quiz; records progress and a review queue. | | course-guide | Topic router. "Where do I learn attention?" or "my loss is NaN" → the exact lessons, with links. | | learn-mcp | Focused Model Context Protocol (MCP) tutor. Creates MCP-LEARNING.md, follows the 17-lesson manifest, and records wire, security, reliability, and conformance evidence. | | learn-agent-skills | Focused Agent Skills tutor. Creates AGENT-SKILLS-LEARNING.md, teaches lessons 22, 24, 25, 26, and 27, and records real-host evidence. | | claude-certification | Certification tutor. Chooses CCAO-F, CCDV-F, CCAR-F, or CCAR-P; teaches each lesson; runs labs; reviews artifacts; administers diagnostics and mocks; saves progress. | | find-your-level | Ten-question placement quiz. Maps your knowledge to a starting phase and produces a personalized path with hour estimates. | | check-understanding | Per-phase quiz, eight questions, with feedback and specific lessons to review. Use the Codex, Claude Code, or natural-language form in the invocation table above. |

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Read the core curriculum as a book

The 20-phase core curriculum under phases/ compiles into a six-volume book series. EPUB and PDF are built by CI from the same core lesson sources and attached to every GitHub release; the links below always resolve to the newest release. Volume numbers index the series, not versions: each copy carries a dated edition stamp, and older editions stay downloadable from their release.

Certification curricula are intentionally not converted into the books. Their AI tutor state, runnable labs, interactive figures, diagnostics, and timed mocks remain first-class on GitHub and the website.

| Vol | Title | Phases | Download | |-----|-------|--------|----------| | 1 | Foundations · Math, Tooling, and Classical Machine Learning | 00-02 | EPUB · PDF | | 2 | Deep Learning · Networks, Vision, and Speech | 03, 04, 06 | EPUB · PDF | | 3 | Language · NLP Foundations and the Transformer | 05, 07 | EPUB · PDF | | 4 | Large Language Models · Generation, Reinforcement, Pretraining, and Engineering | 08-11 | EPUB · PDF | | 5 | Agents · Multimodality, Protocols, Autonomy, and Swarms | 12-16 | EPUB · PDF | | 6 | Production · Infrastructure, Safety, and Capstones | 17-19 | EPUB · PDF |

The book is the snapshot; this repository is the living edition. Every chapter ends with links back to the lesson's animated figures, quiz, and runnable code. Build locally with python3 scripts/build_book.py (pandoc required); pipeline details in book/README.md.

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Every lesson ships something

Other curricula end with "congratulations, you learned X." Each lesson here ends with a reusable tool you can install or paste into your daily workflow.

FIG_001 · A PROMPTS	FIG_001 · B SKILLS	FIG_001 · C AGENTS	FIG_001 · D MCP SERVERS
Paste into any AI assistant for expert-level help on a narrow task.	Drop into Claude, Cursor, Codex, OpenClaw, Hermes, or any agent that reads SKILL.md.	Deploy as autonomous workers — you wrote the loop yourself in Phase 14.	Plug into any MCP-compatible client. Built end-to-end in Phase 13.

Install the lot with python3 scripts/install_skills.py . Real tools, not homework.

By the end of the curriculum, you have a portfolio of 523 artifacts you actually

understand because you built them.

FIG_002 · A worked sample

Phase 14, lesson 1: the agent loop. ~120 lines of pure Python, no dependencies.

code/agent_loop.py   build it ```python def run(query, tools): history = [user(query)] for step in range(MAX_STEPS): msg = llm(history) if msg.tool_calls: for call in msg.tool_calls: More Image Trending projects 1 AUTOMATIC1111 / stable-diffusion-webui Python★ 164,942⑂ 0 → 2 Comfy-Org / ComfyUI Python★ 133,239⑂ 0 → 3 opencv / opencv C++★ 90,840⑂ 0 → 4 Developer-Y / cs-video-courses ★ 83,501⑂ 0 → 5 d2l-ai / d2l-zh Python★ 80,681⑂ 0 → 6 unslothai / unsloth Python★ 76,181⑂ 0 →