Getting Started¶

Welcome to the AI Engineering Handbook — free, open-source, and built for engineers who ship.

Not sure where to begin?

Start Here — persona routing, prerequisites, goal tables, first project.
This page is for local setup and how the site works.

Who is this for?¶

New to AI

Software engineer or student, no ML background

GenAI Foundations → AI Essentials →

Know ML, need LLMs

ML practitioner catching up on transformers and APIs

Large Language Models → RAG →

Want to build agents

Engineer focusing on autonomous AI systems

Agent Engineering track → AI Agents → Agent Harness →

Using Claude Code / Cursor

Skills files, loop engineering, context windows

Modern AI (2026) → Claude Code →

Shipping to production

Need LLMOps, evals, monitoring, safety

LLMOps → LLM Evaluation →

How the site is organized¶

Tab	What it is
Start Here	One page to pick your path
Learn	16 courses in order (01 → 16) — lessons live inside each course
Reference	FAQ, Topic Map, Study Plans, Glossary, Resources
Projects	Portfolio builds (Build These First)
Contribute	How to help + roadmap

Optional tracks at the bottom of Learn: Agent Engineering · Modern AI (2026)

Local setup¶

git clone https://github.com/psssnikhil/ai-engineering-handbook.git
cd ai-engineering-handbook
pip install -r requirements.txt
npm install
mkdocs serve   # http://127.0.0.1:8000

Python 3.10+ required. API keys only for lessons that call live models.

Run Python exercises¶

cd docs/foundations/module-01-ai-engineering-essentials/exercises
python 04-prompt-engineering-starter.py

Full site build (optional)¶

npm run build:docs

Use this before opening a PR if you changed navigation or many links.

How to navigate (recommended order)¶

Start Here — persona + first project
Learn — course 01, then 02, then 03…
Study Plans — week-by-week if you want structure
Build These First — portfolio projects
Topic Map — jump to any concept
FAQ — decisions + troubleshooting

Inspired by great OSS hubs¶

We curate and extend — not duplicate:

Full list: Open Source Hubs

Contribute¶

Found a gap? Roadmap · Contribute · GitHub Issues

If the handbook helps you — star the repo.