Home › Courses › Build Your First AI Agent from Scratch
Build Your First AI Agent from Scratch
A weekend build: a terminal agent that plans, calls tools and remembers. No frameworks
1 phase. 6 lessons. 6 labs. Build a tool-calling AI agent from raw Anthropic API calls — no LangChain, no CrewAI. You write the tool layer, the planning loop, context management, and error handling yourself, then run it against 3 real tasks you actually chose.
6 lessons · 6 labs · 4 tools built · 1 real agent
Outcomes you will have by the end
- A real, working terminal agent — Not a toy demo — an agent you built line by line that calls 4 real tools, plans multi-step tasks, manages its own context window, and survives real failures. You ran it against tasks you actually needed done.
- A framework-free understanding of how agents work — No LangChain, no CrewAI standing between you and the mechanism. When you use an agent framework later, you'll know exactly what it's doing underneath, because you built the underneath yourself.
- A tool layer you can keep extending — The 4-tool dispatch pattern from Lesson 2 is designed to grow — the stretch challenge has you add a 5th tool, and the pattern supports adding as many more as you need for your own work.
- Verified certificate of completion — Issued by DeVenture Academy, tied to your completion record. Lists the tool-use, planning-loop, and reliability skills you built.
What you will be able to do
Agent Architecture · Tool Schema Design · ReAct Planning Loops · Context Window Management · Retry & Error Handling
Every phase, every lesson, every project
- Build Your First AI Agent (6 lessons) — The agent loop, tool schema design, the ReAct planning loop, context window management, retry/error handling, running real tasks
The technologies you will use
Anthropic API · Python · httpx · Serper API
Roles this course prepares you for
- Personal Automation Builder (Built for yourself — value is time saved, not a salary) — Extend this agent with your own tools to automate real, repeated tasks in your own workflow — research, file processing, reporting.
- Freelance Automation Builder ($50-150/hr project work) — Build small, custom agents for clients who need a specific repeated task automated — a research agent, a data-processing agent, a report generator.
- Internal Tools Engineer (Varies by employer) — Bring agent-building fundamentals into your day job — internal automation, developer tooling, and workflow agents your team actually uses.
Common questions
Do I need agent-framework experience?
No — this course is deliberately framework-free. You need Python (functions, classes, basic async/await) and an Anthropic API account. If you've used ChatGPT or Claude but never built a tool-calling agent, this is the right starting point.
Why no LangChain or CrewAI?
Frameworks are useful once you understand what they're wrapping. This course teaches the actual mechanism — the tool_use/tool_result loop — so that any framework you use later is legible to you instead of a black box.
How is this different from the Agentic AI Engineering course?
Agentic AI Engineering (c2) is a full 50-lesson, 10-phase production-focused track covering multi-agent systems, MCP, computer use, memory systems, and production infrastructure. This is a single 6-lesson weekend build that gets you one working agent, fast — a taste of the same ideas, not the deep track.
Will I need to pay for API usage?
Yes — the Anthropic API and Serper API (for web search) are both pay-per-use beyond a free tier, but a full run-through of this course costs a small fraction of a dollar in API usage.
What do I end up with?
A real Python agent on your own machine that calls 4 tools (web search, file reading, Python execution, URL fetching), plans multi-step tasks, manages context, and handles failures — run against 3 tasks you chose yourself, not toy examples.
Key terms in this course
Agent · Context Window · ReAct · Tool Use
Continue your learning path
Agentic AI Engineering
Start the Build Your First AI Agent from Scratch course
Create a free account — the opening phases of 24 of 30 courses are free, no credit card. Or see Pro pricing.
All courses · Pricing · About · FAQ · Glossary