Build Your First AI Agent from Scratch · 20 min · Python · Anthropic Python SDK
Ship It: Run 3 Real Tasks
The agent isn't done when the code runs — it's done when it does something you actually needed.
Hiring signal: This is the moment the course stops being an exercise and becomes a tool you actually use — the same agent you built today is a real starting point for automating your own repeated tasks.
What you will learn
- Run the finished agent against 3 tasks you actually chose, not course-provided examples
- Observe and articulate where the agent's reasoning surprised you or fell short
- (Stretch) design and add a 5th tool specific to your own workflow
The Capstone Project
No new architecture today. lesson5_agent_hardened.py is the finished agent — everything from here is using it for real and, if you want to push further, extending it.
Run it on 3 tasks you actually chose
Not example tasks from this lesson — 3 things you genuinely wanted an answer to or a file produced for, today, before you opened this course. Good categories that tend to work well with the 4 tools you have:
- A research question you were actually curious about (
web_search + fetch_url do the heavy lifting) - A small file-processing task on something already on your machine (
read_file + run_python) - A "figure this out and write it down" task that needs a mix of lookup and computation
Phrasing changes agent behavior more than you'd expect
"What's the latest stable Node.js version?" and "Check what Node.js version I should use for a new project and explain why" produce noticeably different tool-call patterns from the same agent — the second phrasing invites more research and reasoning before answering. Try rephrasing one of your 3 tasks after you've run it once and compare.
Unlock the full lesson
You've read the first 2 sections. The rest of this lesson covers Where it will still struggle, Stretch Challenge: Give Your Agent a Skill You Designed, Ship it — plus a hands-on lab, quiz, and project artifact.
Create a free account to unlock Phase 0 and Phase 1 of every course — no credit card.
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