Early Bird Sale: save $250. Ends October 2

Learn the architecture behind modern AI agents. 
Then build one yourself. 

Go from using AI to understanding how agents actually work. Across six live, hands-on sessions, you’ll build a working AI agent in Python from the ground up—adding reasoning, memory, tools, planning, and evaluation as you go.

Live Online Cohort • Starts October 14

Join the Program

Next Cohort: Oct 14 - 31
Wednesdays + Saturdays • 1 PM ET • 90 minutes per session

6 live sessions
Build a working agent
Live Q&A
Private Discord
Certificate Available

Most agent tutorials start with a framework. We start one layer deeper.

Frameworks can make an agent surprisingly easy to assemble. But that doesn’t necessarily tell you why the agent works, what each component is doing, where failures come from, or what to change when something goes wrong. And the framework you learn today may not be the one you’re using next year.

Introduction to Agents takes a different approach. You’ll start with the LLM at the center of an agent and progressively add the capabilities that let it reason, remember, use tools, plan, act, reflect, and be evaluated.

You won’t just learn the concepts. You’ll implement them yourself.

Learn the complete architecture

See how reasoning LLMs, memory, tools, planning, and evaluation fit together as one system.

Build it yourself

Implement each major component in Python and finish with a working agent.

Go beyond one framework

Build a durable mental model you can apply across today’s agent harnesses—and whatever comes next.

"Where else can we get five superstars to teach us a topic?"

- Yanto, RAG Pack alum

Based on An Illustrated Guide to AI Agents

Go beyond reading the book. Learn it live from the authors.

The course follows the Foundations portion of Maarten Grootendorst and Jay Alammar’s O’Reilly book and takes the learning experience further with live teaching, implementation, Q&A, and community.

READ
Use the book as your foundation.
LEARN LIVE
Hear it explained by the authors and faculty.
WATCH IT WORK
See live technical implementation.
BUILD
Work through the implementation yourself.
ASK
Bring questions to Q&A, Discord, and AMA.
Your own copy is included.
Every student receives a permanent ebook copy of An Illustrated Guide to AI Agents.
Introduction to Agents

Curriculum

1

What Makes an AI Agent?

with Luis Serrano

Understand what separates an agent from a standard LLM application and the core components that enable autonomous action.

You’ll build: the initial agent scaffold.
2

The Agent’s Brain: LLMs + Reasoning

with Josh Starmer

Explore LLM architecture, training, and the reasoning techniques that make multi-step agent behavior possible.

You’ll build: the reasoning core.
3

Give Your Agent Memory + Tools

with Chris McCormick

Learn memory, retrieval, context engineering, tool definitions, tool calling, and concepts behind MCP.

You’ll build: memory and tool-use capabilities.
4

Planning, Reflection + Autonomy

with Maarten Grootendorst

Learn task decomposition, action sequencing, reflection, and how an agent can revise its plan while working.

You’ll build: the planning and execution loop.
5

Evaluating Your Agent

with Jay Alammar

Evaluate outcomes, trajectories, reliability, and safety across complete agent systems.

You’ll build: an evaluation layer.
6

Common Agent Harnesses

with RAG Pack

Use your foundation to evaluate modern agent harnesses, understand what they abstract away, and compare tradeoffs.

You’ll leave with: a framework-independent mental model.
The Learning Experience

Program Overview

Live virtual sessions

Learn directly from five well-known instructors who teach clearly and build things that work. 

The live sessions start on Wednesday October 14th. We will meet on Wednesdays and Saturdays at 1:00pm ET / 10:00am PT, through October 31. 

Access to labs 

and a learning platform resources available for you to learn on your own schedule

Community 

You won’t be learning alone. Expect structured support and a place to ask questions as you go.

The Book

A PDF copy of An Illustrated Guide to Agents by Jay Alammar and Maarten Grootendorst

You’ll also get access to:

  • Step-by-step coding labs 
  • Templates, notebooks, and reference implementations
  • Recommended readings + “cheat sheets” for key methods
  • Replays (so you can review anything you missed)

Who is this course for?

Software engineers
You're moving into agentic AI and want to understand what is happening inside the frameworks you’re beginning to use.

ML / AI engineers
You understand models and want a complete picture of reasoning, memory, tools, planning, and evaluation.

Technical data + ML practitioners
You want a rigorous mental model plus enough implementation depth to build and reason about agents yourself.

 

Prerequisites

  • Comfortable writing basic Python.
  • Familiar with the basics of AI and LLMs.
  • Ready to work through technical examples between sessions.
Probably not the right fit if:
  • You want a no-code introduction to agents.
  • You aren’t comfortable working in Python.
October cohort

Join us, and make this the season for agents.

Starts October 14 · Wednesdays + Saturdays · 1 PM ET

Early Bird
$1,250
through October 2

Save $250. Includes the complete program, recordings, Discord access, ebook, and certificate.

General Admission
$1,500
after October 2

Includes the complete program, recordings, Discord access, ebook, and certificate.

Student Pricing
$350 early bird
$500 standard (after October 2)

Student pricing for active university students. Verification required.

Need your manager’s approval?

Make the case for training that translates directly into technical work.

Share with your manager

Training a team?

Corporate seat licensing is available for engineering, ML, and data teams.

Contact us about team licenses
Faculty

Learn from five educators known for making difficult AI topics click

Jay Alammar

Jay is a machine learning researcher and writer, co-author of Hands-On Large Language Models: Language Understanding and Generation, whose illustrated articles have helped millions visually understand transformers and modern NLP.

Maarten Grootendorst

Maarten is a data scientist and creator of popular NLP libraries like BERTopic and KeyBERT, and co-author of Hands-On Large Language Models: Language Understanding and Generation, bridging cutting-edge research with practical tools.

Chris McCormick

Chris is a leading AI educator and researcher whose deep-dive tutorials on BERT, transformers, and NLP have become go-to references for practitioners worldwide, combining rigorous understanding with clear, implementation-ready code.

Luis Serrano

Luis is an ex-Google, ex-Apple AI scientist, educator, and author of Grokking Machine Learning, dedicated to making complex ideas intuitive and accessible through the Serrano Academy platform.

Josh Starmer

Josh is the founder of StatQuest and author of The StatQuest Illustrated Guide to Machine Learning and The StatQuest Illustrated Guide to Neural Networks and AI, known for turning intimidating concepts into clear, joyful explanations.

What learners say

Learning with the RAG Pack

Feedback from students in previous RAG Pack programs.

“

The course is a massive time-saver that distills high-quality, expert-selected resources into a perfectly curated form.

— Dimo P.
“

What really sets it apart is the people—some of the most respected voices in AI are not just teaching but actively engaging with students.

— Sumitro P.
“

Where else can we get 5 superstars to present on a topic for us to learn?

— Yanto Jakop

Questions before enrolling?