Practical Fundamentals

You are learning to build AI agents. You have ideas about what they could do, maybe even a project you want to ship. And then you sit down to follow a tutorial and hit your first error before you have typed a single line of Python. The terminal is unfamiliar. The package manager wants a version of something you do not have installed. Git asks for credentials you forgot you set up. The tutorial assumes you know what a virtual environment is and why you need one, and it is not going to explain it again.

This course exists so that moment stops being the end of the session. It is the specific, practical slice of Linux, Python, and development tooling that every other course on this portal is built on top of. No theory you will never use, no computer science degree in miniature. If you can work a terminal, manage Python dependencies without them colliding, navigate a file system, keep track of code changes, and spin up a database or a container, you can build agents. If you cannot do those things yet, this course gets you there.

Before you start

You will need a Linux machine, a Mac, or WSL on Windows. Everything in the portal assumes a Unix-style shell, and while some tools work on native Windows, you will spend less time fighting your environment if you work where the tooling expects to be.

You will need Python 3, Node.js, git, Docker, and PostgreSQL installed before you can work through the agent-building courses. The Setting Up Your AI Toolkit lesson walks through installing all of them step by step. If you already have a working development environment, skip ahead and skim the lesson list to find whatever gaps you have.

What is here

Nothing is ordered into days. Read what you are missing, skip what you already know, and come back when something in the main course assumes a piece of this you do not have yet.

• Setting Up Your AI Toolkit -- install Python (via uv), Node.js (via NVM), git, Docker, and PostgreSQL. The baseline for everything else in this portal.
• Linux & the Terminal -- the shell commands, process management, and terminal habits you will use every single day.
• Finding Your Way Around Linux -- navigating the file system, understanding paths and permissions, and not getting lost in someone else's directory tree.
• Python Environments -- why isolated environments exist, how they prevent dependency collisions, and when to create a new one.
• Python Package Managers -- uv, pip, and the few commands that cover almost everything you will actually run.
• Git & Version Control -- the handful of git commands that carry you through a real project, from clone to commit to branch.
• PostgreSQL Basics -- running a local database, connecting to it, and the core SQL you need to store agent state.
• Docker & Local Services -- running containerized services on your own machine without Docker becoming a second job.
• Shell & Workspace Performance -- a faster, less annoying terminal setup once the basics are comfortable.

What you'll learn

• This course is the prerequisite for every other course on the portal -- if the terminal, git, or Python environments feel unfamiliar, start here
• Nothing here is ordered into days: skip what you know, read what you are missing, come back when you hit a gap
• Every lesson is practical: commands you actually run, problems you actually hit, no theory for theory's sake
• You can jump straight to the main course if you are already comfortable with all nine topics above

Comfortable with all of this already? Skip straight to AI Agents & Vibe Coding -- that is where the real building starts.