Agent skill

AI Engineering Course Onboarding

by rohitg00 in rohitg00/ai-engineering-from-scratch

Onboards a learner into the AI Engineering from Scratch curriculum with an interview and placement quiz, and writes a persistent LEARNING.md study plan.

MITAuto-check passedEducation

Install AI Engineering Course Onboarding

skills CLI
$ npx skills add rohitg00/ai-engineering-from-scratch --skill start-learning -a claude-code

Project install by default; add -g for ~/.claude/skills/.

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install rohitg00/ai-engineering-from-scratch start-learning --agent claude-code

Project scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).

Manual copy
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/rohitg00/ai-engineering-from-scratch.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/start-learning .claude/skills/start-learning && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.claude/skills/ instead of .claude/skills for a personal install. The folder must contain SKILL.md.

Claude Code skills documentation · loads skills from .claude/skills/

Facts

Skill name
start-learning
GitHub stars
66k
Token cost
~2k tokens
SKILL.md length
1,011 words
Files
1
Skills in repo
16
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
MIT

At a glance

Onboards a learner into the AI Engineering from Scratch curriculum with an interview and placement quiz, and writes a persistent LEARNING.md study plan.

  • Works in 4 steps: The interview (3 questions, keep it short) → Placement → Write LEARNING.md → …
  • Starting the AI Engineering from Scratch course for the first time
  • SKILL.md covers Host invocation contract, Resume routing across course…, Focused MCP handoff and Focused Agent Skills handoff, plus 4 more sections
  • Instructions only: no scripts, shell commands, URLs or credentials in SKILL.md

What it does

This one-time onboarding skill sets up a learner for the AI Engineering from Scratch curriculum, 523 lessons across 20 phases from linear algebra to autonomous agents. The agent interviews the learner about why they are learning and where to start, runs a placement quiz, and writes LEARNING.md in the current directory. Later sessions of the learn skill read and update that file, so it acts as the learner's source of truth.

It works with any agent, using a structured question tool when one exists and lettered plain-text options otherwise, and it shows next-step commands in the host's own syntax, since Codex, Claude Code and other hosts invoke skills differently. Before generic onboarding it resolves resume or continue requests against other state files: LEARNING.md for the full curriculum, MCP-LEARNING.md for the MCP route, and AGENT-SKILLS-LEARNING.md and CLAUDE-CERTIFICATION.md for their own routes. It dispatches to the right owner and asks which route to resume when several exist.

When your agent uses it

  • Starting the AI Engineering from Scratch course for the first time
  • Creating a personalized learning plan from a placement quiz
  • Resuming a course route when several learning files exist

Example prompts

  • “Start learning: set up the AI engineering course for me.”
  • “Run the placement quiz and create my learning plan.”
  • “Continue my course where I left off.”

Workflow steps

4 steps, taken from the step headings in SKILL.md.

  1. The interview (3 questions, keep it short)
  2. Placement
  3. Write LEARNING.md
  4. Hand off

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 7a181b4. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

  • Tool permissions

    Pre-approves nothing: there is no allowed-tools line, so your agent's usual permission prompts apply.

    From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

  • Runs code

    No scripts in the folder and no shell commands in SKILL.md (its code samples are markdown).

    From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.

  • Network

    No URLs in SKILL.md.

    From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.

  • Credentials

    Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.

    From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

Context cost

AI Engineering Course Onboarding loads about 2k tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 87 tokens; SKILL.md has 1,011 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~87
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~2k

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

Auto-check passed

The automated check found no risky patterns in SKILL.md.

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); files beside SKILL.md are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from rohitg00/ai-engineering-from-scratch at commit 7a181b4, republished under its MIT licence (© rohitg00). 1,011 words, ~2,049 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/start-learning/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder).
name
start-learning
description
One-time onboarding for the AI Engineering from Scratch curriculum (523 lessons, 20 phases). Interviews the learner, runs the placement quiz, and writes LEARNING.md, a persistent study plan the learn skill drives. Trigger phrases: "start learning", "set up the course", "begin the curriculum", "onboard me", "create my learning plan"
version
1.0.0
tags
onboarding, curriculum, ai-engineering, learning-plan

Start Learning

You are onboarding a learner into the AI Engineering from Scratch curriculum: 523 lessons across 20 phases, from linear algebra to autonomous agents. Your job is to produce LEARNING.md, a single file in the current directory that captures why they are learning, where they should start, and what their path looks like. Every later learn session reads and updates this file, so treat it as the learner's source of truth.

Works with any agent. If your environment has a structured question/option tool, use it for every question; otherwise present lettered options as plain text and wait for the reply.

Host invocation contract

Skill names are portable, but invocation syntax belongs to the host. Before showing a next command, use the correct form:

  • Codex: start-learning, learn, course-guide, and other skill-name forms, or tell the learner to choose the skill from /skills.
  • Claude Code: /start-learning, /learn, /course-guide, and other /skill-name forms.
  • Other compatible hosts: natural language such as Use learn to start my first lesson.

Never present a Claude Code slash command as universal syntax. When the host is unknown, use the natural-language form.

Resume routing across course modes

Before generic onboarding, resolve every "resume" or "continue" request against these supported state files and their route owners:

  • LEARNING.md belongs to learn for the full curriculum.
  • MCP-LEARNING.md belongs to learn-mcp for the Model Context Protocol (MCP) route.
  • MCP-ENGINEERING-LEARNING.md is the legacy filename for that same learn-mcp route, not a separate route.
  • AGENT-SKILLS-LEARNING.md belongs to learn-agent-skills.
  • CLAUDE-CERTIFICATION.md belongs to claude-certification.

If the learner names a route in a resume or continue request, dispatch to its owner immediately even when other state files exist, then stop this skill.

For an unnamed resume or continue request, collect the owners whose state files exist, grouping both MCP filenames under learn-mcp. If exactly one route owner remains, invoke it and stop this skill before generic onboarding. learn-mcp owns legacy-file migration and collision reporting. If two or more route owners remain, list their learner-facing route names and ask which route to resume before running placement or changing any state. If none exist, continue with generic onboarding. Never infer a route from file recency or merge one route's progress into another state file.

Legacy runtimes may expose learn-mcp-engineering as an alias. Accept it only to reach learn-mcp; render every learner-facing handoff as learn-mcp and name the route Model Context Protocol (MCP).

Focused MCP handoff

If the learner explicitly wants Model Context Protocol (MCP) rather than the full course, do not run placement and do not create LEARNING.md. Route to the portable skill learn-mcp, whose source is learning-paths/model-context-protocol.json and whose state file is MCP-LEARNING.md. Use learn-mcp in Codex, /learn-mcp in Claude Code, or ask another compatible host to use learn-mcp. The dedicated tutor owns lesson selection, wire evidence, and the public-deployment security gate.

Focused Agent Skills handoff

If the learner explicitly wants Agent Skills instead of the full course, or AGENT-SKILLS-LEARNING.md exists and they ask to resume that route, do not run placement and do not create LEARNING.md. Route to the portable skill learn-agent-skills, whose source is learning-paths/agent-skills.json and whose state file is AGENT-SKILLS-LEARNING.md. Use learn-agent-skills in Codex, /learn-agent-skills in Claude Code, or ask another compatible host to use learn-agent-skills. The dedicated tutor owns the five-lesson order, real-host evidence, sandbox boundaries, the Lesson 25 and tool-poisoning prerequisite gate before Lesson 26, and the release gate.

If LEARNING.md already exists, do not overwrite it. Summarize what it says (mission, entry point, progress so far) and offer exactly three paths:

  • Resume: invoke learn with the host syntax above; skip the interview and placement entirely.
  • Re-run placement: administer the quiz again, then update only the Placement section and the Path statuses; keep the Mission, the Progress log, and the Review queue untouched.
  • Start over: only after an explicit confirmation, rename the current file to LEARNING-<YYYY-MM-DD>.md as an archive, then proceed with the full onboarding below. Never delete or overwrite their history silently.
Show full SKILL.md (361 more words)Show less

Step 1: The interview (3 questions, keep it short)

  1. Why are you learning AI engineering? Free text. Examples to offer: ship an AI product, career change, understand what I already use daily, research. Capture their answer in their own words because it grounds every future lesson explanation.
  2. How much time per week? Options: ~2 h, ~5 h, ~10 h, "as fast as possible". Used only to phrase the pace honestly, never to cut content.
  3. What do you most want to build by the end? One line. An agent, a trained model, a RAG product, "not sure yet" is fine.

Do not ask more than these three. The placement quiz measures knowledge; the interview only captures intent.

Step 2: Placement

Run the placement quiz from the find-your-level skill (it installs alongside this one): 5 areas, 10 questions, mapped to an entry phase. Preserve that skill's answer-isolation contract: do not preload later answer-key rounds or replace neutral <letter> placeholders with real option letters.

If the learner says they already know where they want to start ("just start me at phase 7"), respect that and skip the quiz, with the same output contract as a quiz run so the learn tutor always finds a well-formed plan:

  • Validate the phase is 0-19 and resolve its canonical name; if it does not resolve, list the 20 phases and ask them to pick.
  • In the Path table: phases below the entry point are Skip, the entry point and everything above are Do (no Review rows because there are no area scores to infer them from), and the Est. hours total is the sum of the Do rows.
  • In the Placement section write Score: self-selected instead of a number.

Step 3: Write LEARNING.md

Create LEARNING.md in the current directory with exactly these sections:

markdown
# My AI Engineering Path
<!-- Managed by the ai-engineering-from-scratch learning skills.
     Repo: https://github.com/rohitg00/ai-engineering-from-scratch -->

## Mission
<their answer to question 1, in their words, plus the build goal from question 3>

## Placement
- Date: <YYYY-MM-DD>
- Score: <total>/10 with the area breakdown, or exactly `self-selected` when the quiz was skipped
- Entry point: Phase <N>: <name>
- Pace: ~<hours>/week

## Path
| Phase | Name | Status | Est. hours |
|-------|------|--------|------------|
<all 20 phases; Status is Skip, Review, Do, or Done from the placement
result. Hours come from ROADMAP.md: read it locally if the repo is cloned,
otherwise fetch
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rohitg00/ai-engineering-from-scratch/main/ROADMAP.md>

## Progress log
| Date | Lesson | Quiz | Note |
|------|--------|------|------|

## Review queue
<empty for now; learn adds lessons the quizzes flag>

Step 4: Hand off

Close with three lines, nothing more:

  • Their entry point and total estimated hours for the Review + Do phases.
  • Give the host-correct invocation for learn and say that it starts the first lesson and picks up from this file every time.
  • Give the host-correct invocation for course-guide <topic> and say that it can jump to a specific topic instead.

© rohitg00, MIT. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file

Files

Just SKILL.md in skills/start-learning of rohitg00/ai-engineering-from-scratch.

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 7a181b4

Compare with similar skills

AI Engineering Course Onboarding next to the 5 skills that share the most tags, products or categories with it. Stars are the repository's; “used in” counts other GitHub owners with a copy.

AI Engineering Course Onboarding compared with similar skills
SkillStarsUsed inTokensAuto-checkLicenceRepo updated
AI Engineering Course Onboarding this skillrohitg00/ai-engineering-from-scratch66k—~2kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Hung-Yi Lee Teaching Stylevoidful/hung-yi-lee-skill1.3k—~13kAutomated safety check: PassNone
Learnfancyboi999/ai-engineering-from-scratch-zh1.2k—~1.1kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Workshopbrevdev/workshop-build-an-agent144—~1.4kAutomated safety check: PassApache-2.0
Teachentireio/skills223—~1.7kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Workshopbrevdev/workshop-build-an-agent144—~1.4kAutomated safety check: PassApache-2.0

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Questions about AI Engineering Course Onboarding

What does AI Engineering Course Onboarding do?

Onboards a learner into the AI Engineering from Scratch curriculum with an interview and placement quiz, and writes a persistent LEARNING.md study plan. This one-time onboarding skill sets up a learner for the AI Engineering from Scratch curriculum, 523 lessons across 20 phases from linear algebra to autonomous agents.md in the current directory.

When should I use AI Engineering Course Onboarding?

AI Engineering Course Onboarding fits situations like: starting the AI Engineering from Scratch course for the first time; creating a personalized learning plan from a placement quiz; resuming a course route when several learning files exist.

How do I install AI Engineering Course Onboarding in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add rohitg00/ai-engineering-from-scratch --skill start-learning -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/start-learning in rohitg00/ai-engineering-from-scratch) into .claude/skills/start-learning in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install AI Engineering Course Onboarding in Codex?

Run `npx skills add rohitg00/ai-engineering-from-scratch --skill start-learning -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/start-learning in rohitg00/ai-engineering-from-scratch) into .agents/skills/start-learning in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use AI Engineering Course Onboarding in Cursor, Gemini CLI or GitHub Copilot?

Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot and OpenCode also load SKILL.md folders. With the skills CLI, run `npx skills add rohitg00/ai-engineering-from-scratch --skill start-learning -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/start-learning, .gemini/skills/start-learning, .github/skills/start-learning and .opencode/skills/start-learning in your project.

What does AI Engineering Course Onboarding need to run?

SKILL.md names no scripts, command-line tools or credentials: AI Engineering Course Onboarding is instructions for the agent only.

Does AI Engineering Course Onboarding access the network?

SKILL.md contains no URLs. Any network use would come from the scripts or tools the agent runs. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.

Is AI Engineering Course Onboarding safe to install?

Our automated static check of SKILL.md found no risky patterns, such as piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files or hidden Unicode. It is not a guarantee. Review the folder before installing.

What licence does AI Engineering Course Onboarding use?

AI Engineering Course Onboarding is published under the MIT licence (the repository's licence). It allows redistribution, so the full SKILL.md is shown on this page.

How many tokens does AI Engineering Course Onboarding use?

About 2k tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 8.2k characters). Agents keep only the skill's name and description in context until a task matches; then they load SKILL.md in full.

What are the alternatives to AI Engineering Course Onboarding?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with AI Engineering Course Onboarding: Hung-Yi Lee Teaching Style (voidful/hung-yi-lee-skill, 1.3k stars), Learn (fancyboi999/ai-engineering-from-scratch-zh, 1.2k stars), Workshop (brevdev/workshop-build-an-agent, 144 stars) and Teach (entireio/skills, 223 stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains AI Engineering Course Onboarding?

rohitg00 (a GitHub user) maintains it in rohitg00/ai-engineering-from-scratch, which has 65,647 GitHub stars. The repository holds 16 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on October 6, 2026.

Source: rohitg00/ai-engineering-from-scratch on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.