Learn AI Agents from Scratch
August 10, 2026 · View on GitHub
Learn AI Agents from Scratch
A visual, bilingual, and engineering-first textbook for building reliable LLM Agents.
From Function Calling, memory, planning, RAG, and context engineering to Agentic RL, multi-agent systems, evaluation, security, and production deployment.
中文说明 · Complete directory · Runnable reference agent · Contributing
What is this repository?
agent_learning is an open-source AI Agent textbook and learning repository. It is designed for the gap between "I can call an LLM API" and "I can build, evaluate, secure, and deploy an Agent system."
Instead of teaching isolated framework APIs, the book builds one connected mental model:
LLM fundamentals → tools → memory → planning → RAG → context → harness → skills → Agentic RL → multi-agent → evaluation → security → deployment
The repository includes:
- 23 chapters across foundations, core capabilities, frameworks, multi-agent systems, production, and capstone projects.
- 188 Markdown pages per language, maintained in English and Chinese.
- 330+ original SVG diagrams and 5 interactive demos for architecture, state, sequence, and training flows.
- Paper-to-practice explanations covering ReAct, Reflexion, MemGPT/Letta, GraphRAG, GRPO, MCP, A2A, and more.
reference-agent/, a small runnable Agent baseline with tools, memory, security gates, evaluation, an MCP server, a FastAPI service, and 16 tests.
This is not an awesome-list and not a framework manual. It is a structured path from first principles to production engineering.
Complete directory
- Book source
src/en/— English mdBook sourcesrc/zh/— Chinese mdBook sourcesrc/en/SUMMARY.md— English table of contentssrc/zh/SUMMARY.md— Chinese table of contents
- Foundations
- Core capabilities
- Framework practice
- Multi-agent systems
- Production engineering
- Capstone projects
- Appendices
- Runnable implementation
reference-agent/— teaching baseline Agent implementationreference-agent/src/reference_agent/— Agent loop, providers, tools, memory, security, server, evaluationreference-agent/tests/— offline test suite
- Assets and build files
src/en/svg/— English diagramssrc/zh/svg/— Chinese diagramssrc/en/animations/— English interactive demossrc/zh/animations/— Chinese interactive demostheme/— shared mdBook themebook.toml— Chinese mdBook configbook-en.toml— English mdBook configserve.sh— build and serve both books locally
Runnable reference agent
reference-agent/ is the shared, dependency-light implementation behind the hands-on chapters. It includes:
- a minimal ReAct loop and tool registry;
- offline
FakeProviderand optional OpenAI provider; - memory, prompt-injection guardrails, and fail-closed permission checks;
- an MCP server, FastAPI endpoints, streaming, evaluation harness, and Dockerfile;
- 16 tests that run without an API key.
cd reference-agent
python -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -e ".[dev]"
pytest -q
The implementation is intentionally small enough to read. It is a teaching baseline, not a claim of production completeness.
Project principles
- Mechanisms before frameworks. Explain why an abstraction exists before teaching its API.
- Visuals must teach. Diagrams carry architecture and process information; they are not decoration.
- Research must lead to engineering insight. Paper notes include contribution, mechanism, use, and limitations.
- Production claims must be honest. Runnable code, tests, security boundaries, and known limitations are stated explicitly.
- Bilingual content stays aligned. Text, diagrams, navigation, and interactive demos are maintained in both languages.
Contributing
Corrections, clearer explanations, runnable examples, translation fixes, and new paper notes are welcome.
- Found an error? Open an issue.
- Want to improve a chapter? Edit the matching file under both
src/en/andsrc/zh/when possible. - Adding a page? Update both
SUMMARY.mdfiles. - Adding a diagram? Place localized assets under
src/en/svg/andsrc/zh/svg/. - Before a PR, run
./serve.shand verify both language builds.
Please keep claims verifiable and prefer primary sources for papers, protocols, versions, and external projects.
Roadmap
- 23-chapter bilingual mdBook
- Localized diagrams and interactive demos
- Agentic RL, context engineering, harness engineering, and self-evolving Agent coverage
- Runnable
reference-agentbaseline with offline tests - More end-to-end capstone implementations
- Searchable diagram gallery and concept index
- Evaluation and observability starter templates
- More exercises, interview questions, and regression cases
Suggestions are welcome in Issues.
License
Released under the MIT License.
If this repository saves you time, consider giving it a Star.
A Star helps more engineers find a structured path through AI Agents instead of another disconnected list of links.