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Guide · Agent skill

How to use the learn agent skill: interactive AI engineering lessons

Updated · written with AI from the project's own documentation and checked against our catalogue data

The learn skill turns your AI agent into a patient tutor for the AI Engineering from Scratch curriculum. Each time you ask for the next lesson, it finds your place, teaches the material section by section, asks you to type and run things, and gives a short quiz. This guide explains what the skill does, how to install it, how to trigger it, and what it needs.

Interactive AI Engineering Tutorrohitg00/ai-engineering-from-scratch · MIT

Quick start

  1. 1Get the skill. Download the ZIP from the skill page. Keep the file handy for the next step.
  2. 2Install it. Unzip into ~/.claude/skills/ for personal use, or into a project's .claude/skills/ folder. In the Claude apps, upload the ZIP under Settings → Capabilities → Skills.
  3. 3Decide on a local clone. Optionally clone the AI Engineering from Scratch repository so lesson files load locally. Without a clone, the skill fetches files from GitHub.
  4. 4Start a lesson. In your agent, say "next lesson" or "continue the course".
  5. 5Work the lesson. Type answers and run what the tutor asks. Do not just scroll through the text.
  6. 6Take the quiz. Answer the short quiz at the end of the lesson so your progress can be recorded.

What the learn skill makes the agent do

The skill sets the agent up as the tutor for the AI Engineering from Scratch curriculum. One invocation covers one lesson, and the learner is expected to type, answer, and run things rather than only read.

Before teaching, the agent reads LEARNING.md from the current directory to find the next lesson. It fetches the lesson text, then closes with a short quiz and records progress in the same file.

  • Finds your place in LEARNING.md and picks the next lesson in phase and lesson order
  • Teaches the lesson section by section in the terminal
  • Asks you to type and run things during the lesson
  • Gives a short quiz at the end and records your progress
  • Can read from a local clone of the course or fetch files directly from GitHub

Install the learn skill

You can install the skill in one of two ways. Download the ZIP from the skill page and unzip it into your personal skills folder, ~/.claude/skills/, or into a project's .claude/skills/ folder so it applies only to that project.

In the Claude apps, you can instead upload the ZIP under Settings → Capabilities → Skills.

  • Personal install: unzip into ~/.claude/skills/
  • Project install: unzip into .claude/skills/ inside your project
  • Claude apps: Settings → Capabilities → Skills, then upload the ZIP

Trigger the skill with natural requests

The skill responds to a set of trigger phrases. You do not need to type a command. Ask in plain language, and the agent starts the lesson flow.

Recognised phrases include "next lesson", "teach me", "continue the course", "let's learn", and "resume learning". If you name a topic, such as "teach me backprop", the agent will honour that topic and note the detour in your log.

  • "next lesson"
  • "continue the course"
  • "resume learning"
  • "teach me backprop" to request a specific topic

Work through a lesson

Each lesson follows the same pattern. Before new material, the agent may ask two recall questions from the previous lesson's quiz. These carry no score and get one sentence of feedback each. If you get both wrong, the agent offers to redo that lesson instead of advancing.

The lesson text is taught in sections, and you are asked to answer and run things along the way. The lesson ends with a short quiz, and your progress is then recorded.

  • Warm-up recall from the previous lesson, if one is logged
  • Section-by-section teaching with typed answers and commands you run
  • Short quiz at the end
  • Progress recorded in LEARNING.md

Optional: use the lesson screen

The skill can offer a companion browser screen, the lesson-screen skill, which shows the lesson's figures and clickable predictions next to the terminal. It is offered once per session and needs node 20 or later and a local browser. If you decline or no browser is available, the agent gives you a lesson page link instead.

Screen clicks are hints only. They do not count as quiz answers or lab results.

  • Requires node 20 or later and a browser on your machine
  • If declined, you get a link to the lesson page instead

Safety notes: scripts and network

This skill does not run scripts. It does use the network: if the course is not cloned locally, it fetches lesson files from raw.githubusercontent.com.

It reads and writes LEARNING.md in your working directory to track progress. If you do not want the agent writing a progress file there, do not use this skill.

  • Runs scripts: no
  • Uses network: yes, to raw.githubusercontent.com when no local clone is present
  • Writes progress to LEARNING.md in the current directory

What people use it for

  • Working through the AI Engineering from Scratch course one lesson at a time
  • Resuming a course where you left off, using the progress file in your directory
  • Quizzing yourself on a specific topic by naming it in your request
  • Studying AI engineering topics in the terminal with a structured, quiz-based flow

Frequently asked questions

Is the learn skill free?

The skill is published under the MIT licence. The source material does not state any price, so check the skill page for licence details.

What do I need to use the learn skill?

You need an AI agent runtime that supports SKILL.md skills and internet access to raw.githubusercontent.com if the course is not cloned locally. A local clone of the course repository is optional.

Where do I install the learn skill?

Unzip the downloaded ZIP into ~/.claude/skills/ for personal use or into .claude/skills/ in a project. In the Claude apps, upload it under Settings → Capabilities → Skills.

Does the learn skill work outside the AI Engineering from Scratch course?

No. It only follows this curriculum's files. For general AI engineering help, use a different tool.

Why does the agent need to write files?

It reads LEARNING.md to find your place and writes your progress back to it after each lesson. If you do not want that, do not use this skill.

What should I do if the agent cannot fetch lessons?

Check that the machine has internet access to raw.githubusercontent.com. Alternatively, clone the course repository locally so the skill can read files from disk.

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Our verdict

Use the learn skill if you are working through the AI Engineering from Scratch course and want guided, quiz-based lessons in your terminal. Pick something else if you want a general AI engineering tutor or do not want the agent writing a progress file in your working directory.

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