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AAM · 48 hrs · 12 modules
AI Agents Mastery
Design, build, and ship production-grade autonomous agents.
A full diploma covering agent foundations, reasoning and planning, tool use, memory, multi-agent orchestration, evaluation, and safety. Each module gates the next via an 80%+ assessment score.
14-day money-back guarantee
Meet your instructor · 2-min preview
From Module 1What you'll need (optional preview)▾
Beginner-friendly — everything is taught from scratch. This is just a heads-up on what helps.
Helpful to have
- Comfortable writing small Python programs (functions, loops, dictionaries, files). If `for item in my_list:` looks unfamiliar, start with the Python for AI diploma first.
- A command line you can actually use (run `python script.py`, `pip install <package>`, navigate folders).
- An OpenAI API key (or compatible provider) with ~$5–20 of usable credit. Every workbook exercise hits a real model.
Nice to have (not required)
- Basic JSON literacy — you'll be reading and writing tool-call payloads constantly.
- Familiarity with git/GitHub for the open-source code reading exercises.
- Any prior exposure to async/await or HTTP requests in Python.
No setup? Free path included:
If you don't want to pay for OpenAI credits, every exercise also runs against the free tier of OpenRouter, Groq, or a local Ollama install (e.g. `llama3.1:8b`). Set `OPENAI_BASE_URL` and `OPENAI_API_KEY` accordingly and the code examples are unchanged.
Free-tier setup guide · ~15 min, $0 cost▾
Follow these steps once and every workbook exercise in this diploma will run without spending a cent. Total setup is short and you only do it on day one.
- 1. Pick a free LLM provider
Groq is the fastest free option and serves Llama 3.1 / 3.3 with an OpenAI-compatible API. Sign up with email, no card required. OpenRouter is a good backup — it has a rotating free tier of open models. Ollama is the fully-offline option if you'd rather run a small model on your own laptop (8 GB RAM is enough for `llama3.1:8b`).
Create a free Groq API key → - 2. Export two environment variables
Every exercise reads `OPENAI_API_KEY` and `OPENAI_BASE_URL`. For Groq use `OPENAI_BASE_URL=https://api.groq.com/openai/v1` and the key you just created. For Ollama use `OPENAI_BASE_URL=http://localhost:11434/v1` and any non-empty key. You do NOT need an OpenAI account.
- 3. Pick a free model name
In each exercise where the code says `model="gpt-4o-mini"`, swap in a free model: `llama-3.3-70b-versatile` (Groq), `meta-llama/llama-3.1-8b-instruct:free` (OpenRouter), or `llama3.1:8b` (Ollama). The reasoning lessons are identical — only the model name changes.
- 4. Run in Google Colab if you don't want to install Python
Colab gives you a free Python environment in your browser. Open a new notebook, run `!pip install openai`, paste the exercise code, and set the two env vars at the top with `import os; os.environ["OPENAI_API_KEY"]="…"`.
Open Google Colab → - 5. Verify with a one-line smoke test
Before starting Module 1, run a single `client.chat.completions.create(...)` call and confirm you get a response. If you see a 401, your API key isn't loaded. If you see a 404, your base URL is wrong. Fixing this once now saves hours later.
- Groq's free tier rate-limits to ~30 requests/minute — plenty for every exercise in this diploma, but pace your tool-loop tests.
- If a specific exercise needs function calling, all three providers above support it. Groq is the closest drop-in for OpenAI's tool-call shape.
Bundle & save
Get both CS diplomas — save $99
Add LLM Engineering & Applied AI Architecture to this one for a single payment. Both diplomas, both final exams, both printable certificates — lifetime access.
- Studio Voice narration on every module
- AI tutor — voice in / voice out — across both programs
- Two printable diplomas + verifiable certificate URLs
- 14-day money-back guarantee — both included
$898
$799
USD · one-time
Save $99
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14-day money-back guarantee on the bundle.
Honest comparison
AI Agents Mastery vs the market
How GACS stacks up against the closest paid AI-agents programs.
| What you get | GACS $499 · lifetime | Maven AI Agents $999–$2,500 · cohort, 4–6 wks | Udemy AI Agents $15–$199 · video only | DeepLearning.AI $49/mo · subscription |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lifetime access | ||||
| 12 in-depth modules | varies | |||
| Hands-on labs per module | ||||
| Capstone project (graded) | ||||
| 100-question proctored final exam | ||||
| AI Teacher / 1:1 coach | Always on | Office hours | ||
| Instructor video lessons | ||||
| Public verifiable diploma URL | Certificate PDF | |||
| 14-day money-back guarantee | 30d Udemy | |||
| Future updates included | rarely | while subscribed |
Bottom line: Cohort programs cost 2–5× more, video-only courses skip exams, labs and coaching. GACS is the only one bundling all of it at a flat lifetime price.
Competitor pricing and curriculum verified from public sources, June 2025. We update this table when the market moves.
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Capstone project
Ship a Production AI Agent With Tools, RAG, Guardrails & Evals
Design, build, evaluate, and deploy a real domain agent that uses tools, retrieves from your own knowledge base, respects safety guardrails, and is observable in production.
25–40 hours over 2–3 weeks · 9 deliverables · rubric out of 100 · passing score 70
Your progress
0 of 12 modules passed · 0%Nothing passed yet — start with Module 1 below.
- 1
Foundations of AI Agents
Module assessment · 20 questions · 80% to passWhat an AI agent really is, the formal sense/think/act loop, where chatbots end and agents begin, the five anatomical components every production agent has, and the lifecycle that governs how a single goal is born, pursued, and retired.
- 2
Reasoning & Architectures
Module assessment · 20 questions · 80% to passReAct, Plan-and-Execute, Chain-of-Thought, and Action Graphs — the architectural patterns behind modern agents.
Pass Module 1 to unlock - 3
Memory Systems
Module assessment · 20 questions · 80% to passShort-term, long-term, and episodic memory; vector databases; tool use; reasoning patterns.
Pass Module 2 to unlock - 4
Prompt Engineering for Agents
Module assessment · 20 questions · 80% to passSystem prompts, instruction design, guardrails, and multi-step prompting.
Pass Module 3 to unlock - 5
Multi-Agent Systems
Module assessment · 20 questions · 80% to passAgent roles, communication, supervisors, and collaboration patterns.
Pass Module 4 to unlock - 6
Tool Use & API Integration
Module assessment · 20 questions · 80% to passAPIs for agents, tool schemas, error handling, and secure tool use.
Pass Module 5 to unlock - 7
Safety & Alignment
Module assessment · 20 questions · 80% to passSafety principles, alignment strategies, harm prevention, and sandboxing.
Pass Module 6 to unlock - 8
Evaluation & Benchmarking
Module assessment · 20 questions · 80% to passEvaluation frameworks, benchmark design, failure modes, and continuous evaluation.
Pass Module 7 to unlock - 9
Deployment
Module assessment · 20 questions · 80% to passRuntime environments, scaling, monitoring, and logging for production agents.
Pass Module 8 to unlock - 10
Scaling & Observability
Module assessment · 20 questions · 80% to passScaling patterns, observability tools, metrics, and alerting.
Pass Module 9 to unlock - 11
Advanced Agent Patterns
Module assessment · 20 questions · 80% to passSelf-reflection, planning agents, recursive agents, and self-healing agents.
Pass Module 10 to unlock - 12
Capstone Preparation
Module assessment · 18 questions · 80% to passThe multi-stage capstone: problem definition, architecture, implementation, and final submission.
Pass Module 11 to unlock
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Authoritative sources
Independent primary sources used to check and corroborate the guidance on this page.
NIST National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education (NICE)US national framework for cybersecurity work roles and competencies.
Financial Action Task Force (FATF)Global AML/CFT standards referenced by financial-crime curricula.
FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center — Annual ReportsPrimary loss and typology data used in fraud-investigation training.
US Federal Trade Commission — Consumer Sentinel Data BookOfficial complaint statistics for teaching fraud trend analysis.