Learn to build and ship a real, full-stack AI application. Five short modules and two runnable starter kits take you from an empty folder to a deployed app with a database, real user accounts, an API, and an AI feature — free, open source, and taught with a vendor-neutral stack so the skills transfer no matter which tools you end up using.

Two small, readable starter kits — each a complete app, not a toy demo. Clone one and it's running locally in about a minute, with no API key required to try it.

A notes app with a database, an HTTP/JSON API, and an LLM-powered Summarize button.

git clone https://github.com/ai-builders-foundation/ai-builders-curriculum.git
cd ai-builders-curriculum/starter-kits/ai-app-starter
npm install && npm start

Open http://localhost:3000, write a note, click Summarize, and watch the backend call a language model. It ships in offline demo mode by default, so this works with zero configuration — point it at any OpenAI-compatible endpoint later by editing three environment variables. Nothing else in the code changes.

Paste in text, ask a question, and get an answer grounded in only what you pasted — with the exact source chunk cited.

cd ../rag-starter        # from the same clone, or start fresh
npm install && npm start

Open http://localhost:3000 and ask "What are the five steps of RAG?" — the answer comes back grounded in a sample document that's seeded automatically, with the retrieved chunk shown as a source. Again, no API key needed to see it work end to end.

Both kits are small enough to read in one sitting — plain Node.js, SQLite, no framework, no build step — and are the concrete, runnable version of the curriculum below.

📦 Data → 🔐 Auth → 🔌 Functions/APIs → 🤖 AI & Agents → 🚀 Deploy

Each module: learning objectives → explanation with worked examples → hands-on exercise → "Check yourself." Budget one module per evening, or two per weekend.

Looking for more free material on any of this? See RESOURCES.md — a curated list of the best free resources for each topic above.

• Self-learners who can write a little code and want to build a real AI app end to end.
• Educators & bootcamps who want an open, adaptable syllabus to teach from directly — it's MIT, fork it.
• Hackathon organizers who want a shared, runnable baseline so participants spend the weekend building, not configuring.

Prerequisites: basic programming (variables, functions, loops), a terminal, and Node.js 18+. No prior AI, backend, or deployment experience needed — that's what this teaches.

⭐ Star this repo if it's useful — it helps other builders find it.

🤝 PRs are genuinely welcome: a fixed typo, a clearer explanation, a new exercise, a translation, or a whole new module or starter kit. Start with CONTRIBUTING.md.

ai-builders-curriculum/
├── README.md
├── RESOURCES.md                  ← curated list of free/open learning resources
├── LICENSE                       ← MIT
├── CONTRIBUTING.md               ← how to propose and submit changes
├── CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md            ← Contributor Covenant
├── SECURITY.md                   ← how to report a vulnerability
├── funding.json                  ← FLOSS/fund manifest
├── curriculum/                   ← the five modules
│   ├── 01-data-and-storage.md
│   ├── 02-auth-and-users.md
│   ├── 03-functions-and-apis.md
│   ├── 04-ai-and-agents.md
│   └── 05-deploy.md
└── starter-kits/
    ├── ai-app-starter/           ← runnable full-stack AI app
    └── rag-starter/              ← runnable "chat with your docs" app

Maintained by the AI Builders Foundation, a 501(c)(3) public charity (EIN 42-1986706), whose mission is to educate and support AI builders through free courses, community events, and open source. This repository is those three pillars as code — free forever, with no paid tier and no lock-in to any platform, including our own.

MIT License · Code of Conduct · Security Policy · hello@aibuildershq.org