AI Free course · Certificate included
Latest AI Techniques: RAG, Tool Use, Agents & MCP
Embeddings, RAG, context engineering, tool calling, agents, MCP and the open agent standards, with hands-on code
- Advanced
- 7 h 54 min
- 20 lessons in 6 modules
- 2 h 57 min of video lectures
- Updated Sep 2026
About this course
Modern AI systems do far more than answer from memory: they search your knowledge, call tools, act in loops and connect to business systems through open standards. This advanced course explains how, in vendor-neutral terms with hands-on code you can run today. You will build hybrid search and a cited RAG pipeline with reranking, evaluate retrieval and faithfulness separately, and choose advanced patterns such as agentic, graph, visual and long-context retrieval only when evidence demands them. You will design tools and structured outputs models use reliably, engineer context for long-running agents, compare agent frameworks and SDKs, and build your first MCP server on the 2026-07-28 specification. We cover A2A, Agent Skills and AGENTS.md, secure agents against the OWASP agentic Top 10, and finish with guardrails, agent evaluation and the discipline of knowing when not to use an agent.
Tools you’ll use
- Claude API
- OpenAI Agents SDK
- MCP Python SDK
- MCP Inspector
- sentence-transformers
- pgvector
- rank-bm25
- Pydantic
- Agent Skills
- A2A protocol
Skills
- Retrieval-augmented generation
- Semantic search
- Tool calling
- AI agents
- Model Context Protocol
- Context engineering
- AI guardrails
- Agent evaluation
What you’ll be able to do
- Build and measure keyword, semantic and hybrid retrieval with chunking and metadata strategies that work
- Build a cited RAG pipeline, evaluate retrieval and faithfulness separately and pick advanced patterns on evidence
- Design tools, strict schemas and structured outputs that models use correctly, with safe execution in code
- Engineer context and memory for long-running agents and choose the right agent framework or platform
- Explain MCP's architecture and 2026 changes, build a safe MCP server and apply A2A and Agent Skills
- Secure agents against the OWASP agentic Top 10 with layered guardrails and human oversight
- Evaluate agents on outcome, process and cost, and choose simpler designs when they are better
Curriculum
Syllabus
- Modules
- 6
- Lessons
- 20
- Reading time
- 4 h
- Assessment questions
- 30
Understand how embeddings turn meaning into vectors, how semantic and hybrid search work, and how to chunk and index content well.
- Embeddings and semantic searchVideo lecture, 10′Video · 12 min
- Chunking and indexing strategiesVideo lecture, 9′12 min
Build the full RAG pipeline with query transformation, reranking and citations, evaluate retrieval and generation separately, and apply advanced patterns when evidence demands them.
- The RAG pipeline: retrieval, reranking and citationsVideo lecture, 9′13 min
- Evaluating RAG systemsVideo lecture, 9′12 min
- Advanced RAG patterns: agentic, graph, visual and long-contextVideo lecture, 9′14 min
Let models act and fetch live information through well-designed tools and schema-guaranteed structured outputs, with safe execution on your side.
- Function calling fundamentalsVideo lecture, 9′12 min
- Designing good tools for modelsVideo lecture, 8′11 min
- Structured outputs and strict tool useVideo lecture, 9′13 min
Understand how agents plan, act and observe in a loop, when to use multiple agents, how to give them memory, how to engineer their context, and how to choose frameworks and platforms.
- Agent loops: plan, act, observeVideo lecture, 9′Video · 13 min
- Multi-agent patternsVideo lecture, 9′11 min
- Memory and context management for agentsVideo lecture, 8′11 min
- Context engineering: curating what the model seesVideo lecture, 9′14 min
- Agent frameworks, SDKs and platforms: how to chooseVideo lecture, 9′13 min
Understand MCP's architecture, primitives and 2026 changes, build and secure a server, and see how A2A, Agent Skills and AGENTS.md complete the open agent stack.
- MCP concepts: hosts, clients, servers and primitivesVideo lecture, 9′12 min
- MCP security and governanceVideo lecture, 8′12 min
- Building your first MCP serverVideo lecture, 9′15 min
- The open agent standards: A2A, Agent Skills and AGENTS.mdVideo lecture, 9′13 min
Put layered guardrails and human oversight around AI systems, secure agents against the OWASP agentic risks, evaluate agents properly, and recognise when not to use them.
- Guardrails and human-in-the-loopVideo lecture, 8′12 min
- Securing agents: the OWASP Top 10 for Agentic ApplicationsVideo lecture, 9′14 min
- Evaluating agents, and when not to use themVideo lecture, 9′13 min
- Final assessment
Your certificate
Finish with a credential anyone can check
Earn the Certified AI Agent Builder badge: The holder can design and build modern AI systems: hybrid retrieval, cited RAG pipelines with rigorous evaluation, structured outputs and well-designed tools, context-engineered agents with memory, MCP servers and the open agent standards. They secure agents against current agentic threats, apply layered guardrails and human oversight, evaluate agents rigorously and judge when simpler designs are better.
Completed all lessons and scored at least 80% on the final assessment.
- A public verification page
- A PDF certificate to download
- An Open Badge you can share
- One click to your LinkedIn profile
Final assessment
- 30questions drawn from a larger pool
- 45 mintime limit
- 80%pass mark
- 3attempts per 24 hours
Start learning today. It’s free.
Every lesson is free to read. A free account saves your progress, unlocks the final assessment and issues your certificate.