Phase 15: AI Agents β€” Start HereΒΆ

Build LLMs that can take actions β€” calling tools, browsing the web, writing code, and completing multi-step tasks autonomously.

What Is an AI Agent?ΒΆ

An agent is an LLM equipped with tools and a loop:

User goal
   ↓
[LLM] β†’ decides action β†’ [Tool call] β†’ result
   ↑                                      ↓
   └──────────── observe + reason β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”˜
   ↓
Final answer

Notebooks in This PhaseΒΆ

Notebook

Topic

01_intro_to_agents.ipynb

Agent concepts, tools, and the action loop

02_function_calling.ipynb

OpenAI and Anthropic tool/function use

03_react_pattern.ipynb

ReAct: Reason + Act + Observe

04_agent_frameworks.ipynb

LangChain agents, LlamaIndex agents

05_multi_agent_systems.ipynb

Multi-agent coordination and orchestration

06_mcp_model_context_protocol.ipynb

MCP β€” universal tool protocol for agents

07_openai_agents_sdk_langgraph.ipynb

OpenAI Agents SDK + LangGraph workflows

08_reasoning_models.ipynb

o1, o3, DeepSeek-R1 β€” extended thinking

09_autonomous_agents_2026.ipynb

Computer use, web agents, long-horizon tasks

Key ConceptsΒΆ

Concept

Description

Tool use

LLM calls functions (search, code, API)

ReAct

Interleaved Reasoning + Acting loop

Memory

Short-term (context) + long-term (vector DB)

Planning

Task decomposition and sub-task delegation

MCP

Model Context Protocol for tool standardization

Multi-agent

Specialized agents working in parallel

PrerequisitesΒΆ

  • LLM API basics (Phase 11: Prompt Engineering)

  • RAG Systems (Phase 08)

  • Embeddings (Phase 05)

Learning PathΒΆ

01_intro_to_agents.ipynb         ← Start here
02_function_calling.ipynb
03_react_pattern.ipynb
04_agent_frameworks.ipynb
06_mcp_model_context_protocol.ipynb
07_openai_agents_sdk_langgraph.ipynb
05_multi_agent_systems.ipynb
08_reasoning_models.ipynb
09_autonomous_agents_2026.ipynb  ← Cutting edge