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Before you start

Our goal is to build an AI agent and turn it into a working service. Before we begin, this section reviews the background you will need: setting up your development tools, understanding how web applications work, preparing a Python environment, and connecting these foundations to working with LLMs.

Background reading

Prerequisites fills in the background needed for AI agent development. Feel free to skim or skip topics you already know. If you want to check your understanding first, try the exercises on each page.

How to use this section

The topics build on one another, so read them in order if they are new to you.

  • If you are new to programming, start with Terminal and work through the pages step by step.
  • If you are new to web development, start with What is a web service?.
  • If you have web development experience but are new to Python, start with Python virtual environments.
  • If you have built web applications with Python, you can skip this section and move on to FastAPI basics.