9 free resources on this topic. Everything here is free and hand-picked. You can also search within this topic.
Open-source, low-code visual builder for agentic and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) AI applications. Free to self-host; the project also offers hosted options.
A free self-paced curriculum for the Forward Deployed Engineer role — the person who sits with a customer and turns an AI model into a system that actually runs in production. 11 modules, 150+ topic articles, 700+ open-book questions and 15 daily drill questions, covering systems thinking, problem decomposition, LLM/RAG/agent architecture, data and event systems, physical AI and robotics, plus client discovery, integration, deployment and stakeholder management. It also publishes a map of 15 layers of the modern AI engineering stack drawn from real FDE and AI-engineer job specs, with links out to where to learn each one.
Why I recommend it: The whole curriculum opens without an account or a card — I checked — and an account only saves your progress. There is no pricing page anywhere on it, so nothing is being held back behind a paywall today. Worth knowing why this matters: 'Forward Deployed Engineer' is a job title that is actually being hired for right now, and it pays like engineering while rewarding the consulting side most engineers avoid. Two flags. It is one person's independent site, not an accredited course or a certificate anyone will recognize — the value is the material, not a credential. And it makes a strong claim, that foundation models are becoming a commodity and the money lives in the last mile; that is an argument, not a measured finding, so read it as a well-argued position.
An open-source Python framework for connecting AI models to your own documents and data. MIT licensed.
From the site: LlamaIndex is the document processing platform for AI - run-llama/llama_index
Why I recommend it: For when you want to build something on your own files rather than use a finished app. Expect to write code.
An open-source desktop and self-hosted app that lets you chat with your own documents using local or hosted models. MIT licensed.
From the site: Stop renting your intelligence. Own it with AnythingLLM. Everything you need for a powerful local-first agent experience - Mintplex-Labs/anything-llm
Why I recommend it: Point it at your own files — job descriptions, notes, contracts — and ask questions of them without uploading anything to a company.
An open-source platform for building and running AI apps and agents, with a hosted option and a full self-hosted Docker install.
From the site: Build Agentic workflows, RAG pipelines, with rich AI model and tool support on one collaborative workspace. Deploy on cloud, VPC, or self-hosted, so teams move from prototype to production without ...
Why I recommend it: More structure than a chat window: prompts, data and logs kept in one place. Start with their Docker install and one small app.
A free course on large language models covering embeddings, retrieval-augmented generation, prompt design and deployment, with runnable notebooks.
Why I recommend it: Free, hands-on and vendor-neutral enough to transfer — a solid way to get real LLM skills on your resume.
Apache 2.0 open-source search infrastructure for AI applications, supporting vector, full-text, regex and metadata search, free to run locally with optional hosted cloud.
Why I recommend it: The free local version is enough to build and demo an AI project of your own — a portfolio piece that shows you can work with retrieval, not just prompts.
Tiffany Teasley explains retrieval-augmented generation without the jargon: how an AI model looks things up in your own documents before answering, and why that matters for accuracy.
Why I recommend it: If you can explain RAG in one sentence in an interview, you already sound more current than most candidates.
Free course on autonomous and tool-using agent architecture, with framework implementations in smolagents, LlamaIndex, and LangGraph, plus agentic RAG workflows.
Why I recommend it: Agents are what employers are hiring for right now. Build one small working agent and you will be ahead of most applicants.
