COURSE 001
Engineering Long-Running AI Agents
Build one customer-shaped workflow that is bounded, observable, recoverable, evidence-backed, cost-aware, and useful when the happy path ends.
- 16 modules
- 14 failure labs
- 15-20 hours
FDE COMMONS · BY THE AI RUNTIME
Build your FDE career.
Understand the role. Build production capability.
Prove what you can do. Find the right opportunities.
FREE · NO SIGNUP · EVIDENCE-FIRST · PRACTITIONER-INFORMED
Clarity
Which FDE path fits me?
→02Capability
Can I actually do the work?
→03Proof
Can I show evidence?
→04Readiness
Can I interview and compete?
→WHERE DO I FIT?
Start with your experience, not a content catalog.
Answer ten transparent questions. Get a primary segment, the gaps to build, an entry journey, a first proof, and interview priorities. No account. No fake match percentage.
Take the 4-minute assessment →THREE ENTRY JOURNEYS
Choose the transition you are making.
01Engineers strong in building who need customer and deployment range
Software / AI Engineer → FDE
Add discovery, production judgment, field communication, and evidence to your engineering base.
Open journey →02Customer-facing technologists who want deeper implementation ownershipSolutions Architect / SE → FDE
Build coding depth, failure reasoning, stateful systems, evaluation, and reproducible proof.
Open journey →03FDEs ready to grow from delivery to reusable organizational leverageExisting FDE → Senior FDE
Practice architecture judgment, portfolio patterns, executive communication, and turning field learning into product improvements.
Open journey →TECHNICAL SPECIALIZATIONS
What do you want to forward deploy?
01
Agent / Application FDE
DEPLOYSAI applications and agent workflowsIntegrate AI applications with tools, state, context, evals, security, and operational ownership.
Explore specialization →02Enterprise / Platform FDE
DEPLOYSPlatforms, data models, integrations, and operational workflowsAdapt platforms to customer data, identity, applications, infrastructure, and operating constraints.
Explore specialization →03Inference / ML Systems FDE
DEPLOYSModel serving infrastructureMake models fast, reliable, scalable, observable, and economical in production.
Explore specialization →THE COMMONS LOOP
Learning ends in evidence.
- 01LearnBuild the mental model
- 02PracticeDiagnose realistic failure
- 03ProvePublish the evidence
- 04CareerApply it to the right role
START HERE
Want to become an AI FDE?
Understand the role, discover what carries over from your experience, and choose your first step. About ten minutes, no account, and nothing leaves your browser unless you ask it to.
Find my FDE path →- 01The roleWhat the work actually involves
- 02Your experienceWhat you have already done
- 03What carries overConnected to your own words
- 04Your planTwo or three priorities, explained
- 05First stepOne action with a definition of done
FLAGSHIP COURSES
Two courses. One production standard.
Both are free, readable end to end, and built around a single system rather than a catalog of disconnected demos.
COURSE 002 · NEW
Agentic AI System Design
Design agentic systems from first principles: authority, tool contracts, context, durable state, security, evaluation, and operations. You build one system, Atlas, end to end.
- 17 modules
- 12 timed practice scenarios
- 35-45 hours
CAREER INTELLIGENCE
Understand the profession behind the title.
THE QUALITY BAR
Not a certificate mill. Not framework hype. Not career theater.
FDE Commons teaches from first principles, uses primary evidence, names tradeoffs and limitations, breaks systems on purpose, and asks learners to publish reproducible proof.
How the Commons is built →