Indie Degree
GitHub
← Programme

LLM Application Engineering

AIE-101

3 credits · 45h required

You have already shipped four of these. This course is not here to teach you to call an API — it is here to convert what you did by instinct into something you can specify, defend, and repeat. Two of three credits are already awarded, so most of what follows is exemptable; what is not exemptable is the part that closes your actual gap.

By the end you can

  • Specify and enforce structured output such that malformed responses are impossible rather than unlikely
  • Design tool interfaces a model can actually use, and explain why a given interface fails
  • Name and detect the specific failure modes of a deployed LLM feature
  • Manage context deliberately — what goes in, what gets dropped, and what that costs

0 of 38 required items complete

0m of 45h

M1 · What you are actually programming

0/5 · 5h

M2 · Prompting as engineering

0/7 · 7h

M3 · Structured output and schema enforcement

0/5 · 5h 30m

  • reading · 1h · tier 0 self-marked

    Structured outputs

  • reading · 1h · tier 0 self-marked

    anthropics/anthropic-cookbook

  • exemptable

    assignment · 2h 30m · tier 1 machine-verified

  • assignment · 45m · tier 1 machine-verified

  • retention · 15m · tier 1 machine-verified

M4 · Tool use and function calling

0/6 · 6h 45m

M5 · Context management

0/6 · 6h 15m

  • reading · 1h · tier 0 self-marked

    AI Engineering

  • reading · 45m · tier 0 self-marked

    Lost in the Middle: How Language Models Use Long Contexts

  • reading · 45m · tier 0 self-marked

    Context windows

  • assignment · 3h · tier 1 machine-verified

  • assignment · 30m · tier 2 panel-assessed

  • retention · 15m · tier 1 machine-verified

M6 · Failure modes

0/5 · 5h 45m

  • lecture · 1h · tier 0 self-marked

    UX for Language User Interfaces (LLM Bootcamp) — The Full Stack

  • reading · 1h · tier 0 self-marked

    Language Models are Few-Shot Learners

  • assignment · 2h · tier 2 panel-assessed

  • exemptable

    assignment · 1h 30m · tier 1 machine-verified

  • retention · 15m · tier 1 machine-verified

M7 · Course project

0/4 · 8h 45m

  • project · 3h · tier 3 artifact

  • project · 2h 45m · tier 2 panel-assessed

  • project · 2h · tier 3 artifact

  • defense · 1h · tier 4 defended