Edition: nineteen-chapter construction · Updated: 2026-09-09
Build Your Always-On AI Agent From Scratch follows one Python agent from its first model call to an unattended day in Lucy's ice cream shop. Read the chapters in order. Each introduces a problem, constructs a mechanism, reproduces a failure and explains the repair.
Start with the preface and setup and reader conventions, then Chapter 1. This directory contains the manuscript and its accompanying code. The Exercise Book holds learner assignments, the Solutions Book holds worked answers, and the Educator Guide holds classroom material. Chapter numbers and topics match across all four assets.
What is available
There is one nineteen-chapter sequence. Sixteen chapters contain substantial DRAFT manuscripts and executable reference checkpoints. Chapters 4, 7 and 13 contain PLANNED construction briefs: their goals, interfaces, two ninety-minute practical plans and acceptance cases are documented, but their complete lessons, notebooks and new learner implementation are not yet delivered. A planned chapter is not an executable lesson. The construction roadmap records the remaining work and the integration commitments.
You can read the drafted chapters and run their supplied reference checkpoints now. Building the entire nineteen-chapter system solely from your own preceding chapter code remains a release requirement. The code ownership guide names the supplied components so a working demonstration cannot be mistaken for a completed from-scratch construction.
Contents
The four parts are: 1–4, First useful construction; 5–9, Continuity and initiative; 10–14, Permission and external boundaries; and 15–19, Evaluate and operate.
Working beside the manuscript
Use runnable checkpoints to reproduce the recorded mechanisms. Save chapter-built tools and the loop under learner/; the included completed files provide a comparison. The optional field appendices explain Telegram identity setup, Linux maintenance, ZeoCore interoperability, reproducibility, and dated architectural comparisons.
The book uses a frozen Python environment from the repository root. Offline checkpoints need no model credentials, Telegram account, real purchasing account or private organizational service. Optional live exercises identify their extra facilities and keep their evidence separate. Return to the four teaching assets.
Find and share a file
Every teaching file starts with profrod-sovereign-agent, followed by its chapter, topic and role. Search for ch02 to find Chapter 2 or pydantic to find its typed-tool material. For example: profrod-sovereign-agent-ch02-a-pydantic-shop-tools-exercise.ipynb. The exercise, solution, educator-exercise and educator-solution endings distinguish files even when copied into one folder. Keep the original filename and source links when sharing. The matching Markdown uses the same filename with .md.
Keep building with Prof Rod
Found this material through a colleague, classroom or shared download? Get the complete book at profrod.ai/book and join the Prof Rod learner community. Bring one result, one question or one failure you learned from. Share this resource with another learner and keep its source links with it so they can find the full course and future updates.
