--- title: The Agentic AI Hub — The AI Handbook for Software Engineers | daily.dev description: A software engineer's complete reference to AI, from foundations to agents. 11 guided reading paths and 45 reference pages covering foundations, models, tools, the engineering stack, agentic workflows, and the AI ecosystem. Free under CC BY 4.0. canonical: https://daily.dev/agentic-ai-hub/ og:type: website og:url: https://daily.dev/agentic-ai-hub/ og:title: The Agentic AI Hub — The AI Handbook for Software Engineers | daily.dev og:description: A software engineer's complete reference to AI, from foundations to agents. 11 guided reading paths and 45 reference pages covering foundations, models, tools, the engineering stack, agentic workflows, and the AI ecosystem. Free under CC BY 4.0. og:image: https://daily.dev/assets/og/agentic-ai-hub.png?v=40e6ff69 og:site_name: daily.dev og:locale: en_US twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev twitter:creator: @dailydotdev twitter:title: The Agentic AI Hub — The AI Handbook for Software Engineers | daily.dev twitter:description: A software engineer's complete reference to AI, from foundations to agents. 11 guided reading paths and 45 reference pages covering foundations, models, tools, the engineering stack, agentic workflows, and the AI ecosystem. Free under CC BY 4.0. twitter:image: https://daily.dev/assets/og/agentic-ai-hub.png?v=40e6ff69 --- [Skip to main content ](#main-content) # The Agentic AI Hub A software engineer's complete reference to AI, from foundations to agents. [Find your path → ](#paths-start-here) [Start reading ](/agentic-ai-hub/how-llms-actually-work/)  Four questions to start with, foundation first. Already past the basics? Skip ahead. [ I'm new to all this. Where do I start? → ](/agentic-ai-hub/paths/where-do-i-start/)[ Which model should I actually use? → ](/agentic-ai-hub/paths/which-model/)[ How do I build my own agent? → ](/agentic-ai-hub/paths/build-your-own-agent/)[ How do I keep up without drowning? → ](/agentic-ai-hub/paths/keep-up/) Every developer is somewhere on this ladder, from AI as fancy autocomplete (L0) to software that builds itself (L5). Each level up changes what your job is day to day. Find the one that sounds like your workweek, then climb one rung. Every rung links the chapters that unlock it. The framework comes from Dan Shapiro. The full version, along with a per-task autonomy dial, is in [Levels of AI Adoption](/agentic-ai-hub/levels-of-ai-adoption/). 1. L0 ### L0: Manual The ground floor: AI as a search engine and occasional tab-complete. No real productivity change. Everyone starts here. There's nothing to unlock yet. 2. L1 ### L1: Discrete task offloading You hand the AI small, self-contained jobs: write the unit tests, draft the docstring, generate one well-scoped function. The real work is still yours. Chat assistants · Prompting 101 · IDE assistants [Explore path → ](/agentic-ai-hub/paths/l1/) 3. L2 ### L2: Active pairing The AI writes alongside you all day, handling the boring parts while you steer and review everything as it lands. Shapiro estimates about 90% of AI-native developers live here. CLI agents · AGENTS.md & CLAUDE.md · What an agent actually is [Explore path → ](/agentic-ai-hub/paths/l2/) 4. L3 ### L3: Human-in-the-loop management You mostly stop typing code. Agents run several tasks at once and your day becomes reviewing their work. Most people never go past this level. Own the outer loop · Agentic code review · Role separation · MCP & tools [Explore path → ](/agentic-ai-hub/paths/l3/) 5. L4 ### L4: Specification-driven You define what to build instead of building it: write the spec, set the tests, judge the results. Leave for twelve hours and come back to a green suite. The harness as an artifact · Evals-as-tests · LLMOps & guardrails [Explore path → ](/agentic-ai-hub/paths/l4/) 6. L5 ### L5: The dark factory Agents building the software with humans out of the loop. Shapiro reports it working only for teams under five people, and calls it likely our future. Swarms & fleets · The factory model · Human factors [Explore path → ](/agentic-ai-hub/paths/l5/) You have something to build. Each path puts the chapters in the order that takes you from first idea to shipped. [ How do I build my own agent? → ](/agentic-ai-hub/paths/build-your-own-agent/)[ Can I trust what agents produce? → ](/agentic-ai-hub/paths/trust-agent-output/)[ How do I ground AI in my company's data? → ](/agentic-ai-hub/paths/ground-in-your-data/)[ How do I ship an AI feature to production? → ](/agentic-ai-hub/paths/ship-to-production/)[ Can I run models myself? → ](/agentic-ai-hub/paths/run-models-yourself/)[ What's out there beyond text? → ](/agentic-ai-hub/paths/beyond-text/) Part of this handbook will be stale by the time you finish it. These paths set up a small routine that keeps you current anyway. [ How do I keep up without drowning? → ](/agentic-ai-hub/paths/keep-up/)[ Where do I go deeper? → ](/agentic-ai-hub/paths/go-deeper/)[ What does this do to my career? → ](/agentic-ai-hub/paths/agent-era-career/) Everything in the handbook, in book order. The paths above are the shortcuts; this is the whole territory. [ 1 Foundations 4 › ](/agentic-ai-hub/how-llms-actually-work/)[ 2 Models, Labs & Benchmarks 7 › ](/agentic-ai-hub/the-labs-whos-who/)[ 3 Tools, Products & Agents 8 › ](/agentic-ai-hub/chat-assistants-apps/)[ 4 Building with AI: The Engineering Stack 9 › ](/agentic-ai-hub/rag-retrieval/)[ 5 Working with AI: Techniques, Workflows & Adoption 6 › ](/agentic-ai-hub/levels-of-ai-adoption/)[ 6 Ecosystem & Staying Current 9 › ](/agentic-ai-hub/people-to-follow/)[ 7 Appendices 2 › ](/agentic-ai-hub/ai-adoption-stats-trends/) "The Agentic AI Hub" is published by daily.dev under the [ CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) license. Too busy to read? 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