--- title: I Wrote My First Book: AI Models Handbook for Developers... description: A developer announces a self-published 595-page, 15-chapter handbook covering how to choose among AI models — foundation models, coding models,... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/i-wrote-my-first-book-ai-models-handbook-for-developers-2026--3zayototd twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: I Wrote My First Book: AI Models Handbook for Developers (2026) | daily.dev og:description: A developer announces a self-published 595-page, 15-chapter handbook covering how to choose among AI models — foundation models, coding models,... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/i-wrote-my-first-book-ai-models-handbook-for-developers-2026--3zayototd og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/3ZaYoTotD.png og:image:alt: I Wrote My First Book: AI Models Handbook for Developers (2026) og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # I Wrote My First Book: AI Models Handbook for Developers (2026) **[Vijay Deepak](https://daily.dev/sources/9wh1sparmtebvcgg5ww6b)** · [@vijay_deepak](https://daily.dev/vijay_deepak) · 2 min read · 1 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A developer announces a self-published 595-page, 15-chapter handbook covering how to choose among AI models — foundation models, coding models, image/video/audio generation, fine-tuning, RAG, self-hosted models, and agents — built around a practical model-selection framework rather than ranking models as 'best'. The digital edition is free for newsletter subscribers, with a paperback also sold on Amazon. ## Content The AI model landscape is moving incredibly fast. New models, new versions, new capabilities, and new use cases appear constantly. For developers, one question keeps getting harder to answer: **_Which AI model should I actually use?_** After spending months exploring and writing about AI models, I decided to bring everything together into one practical resource: ## **📘 AI Models Handbook for Developers — 2026 Edition** **595 pages. 15 chapters. One goal: help developers understand, compare, and choose AI models.** This isn’t meant to be another list of model names. The handbook focuses on **how to think about AI models** and how different models fit different development problems. The final chapters build toward a practical model-selection framework rather than simply declaring one model the “best.” ## **What’s Inside?** The handbook covers: - **Foundation models**: Flagship, Workhorse and Lightweight models - **Coding models** and AI-assisted software development - **Image generation models** - **Video generation models** - **Music, voice and audio models** - **Fine-tuning and customization** - **RAG and enterprise AI** - **Local and self-hosted models** - **AI agents and tool use** - **Multimodal and emerging models** - **Practical model-selection frameworks** - **Decision matrices and developer cheat sheets** The handbook ultimately comes down to one idea: **_Don’t choose the model first. Choose the problem first._** For example, a simple high-volume task may need a lightweight model, while a complex architecture problem may justify a flagship model. The right choice depends on the workload, cost, latency, capabilities, deployment and consequences of failure. ## **🎁 Get the Digital Edition Free** I decided to make the **digital edition completely free **for my subscribers. 👉 [**Subscribe & Get the Free Handbook**](https://vijayasekhar-deepak.beehiiv.com/subscribe) You’ll also get future AI model updates, developer-focused AI content, interesting tools, and new editions of the handbook. ## **📕 Prefer a Physical Copy?** The paperback edition is also available on Amazon KDP. 👉 [**Get the Paperback on Amazon**](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HG1H4RRV) This is my first major handbook as an author, and I’m excited to finally share it with the developer community. **Thank you for reading, supporting, and being part of the journey.** — **Vijayasekhar Deepak** ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [How to Build Optimal AI Agents That Actually Work – A Handbook for Devs](https://daily.dev/posts/how-to-build-optimal-ai-agents-that-actually-work-a-handbook-for-devs-8yfv3pjxv) · freeCodeCamp · 4 upvotes · 0 comments - [I Almost Did Not Publish This Book](https://daily.dev/posts/i-almost-did-not-publish-this-book-ud0ypolsd) · SQL Authority · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [New online book AI Assistants for Scientific Coding](https://daily.dev/posts/new-online-book-ai-assistants-for-scientific-coding-y0xcivjnx) · R-bloggers · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [I’ve Read 20\+ Books on AI and LLM — Here Are My Top 5 Recommendations for 2026](https://daily.dev/posts/i-ve-read-20-books-on-ai-and-llm-here-are-my-top-5-recommendations-for-2026-tcrpr0dwe) · Javarevisited · 37 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#ai](https://daily.dev/tags/ai), [#ai-agents](https://daily.dev/tags/ai-agents), [#rag](https://daily.dev/tags/rag) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/i-wrote-my-first-book-ai-models-handbook-for-developers-2026--3zayototd) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"DiscussionForumPosting","mainEntityOfPage":"https://daily.dev/posts/i-wrote-my-first-book-ai-models-handbook-for-developers-2026--3zayototd","headline":"I Wrote My First Book: AI Models Handbook for Developers (2026)","text":"A developer announces a self-published 595-page, 15-chapter handbook covering how to choose among AI models — foundation models, coding models, image/video/audio generation, fine-tuning, RAG, self-hosted models, and agents — built around a practical model-selection framework rather than ranking models as 'best'. 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