Ten weeks · project-based

Modern Software Engineer

Study Guide 2026

Updated September 4, 2026 · 198 checked links

Start Week 1All weeksမြန်မာ
Your progress0/10 weeks · 0/40 criteria

A ten-week, project-based guide to building software with coding agents: how agents work inside, context engineering and MCP, reusable skills, repository readiness, AI code review, security, background agents, team adoption, and the software factory. Each week pairs a capped set of core material with a build and a checkable “done when” list, so you finish with a working system rather than a reading log.

Credit. The ten-week structure and the weekly topics follow the Fall 2026 syllabus of Stanford's CS146S, The Modern Software Developer (themodernsoftware.dev). This guide is independent and not affiliated with the course; every reading, video, build, and checklist is its own selection. All links were checked on September 4, 2026, and every video carries its running time so you can budget honestly.

The ten weeks at a glance

  1. 1The Internals of Coding AgentsA 300–500 line terminal agent with four tools and full logging
  2. 2Advanced Context EngineeringA one-page spec, one feature shipped through RePPIT, and an MCP server with 2–4 tools
  3. 3Agent Skills and CLIA packaged skill with a helper script, plus a browser-driven web skill
  4. 4Customizing Your Agent and RepositoryRepository instructions, two hooks, and a planner / implementer / reviewer split
  5. 5Agent-Ready CodebasesA scored readiness audit and the fixes that make a fresh agent productive
  6. 6Agentic Code ReviewA severity-ordered review rubric wired to pull requests, measured on five PRs
  7. 7SecurityA threat model, SAST / SCA / secret scans in CI, and a prompt-injection test
  8. 8Background AgentsAn issue-to-PR flow with isolation, budgets, checkpoints, and retries
  9. 9Building an AI-Native TeamA model gateway, an MCP portal, and a one-page adoption policy
  10. 10The Software Factory + The FutureA traced end-to-end factory with an eval set and a controlled improvement loop

How to use this guide

Plan on 10–12 hours per week. Split it like this:

  • 3–4 hours: the Core material for the week. Each week's core list is capped near four hours; the running times are printed next to each item.
  • 5–6 hours: the weekly Build.
  • 1–2 hours: document results, failures, costs, and lessons, then tick the week's Done when list.

Everything under Deeper material, Additional video track, and Tools and references is optional. Pick by interest; do not try to clear it.

Use one medium-sized repository throughout the ten weeks. A small SaaS app, developer tool, or API with a UI, tests, and CI works better than ten disconnected toy projects. Each week should improve the same system.

The strongest free backbone is Hugging Face's Context Course (units: Agent Skills, MCP, Plugins, Sub-agents, Hooks, and a bonus Nano Harness). It overlaps unusually well with the first half of this guide. Use the materials below to deepen and extend it.

The guide is language-agnostic; most examples use Python or JavaScript. You need solid programming experience (two or three university-level courses or the equivalent). A machine-learning background helps but is not required; if transformers are new to you, the Week 1 optional foundation covers the gap.

Tooling and budget

Some tools need a subscription or an API key. Decide this before Week 1:

  • Link
    Claude Code
    Pick one primary coding agent and stay with it for at least five weeks so the customization work in Weeks 3–4 compounds. Reasonable choices

    (subscription or API key), OpenAI Codex CLI (open source, subscription or API key), Cursor, Gemini CLI (open source, has a free tier), or opencode (open source, bring your own key).

  • Set a hard monthly spend cap before you start and log spend per week alongside your build notes. Cost is a first-class metric in this guide, not an afterthought.
  • Link
    prompt caching
    **Learn

    ** and use a cheaper model for subagents and review passes. Most runaway bills come from long contexts re-sent on every turn.

  • Free path. the Hugging Face courses, the open-source agents above with their free tiers, and every article in this guide cost nothing. Only the API usage for your builds costs money.