Build Your Own AI Coding Agent
We build a coding agent from scratch: tool calls, an agentic loop, a skills system that loads reusable instruction files on demand, and a final version running on PydanticAI. The agent can read and write files, run shell commands, search the codebase, and load specialized skills - all inside a structured Django project template. This workshop was originally delivered at MLCon 2026 Amsterdam. There is no video recording available. The agent you will build The architecture of the final agent: flowchart LR USER["User"] RUNNER["Runner<br/>ToyAIKit / OpenAI Responses"] LLM["LLM<br/>gpt-5.4-mini"] TOOLS["Tools<br/>read_file, write_file<br/>see_file_tree<br/>execute_bash_command<br/>search_in_files"] SKILL["SkillTool"] LOADER["SkillLoader"] SKILLS["SKILL.md files"] USER -->|prompt| RUNNER RUNNER -->|model call| LLM LLM -->|tool call or response| RUNNER RUNNER -->|execute tool| TOOLS RUNNER -->|load skill| SKILL SKILL --> LOADER LOADER -->|read| SKILLS RUNNER -->|answer| USER The agent runs inside a Django project template. It has five core tools for interacting with the filesystem and shell, plus a skills tool that loads extra instructions from SKILL.md files when the agent decides they are relevant. The workshop progresses through four parts: understanding tool calls, building the coding agent, adding skills, and porting to PydanticAI. Links Related workshops and resources: Previous coding-agent workshop - the v1 version without skills agent-skills workshop - the standalone skills workshop