Zero to Agent in 30 Minutes

O'Reilly
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Go from zero to a fully working AI agent in just half an hour, every single week. Join us for this weekly build series where you’ll learn to create real production-ready agents live. Each 30-minute sprint focuses on building a different working agent while introducing the latest AI tools, powerful techniques, pro tips, and clever tricks. We don’t just show you what agents can do. We show you how they think. You’ll learn the specific skills required to manage memory, integrate external tools, and orchestrate multi-agent swarms.

  1. 22h ago

    Build a Personal Assistant on OpenClaw

    Zero to Agent in 30 Minutes concludes with AI engineer Sajal Sharma showing how to build a personal assistant on OpenClaw. In this final episode, he demonstrates how to keep the assistant available throughout the day and reach it through messaging channels such as Telegram while it works with tasks, notes, and other personal context. Sajal also shows how the assistant’s workspace, guidance files, and memory affect its behavior and the information it can use. The demo includes web search, updates to a reading list, reminders, and a morning briefing that pulls from tasks, calendar information, and recent email. He also explains how recurring checks and webhooks can help the assistant respond to changes and start work without a new prompt.

  2. Oct 5

    Build Your First Agent with MCP

    Model Context Protocol (MCP) gives developers a standard way to connect the APIs and services they already maintain to AI clients. In this episode of Zero to Agent in 30 Minutes, AI developer and author Bruce Hopkins shows how to put that into practice. Using a stock-data API, Bruce builds an MCP server and shows how to expose existing functionality so an AI client can discover and use it. The result is a practical way to reuse application logic you already have instead of rebuilding the same capabilities for each AI integration.

  3. Sep 28

    Give Your Agent Its Own Computer

    In this episode of Zero to Agent in 30 Minutes, AI engineer Sajal Sharma shows how to give an AI agent its own computer using a remote sandbox. With E2B, he demonstrates how an agent can install packages, run code, work with files, and control a browser without running those tasks on your own computer. You’ll see two ways an agent can work with a remote computer. One uses shell commands and files, while the other operates a remote desktop through screenshots and mouse and keyboard actions. Sharma also explains how to connect the agent’s actions to the remote desktop, move files between local and remote environments, and keep agent credentials separate from your own when external services require authentication.

  4. Sep 21

    Build a Sports Concierge Agent with Chester Ismay

    Chester Ismay, a data science educator and AI consultant, builds a sports concierge agent that reads schedules for the teams he follows, applies his personal preferences, and sends one weekly recommendation to his phone. In this episode of Zero to Agent in 30 Minutes, Ismay shows how the agent works, from the preferences and policy files to scheduling and notification delivery. He also explains how he checks the results, handles timezone issues, and updates the policy when the output needs improvement. Follow the full walkthrough to see how the same pattern can be adapted to other recurring personal workflows.

  5. Sep 14

    Build a Shared Knowledge Base for All Your Agents with Sajal Sharma

    Every agent you run forgets what the others already know. In this episode of Zero to Agent in 30 Minutes, AI engineer Sajal Sharma keeps all of them working from the same personal knowledge base instead of starting over each session, giving tools like Claude Code, Codex, OpenClaw, and Hermes a shared set of files to read from and write to. You’ll learn how to map a workspace so any agent can navigate it, roll daily notes into weekly and monthly summaries, keep Claude Code reading from the same files as the rest, and sync that workspace across your own machines. See how it all comes together by watching the full episode.

  6. Sep 8

    Build a Supply Chain for Agent Context with Maxim Salnikov

    Your code probably has version control, audits, and a CI gate. Your customized AI agents should too. In this episode of Zero to Agent in 30 Minutes, Microsoft senior solution engineer Maxim Salnikov shows how to keep track of every skill, instruction, and customization you feed your AI agents using the open source Agent Package Manager. APM works like npm for agent context, letting you build an agent supply chain that’s secure and governed by your organization’s policies. You'll learn how to install and pin customizations to a version or hash, reproduce the exact same setup on a new machine, build a private registry of vetted skills, and audit for drift before enforcing it all with a CI gate. Watch now.

  7. Sep 2

    Build a Content Engine with Max Johnson

    Max Johnson, founder of AI agency Briix and an AI content creator, shows how to automate the work behind daily content creation with Claude Code. He builds a workflow that researches trending topics, scores them for relevance, generates hooks, and drafts scripts using context about his audience, brand, and writing style. In this episode of Zero to Agent in 30 Minutes, Johnson connects those stages into a single workflow and adds a local dashboard for reviewing results and starting new runs. He then extends the first version so all five researched topics get three hook and script options, producing 15 scripts per run. His advice for trying a similar build is straightforward: start with one repetitive task, get it working, and then extend it based on how you actually use it.

  8. Aug 31

    Building a Financial News Agent with Jayeeta Putatunda

    In this session of Zero to Agent in 30 Minutes, Jayeeta Putatunda, forward-deployed AI engineering lead at Turing, builds a four-agent workflow that turns a daily flood of financial news into a focused analyst briefing, helping analysts find what actually deserves their attention without manually sifting through every headline. A coverage planner breaks the research question into sections, a news researcher agent searches multiple sources in parallel, and a validation agent checks each link's date and status, removes duplicate stories, and filters out paywalled content. A briefing writer agent then assembles the results into an executive summary, key takeaways, and a section-by-section breakdown of what each development means. Watch as Jayeeta runs the full workflow live using open source models, so viewers can reproduce it without an API key, then walks through the resulting briefing, covering major index moves and the Federal Reserve's Jackson Hole meeting. She also shows a feedback agent that saves formatting and terminology preferences to memory, so later briefings apply them automatically.

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Go from zero to a fully working AI agent in just half an hour, every single week. Join us for this weekly build series where you’ll learn to create real production-ready agents live. Each 30-minute sprint focuses on building a different working agent while introducing the latest AI tools, powerful techniques, pro tips, and clever tricks. We don’t just show you what agents can do. We show you how they think. You’ll learn the specific skills required to manage memory, integrate external tools, and orchestrate multi-agent swarms.

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