generative-ai-for-beginners README

The project's README from github.com/microsoft/generative-ai-for-beginners. As one markdown file: README.md.

Generative AI For Beginners

21 Lessons teaching everything you need to know to start building Generative AI applications

GitHub license GitHub contributors GitHub issues GitHub pull-requests PRs Welcome

GitHub watchers GitHub forks GitHub stars

Microsoft Foundry Discord

🌐 Multi-Language Support

Supported via GitHub Action (Automated & Always Up-to-Date)

Arabic | Bengali | Bulgarian | Burmese (Myanmar) | Chinese (Simplified) | Chinese (Traditional, Hong Kong) | Chinese (Traditional, Macau) | Chinese (Traditional, Taiwan) | Croatian | Czech | Danish | Dutch | Estonian | Finnish | French | German | Greek | Hebrew | Hindi | Hungarian | Indonesian | Italian | Japanese | Kannada | Khmer | Korean | Lithuanian | Malay | Malayalam | Marathi | Nepali | Nigerian Pidgin | Norwegian | Persian (Farsi) | Polish | Portuguese (Brazil) | Portuguese (Portugal) | Punjabi (Gurmukhi) | Romanian | Russian | Serbian (Cyrillic) | Slovak | Slovenian | Spanish | Swahili | Swedish | Tagalog (Filipino) | Tamil | Telugu | Thai | Turkish | Ukrainian | Urdu | Vietnamese

Prefer to Clone Locally?

This repository includes 50+ language translations which significantly increases the download size. To clone without translations, use sparse checkout:

Bash / macOS / Linux:

git clone --filter=blob:none --sparse https://github.com/microsoft/generative-ai-for-beginners.git
cd generative-ai-for-beginners
git sparse-checkout set --no-cone '/*' '!translations' '!translated_images'

CMD (Windows):

git clone --filter=blob:none --sparse https://github.com/microsoft/generative-ai-for-beginners.git
cd generative-ai-for-beginners
git sparse-checkout set --no-cone "/*" "!translations" "!translated_images"

This gives you everything you need to complete the course with a much faster download.

Generative AI for Beginners (Version 3) - A Course

Learn the fundamentals of building Generative AI applications with our 21-lesson comprehensive course by Microsoft Cloud Advocates.

🌱 Getting Started

This course has 21 lessons. Each lesson covers its own topic so start wherever you like!

Lessons are labeled either "Learn" lessons explaining a Generative AI concept or "Build" lessons that explain a concept and code examples in both Python and TypeScript when possible.

For .NET Developers checkout Generative AI for Beginners (.NET Edition)!

Each lesson also includes a "Keep Learning" section with additional learning tools.

What You Need

To run the code of this course, you can use either:

We have created a Course Setup lesson to help you with setting up your development environment.

Don't forget to star (🌟) this repo to find it easier later.

🧠 Ready to Deploy?

If you are looking for more advanced code samples, check out our collection of Generative AI Code Samples in both Python and TypeScript.

🗣️ Meet Other Learners, Get Support

Join our official Microsoft Foundry Discord server to meet and network with other learners taking this course and get support.

Ask questions or share product feedback in our Microsoft Foundry Developer Forum on Github.

🚀 Building a Startup?

Visit Microsoft for Startups to find out how to get started building with Azure credits today.

🙏 Want to help?

Do you have suggestions or found spelling or code errors? Raise an issue or Create a pull request

📂 Each lesson includes:

🗃️ Lessons

# Lesson Link Description Video Extra Learning
00 Course Setup Learn: How to Setup Your Development Environment Video Coming Soon Learn More
01 Introduction to Generative AI and LLMs Learn: Understanding what Generative AI is and how Large Language Models (LLMs) work. Video Learn More
02 Exploring and comparing different LLMs Learn: How to select the right model for your use case Video Learn More
03 Using Generative AI Responsibly Learn: How to build Generative AI Applications responsibly Video Learn More
04 Understanding Prompt Engineering Fundamentals Learn: Hands-on Prompt Engineering Best Practices Video Learn More
05 Creating Advanced Prompts Learn: How to apply prompt engineering techniques that improve the outcome of your prompts. Video Learn More
06 Building Text Generation Applications Build: A text generation app using Azure OpenAI / OpenAI API Video Learn More
07 Building Chat Applications Build: Techniques for efficiently building and integrating chat applications. Video Learn More
08 Building Search Apps Vector Databases Build: A search application that uses Embeddings to search for data. Video Learn More
09 Building Image Generation Applications Build: An image generation application Video Learn More
10 Building Low Code AI Applications Build: A Generative AI application using Low Code tools Video Learn More
11 Integrating External Applications with Function Calling Build: What is function calling and its use cases for applications Video Learn More
12 Designing UX for AI Applications Learn: How to apply UX design principles when developing Generative AI Applications Video Learn More
13 Securing Your Generative AI Applications Learn: The threats and risks to AI systems and methods to secure these systems. Video Learn More
14 The Generative AI Application Lifecycle Learn: The tools and metrics to manage the LLM Lifecycle and LLMOps Video Learn More
15 Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) and Vector Databases Build: An application using a RAG Framework to retrieve embeddings from a Vector Databases Video Learn More
16 Open Source Models and Hugging Face Build: An application using open source models available on Hugging Face Video Learn More
17 AI Agents Build: An application using an AI Agent Framework Video Learn More
18 Fine-Tuning LLMs Learn: The what, why and how of fine-tuning LLMs Video Learn More
19 Building with SLMs Learn: The benefits of building with Small Language Models Video Coming Soon Learn More
20 Building with Mistral Models Learn: The features and differences of the Mistral Family Models Video Coming Soon Learn More
21 Building with Meta Models Learn: The features and differences of the Meta Family Models Video Coming Soon Learn More

🌟 Special thanks

Special thanks to John Aziz for creating all of the GitHub Actions and workflows

Bernhard Merkle for making key contributions to each lesson to improve the learner and code experience.

🎒 Other Courses

Our team produces other courses! Check out:

LangChain

LangChain4j for Beginners LangChain.js for Beginners LangChain for Beginners

Azure / Edge / MCP / Agents

[AZD for Beginners](https://github.com/microsoft/AZD-for-beginners?WT.mc_id=academic-105485-kor

generative-ai-for-beginners (microsoft/generative-ai-for-beginners)

Searching Database…

What is this?A 21-lesson course by Microsoft Cloud Advocates that teaches the fundamentals of building Generative AI applications, covering concepts like prompt engineering, chat apps, RAG, fine-tuning, and AI agents.
Is this a coding framework or a learning course?It's a structured learning course, not a framework. Lessons are split into 'Learn' lessons explaining a concept and 'Build' lessons that pair explanations with runnable code samples in Python and TypeScript.
How do I get started with the course?Start with lesson 00, the Course Setup lesson, which walks you through setting up your development environment, then work through lessons in any order since each covers its own topic.
What do I need to run the code samples?You need access to one of: Azure OpenAI Service, Microsoft Foundry Models, the OpenAI API, or Foundry Local for fully offline use, plus basic knowledge of Python or TypeScript and a GitHub account to fork the repo.
Is GitHub Models still a usable option for the lessons?No, GitHub Models is being retired at the end of July 2026, so the course recommends using Microsoft Foundry Models instead for those lessons.
Is this for absolute beginners or do I need prior AI experience?It's aimed at beginners to Generative AI; basic Python or TypeScript knowledge helps, and the README links to separate beginner courses for those languages if you need them first.
Does running the lessons always require sending data to the cloud?No, you can use Foundry Local to run models fully offline on your own device without any cloud subscription.
What topics does the course cover beyond basic prompting?It goes from fundamentals (LLMs, prompt engineering) through building text, chat, search, and image generation apps, to advanced topics like function calling, RAG with vector databases, AI agents, fine-tuning, and small language models like Mistral and Meta models.
Can I clone the repo without downloading all the translations?Yes, since the repo includes 50+ language translations that add a lot of download size, you can use a sparse checkout to clone only the English content and skip translations.
Are there video lessons included?Most of the 21 lessons include a short video introduction alongside the written lesson, though a few (like lessons 19-21) have videos marked as coming soon.
Is there a version of this course for .NET developers?Yes, Microsoft maintains a separate 'Generative AI for Beginners (.NET Edition)' course for .NET developers.
Creator
microsoft
Size
6.3 GB
Stars
121.5K
Updated
CommitOct 16
Age
3y
Commits · 90 Days