Revision: 2026-01-02
This repository provides every developer with a solid knowledge baseline—materials and guidance to help you improve your skills and grow as a developer.
The repository works as a workbook. It asks you the right questions about important topics and our tech stack because asking the right questions is more important than having all the answers. You learn by doing research and writing down your findings.
You can choose any topic to start with, switch between topics freely, and work at your own pace. There's no strict order—follow your curiosity or project needs.
We encourage you to use an AI agent to discuss the topics and find answers to the questions. However, we suggest you write down the answers yourself rather than copy-pasting AI-generated text or having the agent write the answers for you.
If you use VS Code with Copilot, the repository contains a custom Agent mode Learning Assistant with instructions to help you work through the workbook and maximize the learning experience.
If you are not using VS Code, check out Learning Assistant Agent as an inspiration to create a similar agent in your AI tool of choice or configure prompt in ChatGPT or other chat-based AI.
Since this should be solo work, fork this repository to your own GitLab personal space and work on it there. From time to time, try to pull the latest changes from the main repository to your fork. If you don't know how to do that, it should be the first thing you learn. It's best to add the original repository as an alternative Git remote and pull changes from there.
If you are not sure about anything or need help, feel free to reach out to your colleagues.
- Read the topics you should know as a developer in the Topics You Should Know as a Developer file.
- Pick a topic you want to start with and open the corresponding file in the workbook folder.
- Start your research and write down your findings and answers to the questions in the workbook file. Use the AI agent
Learning Assistantto help you discuss the topics and find answers, but write down the answers by yourself. - Once you finish, you can discuss your answers with your colleagues or mentor to get feedback and improve your understanding.
- Once done, mark the topic as completed in the Topics You Should Know as a Developer file.
TIP: Write your own learning plan into My-Plan.md based on the checklist in Topics You Should Know as a Developer. Identify which topics you want to focus on first, set goals for each topic, and outline your study schedule.
In the projects folder, you can find small projects that you can build to practice your skills. Each project contains a description of what to build and which topics it covers. You can use these projects to reinforce your learning and gain practical experience. Each project is designed to be doable over a weekend.
Vibe Coding is a way of software development where AI writes code you don't understand and you don't care about it as long as it works. While this approach can be useful for quick prototyping or automating simple tasks, it is not a sustainable way to build software in the long term as it leads to a lack of understanding of the codebase, technical debt, and potential security vulnerabilities.
AI-Assisted Development, on the other hand, is a way of software development where AI is used as a tool to assist developers in writing code, but the developers still understand the code they are writing and take responsibility for it. This approach allows developers to leverage the power of AI while still maintaining control over the codebase and ensuring its quality.
For this way of coding, it's critical to have a solid foundation in software development principles, programming languages, and tools. This workbook is designed to help you build that foundation.
You are always responsible for the software you create, no matter how you do it.
Happy learning and coding!
Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license.
Copyright 2026 Jiri Hybek
Hybek Software