AI Tools: practical coding-agent learning paths
Learn OpenAI Codex, Claude Code and Cursor through ordered beginner and professional software engineering tutorials.
- Author
- absequ
- Published
- Updated
- Category
- AI Tools
- AI Tools
- coding agents
- learning paths
Learn how to use AI coding tools as engineering collaborators: explore a repository, implement a bounded change, verify behavior and review the diff before publishing. Choose a tool below, then follow its core and professional learning paths. Each path contains six ordered tutorial chapters; all 36 chapters are written, not placeholders.
These paths assume basic programming, not prior product experience. The shared notes exercise makes tool differences easier to compare without pretending that account access, permissions, integrations or automation features are identical.
On this page
OpenAI Codex
Start with a terminal-based inspect–edit–verify loop, then progress to AGENTS.md, permissions, extensions and bounded automation.
Claude / Claude Code
Distinguish conversational Claude from Claude Code; learn terminal tasks before CLAUDE.md, skills, subagents, hooks, MCP and team use.
Cursor
Start in the editor with Agent and selected-code context, then learn project rules, search, reviewed terminal actions and isolated parallel/cloud work.
How to study and compare the tools
- Follow a core path in order, using its chapter links and the existing article contents. Complete the small notes lab before attempting professional exercises.
- Keep a learning log of expected behavior, actual command output and the diff you reviewed. A confident answer is not the same as executed evidence.
- Transfer the workflow to a familiar React, Next.js, Node or other-language repository only after reading that project instructions and preserving existing changes.
- Use current official references for access, pricing and version-sensitive controls. Do not paste secrets or enable broad permissions just to finish an exercise.
The first project uses Node built-in tests and Git to avoid package installation during the exercise. Install the AI tool only through its official platform instructions. Team privacy, remote resources and usage budgets require organizational approval; no tutorial grants that permission.
References
Codex CLI — OpenAI
Claude Code overview — Anthropic
Cursor quickstart — Cursor