AI Builders Week 3 — Tool Calling, Custom Skills & MCP

​This is where your model stops being a text box and starts doing things. We'll write a raw tool-calling loop by hand, schemas, payload parsing, and all, before touching a framework, because you should understand the mechanics before a library hides them from you. Then MCP: exposing and consuming tools through servers like Railway and GitHub, and packaging repeatable prompts as Skills. Then RAG: chunking, embeddings, and vector search that actually grounds your model's answers.

​You'll either build a manual tool-calling loop from scratch or wire up a custom MCP server or local RAG search, depending on where you're at.

​Some coding experience needed. This is about applied engineering, not starting from scratch.

​Part of the AI Architect Fellowship, a free program from 3percentclub for underrepresented builders in NYC.

​Joining virtually? Live stream: https://us06web.zoom.us/s/84280401788

​Applying to the fellowship gets you:

• ​Access to our Google Classroom for labs and coursework

• ​Mentorship from working AI practitioners

• ​Resume workshops

• ​Our Discord community

• ​A shot at the October hackathon and Demo Night

​Sign up: https://forms.fillout.com/t/p52mmdNs8jus