🦞 Build Your First AI Agent - Complete Guide

Beginner 2 hours Cost: $0-10

Objective: Build a production-ready AI agent from scratch using the OpenClaw architecture. You'll learn agent design patterns, multi-step orchestration, cost optimization, and deployment strategies.

Overview

This guide walks through building an AI agent that can process user requests, orchestrate multiple tools, track costs, and optimize API usage. We'll use Python and integrate with popular AI APIs like Claude and DeepSeek.

Prerequisites

• Python 3.11+ installed
• Git for version control
• API keys (free tier options): Claude, DeepSeek, or OpenRouter

Architecture Overview

┌─────────────────────────────────────────┐
│          User Request                   │
└─────────────┬───────────────────────────┘
              │
              ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────┐
│      Agent Orchestrator (Central)       │
│  - Task decomposition                   │
│  - State management                     │
│  - Error handling                       │
└─────────────┬───────────────────────────┘
              │
        ┌─────┴─────┬─────────────┐
        ▼           ▼             ▼
┌───────────┐ ┌───────────┐ ┌───────────┐
│  Tool 1   │ │  Tool 2   │ │  Tool N   │
│ (API)     │ │ (API)     │ │ (API)     │
└───────────┘ └───────────┘ └───────────┘

Step 1: Project Setup

# Create project directory
mkdir my-ai-agent
cd my-ai-agent

# Initialize Git repository
git init

# Create virtual environment
python -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate  # On Windows: venv\Scripts\activate

# Install dependencies
pip install requests aiohttp pydantic

Step 2-8: Implementation

Learn to build each component:

• Step 2: Create Basic Agent Structure
• Step 3: Add API Integration (Claude, DeepSeek, OpenRouter)
• Step 4: Add Tool Integration (search, calculator, code, file ops)
• Step 5: Create Orchestrator for task management
• Step 6: Cost Optimization (80%+ savings possible)
• Step 7: Add Monitoring & Logging
• Step 8: Testing & Validation

What You'll Learn

• ✅ Agent design patterns and architecture
• ✅ API integration with cost tracking
• ✅ Task orchestration and state management
• ✅ Cost optimization strategies
• ✅ Production monitoring and logging
• ✅ Testing and validation techniques

Estimated Investment