Proposal: Create a Discord community for learners and link it from the website + repository

Proposal

It would be useful to have an official Discord community for people studying AI Engineering from Scratch, especially learners who are starting from the beginning and want to study alongside others.

The curriculum is already structured as a long, progression-based learning path, but learners can still run into questions such as:

• How should I approach the current lesson?
• What should I build for the Build It / Use It / Ship It sections?
• Is anyone else working through the same phase?
• How can I discuss an implementation or get unstuck?

A Discord server could provide a place for learners to connect while keeping GitHub Issues focused on bugs, documentation problems, and concrete improvement requests.

Suggested server structure

Possible channels/categories:

• #welcome
• #introductions
• #general
• #study-buddies
• #help
• #projects
• #showcase
• Phase-specific channels or threads
• #resources
• Voice/study rooms for co-working sessions

A simple role system could also identify learners by phase or interests such as ML, LLMs, agents, MCP, etc.

Integration

Once a server exists, add a visible Discord invite link in:

1. Website — main navigation, footer, or a dedicated community section.
2. GitHub repository — README, preferably near the "Start here" section or in a dedicated Community section.

The README could include a simple "Join the community" call-to-action with the Discord invite.

Why this could help

A community would make it easier for learners to:

• Study together from the beginning.
• Find others following the same phase.
• Discuss exercises and implementation approaches.
• Share projects and learning progress.
• Organize study sessions.
• Build connections around the curriculum.

This would complement GitHub Discussions and Issues rather than replace them. GitHub can remain the place for project-specific discussions, bugs, and contributions, while Discord can provide a more real-time learning and social environment.

If the maintainers are open to this, I’d be happy to help with the initial community structure and documentation/integration work.

Thanks for maintaining the curriculum!