{"slug": "show-hn-free-mentor-for-learning-programming-languages-fast-and-efficient", "title": "Show HN: Free mentor for learning programming languages, fast and efficient", "summary": "A free GitHub repository called AI-Tools-For-Learning provides course plans for programming languages like Python and Java that are taught entirely by an AI assistant. The repository contains no static lessons; instead, each course is a plan that instructs an AI to generate explanations, examples, exercises, and projects in real time, adapting to the learner's pace. Users need an AI coding assistant that can read and write files locally, such as Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Gemini CLI, or Zed, and must open the course folder in that assistant to begin.", "body_md": "Courses that your AI assistant teaches you.\n\nThis repository contains **no lessons**. Each course is a plan that tells an AI what to teach, in\nwhat order, and how — the explanations, examples, exercises, and projects are generated for you as\nyou go. Nothing here can go out of date, and the pace adapts to you.\n\nYou never open these files. You just talk to your assistant.\n\n| Folder | Course |\n|---|---|\n`python/` |\n\n`java/`\n\nMore will be added over time.\n\n**1. Get an AI assistant that can read and write files.**\n\nThis matters: a plain chat window can't save your progress, so it will forget everything between\nsessions. You need a coding assistant that works inside a folder on your computer — for example\n[Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code), [Codex](https://openai.com/codex),\n[Cursor](https://cursor.com), [Gemini CLI](https://github.com/google-gemini/gemini-cli), or\n[Zed](https://zed.dev). Any of them works. Install one and follow its own setup instructions first.\n\n**2. Get these files onto your computer.**\n\nIf you don't use Git: click the green **Code** button at the top of this page, choose **Download\nZIP**, and unzip it somewhere you'll remember. Otherwise:\n\n```\ngit clone https://github.com/KubiKDB/AI-Tools-For-Learning.git\n```\n\n**3. Open the course folder in your assistant.**\n\nOpen the folder of the course you picked — one of the folders in the table above — *inside* what\nyou downloaded, not the folder above it. The examples below use `python`\n\n; substitute whichever\ncourse you're taking.\n\n*If your assistant runs in a terminal* (Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI) — open the Terminal app\n(macOS: press Cmd+Space and type \"Terminal\"; Windows: open the Start menu and type \"Terminal\"),\nthen type `cd`\n\nfollowed by a space, drag the course folder from Finder or File Explorer onto the\nterminal window — that pastes the path for you — and press Enter. Then type the command that starts\nyour assistant. The whole thing looks like this:\n\n```\ncd /Users/yourname/Downloads/study-plans-main/python\nclaude\n```\n\n*If your assistant is a code editor* (Cursor, Zed, VS Code) — choose **File → Open Folder**, select\nthe course folder, and open the assistant's chat panel.\n\nEither way, the test is the same: your assistant should be looking at a folder that contains\n`PLAN.md`\n\nand `AGENTS.md`\n\n. If it isn't, it won't know what to teach.\n\n**4. Tell it to start.** Copy this message in, exactly:\n\nRead AGENTS.md and follow it. Start the course.\n\nNaming the file matters. Some assistants pick up instruction files on their own and some don't, so if you just say \"hi\" you'll get an ordinary chatbot instead of a teacher. Pointing at the file works everywhere.\n\nThe first time, your assistant will probably ask permission to read and write files in that folder. Allow it — it can't teach the course or save your progress otherwise.\n\nThat's the entire setup. It reads the plan, creates what it needs, and begins.\n\n**Every session after that**, open the same folder the same way and say:\n\nRead AGENTS.md and continue the course.\n\nIt picks up exactly where you stopped and tells you what you're doing today. You never need to remember which module you were on.\n\nThe assistant handles the teaching, the tracking, and deciding what comes next. Three things are on you:\n\n**Write the code yourself.** Your assistant is instructed not to solve exercises for you, and to give hints instead of answers. That's deliberate. Push past the stuck feeling — that's the part where the learning happens.**Answer its questions honestly.** It adapts to what you actually understand. Bluffing gets you a course that's too hard.**Keep the folder.** Your progress lives in it.\n\nEverything you've done is stored in the course folder — your code, and a `PROGRESS.md`\n\nfile the\nassistant maintains. Back it up like anything else you care about: copy it to cloud storage, or if\nyou know Git, commit and push to your own private fork.\n\nYou can switch assistants whenever you like. A different AI reading the same folder picks up where the last one left off.\n\n**It answered like a normal chatbot instead of starting the course.** It hasn't read its\ninstructions. Say: *\"Read the file AGENTS.md in this folder and follow it. Start the course.\"* If it\nsays it can't find the file, it's looking at the wrong folder — go back to step 3.\n\n**It's writing your code for you, or handing out answers.** Say: *\"Re-read AGENTS.md and follow it —\ndon't solve exercises for me.\"*\n\n**It lost track of where you were.** Say: *\"Read PROGRESS.md and continue from there.\"*\n\n**It's moving too fast, or too slowly.** Just tell it. It's meant to adjust, and it will remember.\n\nIf this is working for you, **star the repository** — it's how other people find it, and it tells us\nthe project is worth expanding.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/show-hn-free-mentor-for-learning-programming-languages-fast-and-efficient", "canonical_source": "https://github.com/KubiKDB/AI-Tools-For-Learning", "published_at": "2026-07-25 16:15:53+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-07-25 16:52:26.151933+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-tools", "developer-tools", "artificial-intelligence", "generative-ai"], "entities": ["AI-Tools-For-Learning", "Claude Code", "Codex", "Cursor", "Gemini CLI", "Zed", "GitHub"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/show-hn-free-mentor-for-learning-programming-languages-fast-and-efficient", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/show-hn-free-mentor-for-learning-programming-languages-fast-and-efficient.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/show-hn-free-mentor-for-learning-programming-languages-fast-and-efficient.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/show-hn-free-mentor-for-learning-programming-languages-fast-and-efficient.jsonld"}}