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AI-306 AI & Data

Model Context Protocol (MCP) Engineering

Build interoperable AI capability blocks with MCP: typed servers and clients, resources, tools and prompts, chaining three or more blocks into a pipeline, and hot-swapping a block live — the composability skill that keeps agent estates vendor-neutral.

B4Professional
5modules
33skill atoms
1role journey
Curriculum

What this course covers.

5 modules, 33 named skill atoms. Expand any module to see them.

1MCP Mental Model7 skill atoms
serversclientswhy a protocol mattersJSON-RPC transportstdio vs HTTPcapability negotiationhost/client/server roles
2Typed Building Blocks7 skill atoms
toolsresourcesschemascontextstool input schemasresource URIsversioned contracts
3Chaining Blocks6 skill atoms
≥3-block pipelineerror propagationoutput-to-input mappingpartial failure handlingper-block timeoutsidempotent retries
4Live Block Swap6 skill atoms
replace a block mid-democontract stabilityinterface compatibility testfeature flagszero-downtime restartrollback path
5Enterprise Patterns7 skill atoms
authservice deploymentregistry thinkingOAuth token flowsecret injectionper-tenant scopingdeprecation policy
Where it fits

AI-306 in a role journey.

This course appears in 1 of our 45 role journeys. Here is what a learner takes immediately before and after it in each.

Agentic AI Engineer

Practitioner stage
AI-304AI-306AI-310

Roles this course serves

The capability ladder

This course is authored to band B4.

Every course we run is written to one rung of the CASI ladder, so a plan can be assembled to take a team from where they are to where they need to be.

What do B1–B6 mean?The CASI Capability Ladder — click to expand

Every course targets a band on the CASI Capability Ladder — our six-band proficiency scale, anchored to open standards (O*NET, ESCO, NICE, NIST AI RMF, Bloom's). A band tells you how deep a course goes, and what evidence proves it.

What the learner can doTypical evidence
B1
AwareUnderstands concepts and vocabulary; uses tools with guidance
Knowledge checks
B2
FoundationPerforms standard tasks correctly in familiar contexts
Guided labs, autograded exercises
B3
PractitionerDelivers complete pieces of work independently
Scenario labs, proctored hands-on exams
B4
ProfessionalHandles production-grade complexity, trade-offs and failure modes
Break-fix drills, design defenses
B5
AdvancedEngineers systems end-to-end under constraints; leads others
Rubric-scored capstones, vivas
B6
ExpertSets direction; recognised authority across teams
Portfolio + panel evaluation

A note on B6. Courses in this catalog target B1–B5. B6 is not taught — it is recognised, through a portfolio and a panel, once someone is setting direction for others. Every journey here is built to land a learner at B5.

Next step

Run AI-306 for your team.

This course runs at several lengths depending on how deep you need to go and how much of it your people already have. Tell us who is being trained and we will scope it.

Add it to a training plan Talk to our team Check your team’s level free