Self-paced network automation course
You already know how to build powerful networks. Now learn to program them.
Turn your network judgment into a tested automation tool. The browser grader checks the change, rollback, and run record whether you use AI or not.
What you build
How you're checked
What you need
What it costs
This is for you if
- You run a production network and still make changes one device at a time.
- You know the network and the CLI but have written little software.
- You have scripts but no dependable tests, rollback, or handoff.
- An AI assistant can draft code faster than you can check whether it is safe to run.
Skip it if
- You already ship tested automation through CI every week.
- You want video lectures rather than reading and labs.
- You want a vendor certification built to an exam blueprint.
How a lesson ends: the interface audit lab
The network your script audits
The labs grade the work you produce
Graded work includes Python scripts, before-and-after checks, rollback decisions, and run records. A failed check explains what is missing so you can fix it and run the grader again. The test suite checks the result whether you wrote it yourself or asked an AI assistant for help.
Use any AI assistant, or none
The course works with ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, or no assistant at all, and no AI subscription is required. Every graded check runs in your browser without an AI service, so grading never depends on which model you used. You learn what to ask for, how to read what comes back, and how to test it before it reaches a device.
You go from SSH scripts to a tested pipeline
You start with the well-known tools, Python and Netmiko over SSH, then move to the device APIs that replace screen scraping: RESTCONF, gNMI, and NETCONF. Git and CI come last, so every change gets tested before it ships.
Career context
How forward deployed engineering fits
Forward deployed engineering combines judgment about a real environment with software delivery. Current postings ask for Python, APIs, testing, versioned work, and tools another engineer can operate. Network engineers often bring the production judgment, but Network FDE is still an emerging application of the role. This course teaches the technical and delivery work it can reproduce in graded labs. It does not reproduce a live customer relationship or production authority.
Read the role and posting sourcesThe whole plan, free lessons first
- Free foundations 1. Core Language for Network Data
- Free foundations 2. From Scripts to a Package
- 0. Start Here
- 1. Just Enough Python
- 2. The Day-One Automation Loop
- 3. Keep a Human in the Loop
- 4. Build With AI
- 5. Source of Truth and Git
- 6. Device APIs
- 7. From Scripts to Tools
- 8. Run It for Real
- 9. The Read-First Agent
Free Field Notes
You do not need an account to read Field Notes. Lab reports include the runs and transcripts behind their results. Career and market research links the public sources behind its claims.
- Forward deployed engineering for network engineers: role, requirements, and a practical path
Forward deployed engineers build inside customer environments and stay responsible through production. Network engineers already bring useful production judgment, but they still need to prove they can write, test, and operate software. Here is what current postings ask for and how to build the missing evidence.
- Graded labs vs. video courses: how network engineers actually learn automation
A video shows someone else configure a device. A graded lab checks your own work and tells you when it fails. Here is a real grading run from one of our labs, the failure included, plus an honest look at where video courses still fit.
- An AI agent fixed a broken OSPF adjacency in a four-router lab
Three classic OSPF breaks in a four-router lab. An AI agent with CLI access had to find and fix each one. Here is the transcript and the score.
The paid course, end to end
The free lessons grade single scripts. The paid course grades a complete change on a simulated network: discover the topology, push a change built from data, validate it worked as expected, and roll it back when a check fails. It ends in a record another engineer can easily read.
AI can draft every script in that loop. The labs grade the checks around the scripts, and you stay responsible for what runs.
Free · available now
Python foundation track
A free introduction to core Python through network data, including show output, configuration, and inventories. No lab devices are needed.
Create a local RouteSwitchU account. No email address is required.
Create an account and startPaid · enrollment open
The full AI-Assisted Network Automation course
Turn an unclear network problem into a verified, operator-ready automation tool. Graded browser labs check the complete change: discover, push, validate, roll back, and record.
You buy from your account through Stripe Checkout, with a 7-day refund window. The terms of sale are shown before you pay.
Buy the course · $249