Training course · RAG & LLM Applications · Python Development

RAG & LLM Applications for Python Developers

Develop RAG and LLM applications: embeddings, vector databases, chunking, retrieval, evaluation, cost control and data protection.

Duration
2 days (14 hrs)
Format
Online or on-site
Language
German or English
Participants
open dates or exclusive for your team
Certificate
Certificate of attendance

Overview

This course connects RAG & LLM Applications with the everyday processes of Python Development. Participants work on realistic scenarios and leave with prompts, workflows and checklists they can use straight away.

Retrieval-augmented generation connects language models to your own knowledge: manuals, contracts, tickets, wikis or product data are made searchable and handed to the model as context at runtime. The result is assistants that give grounded answers with citations instead of hallucinating. In this two-day course you build a complete RAG pipeline, from document preparation through embeddings and a vector database to answer generation, and you learn which levers actually determine quality.

Day two takes you from prototype to robust application. You compare chunking strategies, combine semantic and lexical search, apply reranking, metadata filters and query rewriting, and measure the effect with systematic evaluations. You also cover prompt caching, cost control, latency optimisation, document-level access control and privacy-compliant operation with an eye on GDPR and the EU AI Act. By the end you know when classic RAG is enough, when a large context window or agentic retrieval is the better option, and how to justify your architecture choices.

Python powers web back ends, automation, data pipelines and AI applications – often inside the same organisation, which makes codebases notoriously diverse. AI coding assistants and agents have a particularly visible impact here: they write pytest suites around your existing fixtures, add type hints until mypy passes cleanly, migrate legacy scripts to modern packaging with pyproject.toml and walk you through an unfamiliar Django or FastAPI project in minutes rather than days. The key is steering these tools with the right context: project conventions, Ruff rules, test commands and architectural decisions belong in instruction files and prompts. Once you master that, you can delegate routine work with confidence and focus on design, review and business logic.

The course is delivered live – either online in a virtual classroom or on-site in our training rooms in Munich, Salzburg, Berlin, Augsburg, Hanover, Bremen, Stuttgart and Kaiserslautern. We can also run it exclusively for your team.

Who is this course for?

  • Python back-end developers working with Django, Flask or FastAPI
  • Automation and scripting specialists in IT and business units
  • Data and ML engineers maintaining production Python code
  • Tech leads responsible for code quality and review processes
  • Developers modernising legacy Python codebases

Typical challenges we address

  • Ageing codebases with no type hints and patchy test coverage
  • Dependency sprawl across requirements.txt, Poetry, uv and virtual environments
  • Time-consuming reviews and inconsistent style despite linters and formatters
  • Onboarding into unfamiliar projects that rely on undocumented tribal knowledge

What you will be able to do

  • You build a complete RAG pipeline from document preparation to answers with citations.
  • You choose embedding model, chunking strategy and vector database on solid grounds.
  • You improve retrieval quality with hybrid search, reranking and metadata filters.
  • You measure application quality with systematic evaluations and detect regressions.
  • Have AI agents reliably deliver pytest suites, type hints and refactorings across your Python codebase.
  • Encode project conventions, tooling such as Ruff, mypy and uv, and test commands so the assistant follows them consistently.
  • Review generated Python code systematically for correctness, security and maintainability before it is merged.

Course outline

Day 1

Module 1 Foundations of RAG and LLM applications
  • Anatomy of a RAG pipeline: ingestion, indexing, retrieval, generation
  • Understanding embeddings: semantic similarity, dimensions, model selection
  • Weighing RAG against fine-tuning and long context windows
  • Structured outputs, citations and dealing with hallucinations
Module 2 Document preparation and chunking
  • Reliably extracting PDFs, Office documents, HTML and tables
  • Chunking strategies: fixed size, structure-aware, semantic, with overlap
  • Enriching metadata and generating contextual summaries per chunk
  • Incremental updates and deletion of documents in the index
Module 3 Vector databases and retrieval strategies
  • Comparing vector databases and extensions such as pgvector, Qdrant, Weaviate or OpenSearch
  • Hybrid search combining vector and full-text search with BM25
  • Reranking, metadata filtering and query rewriting
  • Agentic retrieval: letting the model decide on search steps and tools
Module 4 Evaluation and quality assurance
  • Building and maintaining test sets from real user questions
  • Retrieval metrics such as recall and precision, and answer metrics such as faithfulness
  • Using and calibrating LLM-as-a-judge sensibly
  • Regression testing when chunking, model or prompt changes

Day 2

Module 5 Operations, cost and data protection
  • Prompt caching, batch processing and model choice to cut costs
  • Optimising latency and streaming responses
  • Document-level permissions, tenant isolation and protection against prompt injection
  • Data protection: data residency, processing agreements, deletion policies, GDPR and the EU AI Act
Module 6 Practice lab: Python Development
  • Generating pytest tests
  • Type hints and mypy clean-up
  • Django migrations and ORM refactoring
  • FastAPI endpoints with Pydantic
  • Modernising legacy scripts
  • Understanding and documenting a codebase
Module 7 Data protection, quality & transfer to daily work
  • Define which source code may be sent to cloud-hosted models, keep secrets from .env files strictly out of context, and check generated code for licence carry-over and newly introduced PyPI dependencies (typosquatting, supply-chain risk). For products with digital elements, obligations under the Cyber Resilience Act are becoming increasingly relevant.
  • Ground rules for safe AI use in your team
  • Checking results: facts, sources, tests and the four-eyes principle
  • Personal action plan for the next 30 days
  • Open questions, outlook and resources for further learning

Practical scenarios from your field

Generating pytest tests

The assistant inspects functions and existing fixtures, writes parametrised pytest tests covering edge cases and mocks for external services, then runs them iteratively until they pass and reach the coverage you are aiming for.

Type hints and mypy clean-up

Untyped code is annotated module by module with type hints, TypedDicts and Protocols. The agent runs mypy or Pyright, interprets the output and fixes issues step by step without changing runtime behaviour.

Django migrations and ORM refactoring

Model changes are planned together with data migrations, makemigrations conflicts are resolved and N+1 queries are fixed with select_related or prefetch_related. The AI flags risks to existing production data before you deploy.

FastAPI endpoints with Pydantic

From a functional description or an OpenAPI draft, the assistant produces Pydantic models, routers, dependency injection and validation logic, complete with error handling and matching tests using the TestClient.

Modernising legacy scripts

Old scripts become proper packages with pyproject.toml, global state is removed, argparse or Click interfaces are added and Ruff rules applied. The agent documents every change clearly in the commit history.

Understanding and documenting a codebase

The assistant explores an unfamiliar repository, produces architecture overviews, explains data flows between modules and fills in missing docstrings in Google or NumPy style so new team members become productive faster.

Possible hands-on projects

Log analysis CLI

A Typer-based command-line tool that reads application logs, clusters error patterns and outputs a concise summary as Markdown or JSON – shipped with tests and proper packaging.

FastAPI microservice with a database

A small REST service with SQLAlchemy, Alembic migrations, Pydantic validation and a Docker setup, planned, implemented and tested end to end by an AI agent.

Dependency audit script

A script that lists all project dependencies, checks for outdated or vulnerable packages against public advisory databases and produces a prioritised upgrade report.

Prerequisites

Solid programming skills in Python (or TypeScript as an alternative), basic knowledge of databases and REST APIs, and some experience with LLM APIs. Solid Python skills plus hands-on experience with Git, virtual environments and at least one framework such as Django, Flask or FastAPI.

Technical requirements

A laptop with Python, Git, Docker and a code editor, plus API access to at least one LLM and embedding provider. Credentials for the exercises can be provided if needed.

Data protection & compliance

Define which source code may be sent to cloud-hosted models, keep secrets from .env files strictly out of context, and check generated code for licence carry-over and newly introduced PyPI dependencies (typosquatting, supply-chain risk). For products with digital elements, obligations under the Cyber Resilience Act are becoming increasingly relevant.

Suggested dates

All dates are suggestions – your preferred date is always possible.

  • Thu, 26 November 2026 – Fri, 27 November 2026 Online Request
  • Mon, 7 December 2026 – Tue, 8 December 2026 Berlin Request
  • Wed, 16 December 2026 – Thu, 17 December 2026 Online Request
  • Tue, 12 January 2027 – Wed, 13 January 2027 Online Request
  • Mon, 18 January 2027 – Tue, 19 January 2027 Stuttgart Request
  • Thu, 28 January 2027 – Fri, 29 January 2027 Online Request

Frequently asked questions

When is RAG better than fine-tuning?

RAG is the right choice when a model needs access to current, extensive or frequently changing knowledge and should cite its sources. Fine-tuning mainly changes style, format or specialised behaviour. In many projects RAG is the faster, cheaper and more controllable route, sometimes complemented by fine-tuning for niche tasks.

Which vector database should we use?

That depends on data volume, existing infrastructure, filtering needs and operating model. If you already run PostgreSQL, pgvector often takes you a long way, while specialised systems shine with large datasets and hybrid search. In the course you compare several options hands-on and derive criteria for your own decision.

How can RAG be run in a GDPR-compliant way?

Key factors are choosing providers with suitable data residency and a data processing agreement, enforcing document-level permissions, having a deletion policy for the index and logs, and minimising personal data. For highly sensitive data, self-hosted models are also an option. We work through these choices using realistic architectures.

Does AI-assisted coding work in large Django monoliths?

Yes, provided the agent gets the right context. On the course you learn to create instruction files describing architecture rules, app structure and test commands, and to scope tasks so the assistant works on individual apps or modules. Changes stay manageable and reviewable even when the overall project is very large.

Will AI replace my code reviews?

No. AI assistants speed up writing code and can prepare reviews by pointing out missing tests or risky sections, but functional and security accountability stays with your team. We show how to combine review checklists, static analysis and tests so that generated code meets exactly the same quality bar as hand-written code.

How much does “RAG & LLM Applications for Python Developers” cost?

The course costs a flat €949 plus VAT per participant – whether online or on-site. This includes 2 training day(s) with a live trainer, course materials, a lab environment and a certificate of attendance.

Can I suggest my own date?

Yes. Our suggested dates are just a guide. In the request form you can always describe your preferred date or period in free text – we check availability and confirm within one working day.

Is the course online or on-site?

Both are possible: live online in a virtual classroom or on-site in Munich, Salzburg, Berlin, Augsburg, Hanover, Bremen, Stuttgart or Kaiserslautern. We can also run the course exclusively for your team.

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