The zero-budget AI-engineering portfolio playbook. 16 production-grade projects that run on free tiers, chosen by your target role, each with a week-by-week plan, the interview questions it prepares you for, and the resume bullets it produces. It comes with a git and LinkedIn operating manual, clone-ready repo skeletons, a 6-month tracker, a Resume Bullet Bank, and a buyers' Discord. Solo-first. Lifetime updates. Built by someone whose own hire-ready portfolio you can go look at.

What you get

The full playbook PDF (roughly 50 pages), all 16 projects with interview prep and the resume bullets each one produces.

Clone-ready repo skeletons, one per project archetype: README with the last-mile template, a design-doc template, CLAUDE.md, PR and issue templates, a wired CI workflow, and a one-command run file.

A 6-month progress tracker: the roadmap as a checklist plus a per-project status board (Notion template and a plain-Markdown fallback).

The Resume Bullet Bank: every bullet the projects produce, fill in your own defensible numbers.

A buyers' Discord for feedback, accountability, and a "show your repo" channel. Per-buyer invite, tied to your purchase.

Lifetime updates: new projects, new free tiers, and model changes land as file versions and companion-repo commits, free.

Who it is for

International students in US CS, DS, and AI master's programs, and comparable early-career developers, who can already code but have a thin GitHub and no idea which projects map to an FDE, AI/ML, or data role. Cost-sensitive (no budget for GPUs or courses), time-pressured, and tired of "10 project ideas" lists with no depth and no plan.

What is inside

16 production-grade projects. RAG and eval harnesses, FDE agents with approval gates, MLOps pipelines, streaming data, system-design builds, and GitOps infra. Each one includes what to build, why it matters to hiring, a free stack, a week-by-week plan, the interview questions it prepares you for, and the resume bullets it produces.

Pick-your-track guide. Target role maps to your exact 2 to 3 projects. You do not build all 16. You build the right few, deep. One deep project with real numbers beats five shallow demos.

The $0 stack. Groq and Gemini free tiers, Colab and Kaggle GPU, Oracle always-free ARM, Supabase. No GPU bills, no course fees.

The git and LinkedIn operating system most guides skip: a git-history and commit-discipline ladder, a DevOps and networking depth map, and a LinkedIn playbook that reads as engineering, not marketing.

Guarantee

7-day, no-questions-asked refund. If the playbook does not give you a clear plan you are excited to start, email me and I will refund you.

FAQ

1. Do I need money or a GPU? No. Every project runs on free tiers. That is the whole point.2. Is this just a list of ideas? No. It is a 6-month system: week-by-week plans, the git and LinkedIn operating manual, repo skeletons, and a tracker.3. Solo, or do I need a partner? Solo-first. The plans are written for one person. A Partner Bonus covers the two-person review workflow if you find one.4. I am not in the US, or not a student. It still works. The playbook is about what to build and how to show it, which is universal.5. Will it go stale? No. Lifetime updates. The stack and the projects evolve with the market.