LLM-based coding agents — tools that run in a loop, editing files, executing code and searching the web to achieve a goal — offer a powerful new workflow for developing software. This is especially true for application domains well-represented in LLM training sets, like the web.
Moving beyond naive “vibecoding”, this course provides a studio-based approach to rapidly prototyping web apps. In the weekly lectures you’ll learn fundamental concepts and practical skills for harnessing an agentic coding workflow. In the weekly studio crit sessions, you’ll demo your work-in-progress prototypes and receive feedback from peers and tutors. By the end of the course you’ll have designed, developed and deployed multiple web app prototypes using a rapid, feedback-driven process.
Learning outcomes#
At the completion of this course, you will be able to:
- design, build and test full-stack web applications using a rapid-prototyping process
- explain how LLM-based coding agents work, including model capabilities, tool use and context management
- design and evaluate different LLM agent workflows for software development
- apply principles from the scholarly literature to work-in-progress and finalised software prototypes
How the course runs#
The course runs in Semester 2, 2026 and is available as COMP4020 (undergraduate) and COMP8020 (postgraduate).
Each week has two components: a lecture covering concepts, tools and techniques, and a studio crit session where you bring your latest prototype and get feedback. Crit groups are kept small (around 20 students each), led by an experienced tutor, so you’ll get substantive engagement with your work every week.
Every deliverable in the course on one timeline: ten weekly crits and three assignments. Hover over (or tab to) any marker for the details, and follow it through to the full brief.
- Assignment 1
Assignment 1
The first individual prototype — a static site built with an agentic workflow.
- Assignment 2
Assignment 2
The second individual prototype — another static site, on the same canvas as Assignment 1.
- Final Project (Assignment 3)
Final Project (Assignment 3)
The capstone — a full-stack web application with a persistent backend, built and deployed with an agentic workflow.
- C1: Forgotten web (week 2)
C1 · Forgotten web
Create a simple site with a look the modern web has forgotten.
- C2: Unsolicited redesign (week 3)
C2 · Unsolicited redesign
Find a real organisation that you like with a website that you don’t, and build them a better one.
- C3: Assignment 1 retro (week 4)
C3 · Assignment 1 retro
A brief demo of your Assignment 1 prototype, then articulate the breakthrough.
- C4: An instrument (week 5)
C4 · An instrument
Turn the browser into a musical instrument — expressive, playable by a stranger, and impossible to play wrong.
- C5: A game (week 6)
C5 · A game
Build a tiny browser game — obvious in ten seconds, still interesting at five minutes, no tutorial in sight.
- C6: Assignment 2 retro (week 7)
C6 · Assignment 2 retro
A brief demo of your Assignment 2 prototype, then articulate the breakthrough.
- C7: Build the ANU system you wish existed (week 8)
C7 · Build the ANU system you wish existed
Pick an ANU system you find maddening and build the full-stack replacement you wish existed — real data, real persistence, deployed to fly.
- C8: It's alive! (week 9)
C8 · It's alive!
Ship the first working slice of your final project — deployed, doing its core thing — plus one interaction decision you're ready to defend, and free to reverse next week.
- C9: Crit the critics (week 10)
C9 · Crit the critics
Find a high-profile agentic-coding thinker and read their advice against your own practice — what tracks, what's nonsense, with examples.
- C10: Fly by instruments (week 11)
C10 · Fly by instruments
Instrument your final project with server-side telemetry and a live dashboard, then demo it by instruments alone — no clicking through your own UI.
assignments weekly crits today
Prerequisites and enrolment#
Because it’s a new course, all enrolments go through ANU’s permission code application — even if you satisfy the prerequisites.
- if you’ve completed the prerequisite (COMP3900 for COMP4020, COMP6390 for COMP8020), just say so in your application and you’ll get straight in
- if you’ve completed another 3000- or 4000-level COMP course (6000- or 8000-level for COMP8020) you may still be eligible — just note that the course assumes some knowledge from the prereqs, so you may need to pick up a few things as we go
