Professional Certification · Platform Independent
CERTIFIED AI-DIRECTED ENGINEER
Direct AI. Design Systems. Drive Impact.
13 Layers · 39 Courses · 1,530+ Exam Questions · Free to Start
Direct AI. Design Systems. Drive Impact.
13 Layers · 39 Courses · 1,530+ Exam Questions · Free to Start
Every major AI vendor launched a certification. Look closer and every one is a lock-in play. Google certifies you on Google. Anthropic certifies you on Anthropic. Microsoft certifies you on Microsoft. You're not earning a credential. You're getting onboarded.
None of them teach engineering discipline. They teach product usage. When the product changes, and it changes every quarter, your certification ages with it.
Universities haven't caught up. Bootcamps charge $10K to teach frameworks that rotate every six months. And "learn to code" left out the 98% of people who aren't already senior engineers.
CADE exists because the 13 layers are permanent. Auth is auth. Security is security. A database is a database. The tools are implementations. The discipline transfers.
You're not learning Cursor or Claude or Replit. You're learning what has to be true about every production system, no matter what builds it. That's the difference between a vibecoder and an AI Directed Engineer. And it's learnable.
All 13 layers. All 13 study guides. All 13 exams. The complete Foundation curriculum and the Associate Builder credential when you pass.
Advanced CADE layers. Deeper engineering across the stack. Complete T1 + T2 and earn the Certified Builder credential.
Scale-tier architecture, production-grade operations, and the capstone project. Complete T1 + T2 + T3 + Capstone and earn Master Builder, the MADE certification.
One membership covers everything. Builder Access is $77/month and unlocks every paid tier. Regional pricing available via Stripe. CADE is priced for global accessibility.
Beyond the core certification, CADE offers specialist tracks. Each one earns badges toward meta-credentials: CADE Specialist (3 badges), CADE Distinguished (6 badges), CADE Fellow (10 badges plus community contribution).
Platform-specific builds: SaaS, Mobile, Shopify.
Industry-specific engineering: EdTech, Construction, Healthcare, Real Estate, Government.
Security and compliance deep dives.
Builder Business Foundations. You built a rocket. Now it's time to launch it.
Agent orchestration, multi-agent systems, frontier AI.
The quizzes actually test understanding instead of just memorization. It's clear a ton of thought went into this.
It showed me what I needed to upgrade on my app ASAP. I was able to close some security gaps and other items as I was going through the modules.
I was testing my knowledge by reviewing items in my own technology, and it definitely prepared me for my capstone.
Man, you have put a TON of work into this. I am super impressed.
Just the T1 that I did already, EVERYTHING CHANGED. How I think, how I plan, how I design, and of course how I build.
Creating a harness for the 13 layers. 5 hours and 8 million tokens later, a 3,000+ line PR to staging. I'm a junior dev in my eyes, but this makes me feel senior level because of the outputs it's giving.
I'm an accountant by profession. I've been vibe coding for the last year, self-taught, and recently shipped a SaaS application. Fixed a lot of security issues from watching Matt's videos.
Really loved the first 13 layers. I went through each one with ChatGPT and Claude and tightened up so much on an app I'm building. The info really helped protect me and my customers.
Builders from Kenya, Kuwait, the Cook Islands, the Philippines, the UAE, and dozens more countries. Regional pricing means the credential is reachable from every one of them.
400+ courses across 8 certification tiers · 13 production layers, each with study guides and proctored exams · Builders from 20+ countries, with regional pricing so the credential is reachable from all of them · $0 to start the full Foundation tier · Not Murphy's Law: #1 release in Information Systems on Amazon
159+ verbatim testimonials on file. Read the full wall of proof →
| CADE | Vendor Certs | Gauntlet AI | Bootcamps | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Platform dependency | None. The 13 layers are tool-agnostic. | Total. You're certified on their product. | Low | Framework-tied |
| Cost to start | $0 | $300+ | Free, if you're accepted | $10K+ |
| Who it's for | The other 98% | Existing users of that platform | The top 2% of existing engineers | Career changers with $10K |
| Longevity | Permanent layers. Auth is auth. | Expires with product updates | Cohort-based | Frameworks rotate every 6 months |
| Global accessibility | Yes. Regional pricing. | Varies | Limited seats | Rarely |
No trash talk. Vendor certs are useful if you live in that vendor's ecosystem. Gauntlet is excellent if you're already a senior engineer. Bootcamps work for some people. CADE is built for everyone else: the builders who need the discipline, not the logo.
Access all 13 layers instantly. No credit card.
Work through the study guides. Take the exams. Self-paced, no cohort clock.
Complete all 13 layers. Receive your Foundation credential.
Unlock Builder Access. Add T2, T3, the capstone, and specialist tracks.
Thirty years ago, computer learning centers put a generation of people into technology careers. Strip malls and office parks, teaching Word and Excel and networking to anyone who walked in. Most of the people who run IT departments today started in rooms like that.
The Faction is the Computer Learning Center of 2026.
The profession is new. The demand is enormous. The door is open to anyone from anywhere, and the foundation is free because the mission demands it. Five technology cycles taught me one thing: the people who learn the discipline early end up running the era. This is the discipline. This is early.