Why I Rebuilt Everything from Scratch

Knowledge.Dev is back. I've built a full virtual publishing system that creates interactive books, formats PDFs, edits, translates, and delivers a completely new kind of product - one where you'll see how to build real applications step by step.

In this article, I'll explain what's coming to the new platform, and why everything in it is written in Rust - while we'll be learning far more than just Rust.

By the way, the platform had subscribers, and I sincerely apologize that I had to shut it down. I'll be reaching out to each of you personally and offering a solid discount. If you haven't received an email from me, feel free to contact support.

The re-Birth of the Platform

In the first version of the platform, there were so many shortcomings that it left me disappointed. It was frustrating to see how those flaws got in the way of conveying the core idea to readers. So I decided to spend a full year rebuilding everything from scratch, without compromises. Of course, there are still many ideas I'll be bringing to you later - but even today, everything readers asked for has already been implemented, and every time I open the platform, I genuinely enjoy the experience. Now I'd like to share these updates with you.

The LEGO-principle

All through my childhood, I played only with LEGO - I loved that builder's mindset. First you follow precise, step-by-step instructions, then you switch on your imagination and use the skills you've gained to create your own.

Build applications like assembling a LEGO set.

I decided to apply that exact principle to our courses. Every course on Knowledge.Dev is a step-by-step development guide you follow in your own IDE, your own editor, on your own laptop - learning by building real applications. You can jump back to any step or repeat the parts that aren't clear yet, and in the end, you'll have an application you built with your own hands.

Stylish, polished covers for every book

The publishing platform underneath is powered by AI coworkers - for example, they generate the course covers. The covers have become truly vibrant, and to distinguish the intended tech stack, a color-based style system is used.

I spent time developing a memorable style - one that's recognizable and sets our interactive books apart from ordinary ones.

AI System Creation

The platform's content has evolved as well - it's now focused on building artificial intelligence systems: agents, neural systems.

Rust remains the foundation of our training and clearly has the potential to become a tool of the future for AI, but we will no longer overlook Python and TypeScript, giving them proper attention along with their integrations. In other words, we'll continue building on Rust while also covering how it connects with the technologies commonly used across different types of companies.

You could say the project has grown from a passion project into a full-fledged e-learning platform.

New Blazingly Fast Reader 🦀

Now let's move on to another important part of the platform: the reader application. It has been completely redesigned and now works much faster, allowing you to load large books - and do it quickly.

Browser-Only

In the first version, you had to install the reader through Cargo, which spun up a local app to write project changes to disk. It was a cool idea for Rust enthusiasts, but support requests kept coming in from users saying it didn't work - especially those running on outdated LTS systems.

The new version is entirely browser-based, and it even saves your project using the FileSystem API (though you'll need a Chrome-based browser for that). No additional installation required - it just works!

Mobile Version

The reader is now adapted for mobile devices - which is useful when you want to keep the book open on one side of the screen and your IDE on the other.

The content now fits into a more compact layout - and yes, it works on your phone too.

Dark Theme

One of the most frequent support requests was for a dark theme - to make reading comfortable at night, especially when the editor is already in dark mode, so the visual balance is preserved.

In the new version, it's implemented. The dark theme is applied as a CSS layer and can be switched instantly, right while you're reading.

Project Mirroring

When you're reading a book and writing code along with the examples, sometimes you need to compare your version with the reference implementation - or you may want to jump in at a specific point instead of starting from scratch. That's why we introduced project mirroring: it reconstructs the project in a local folder.

To enable it, just specify the folder where the project changes should be saved as you progress through the book.

User Dashboard

The platform now includes account management, as well as the ability to unsubscribe or change your payment plan.

Previously, you could only subscribe - canceling a subscription had to be done through the payment provider. Now there's full database synchronization, and all essential subscription management options are available directly in your dashboard.

Free Course Access

Each course is now available with free access tier, so you can try the platform and explore the content before committing to a subscription. This gives you a chance to experience the interactive learning approach firsthand.

Prompts, Prompts, Prompts (vibe-coding)

Vibe-coding is an essential programming practice today. In our courses, we pursue two goals for AI-assisted development:

• Show you how to generate code with effective prompts
• Teach you how to build systems step by step

Multiple Crates and Frameworks

The projects in the courses are built using a variety of Rust crates and complementary frameworks. While the tooling isn't limited to these, the selected ecosystem covers a wide range of use cases: high-performance systems, rapid AI model prototyping, and building interfaces for interacting with AI.

Multiple Content Languages

Each course will be available in multiple languages. While this feature isn't live yet, support for it is already built into both the dashboard and the reader app.

Once some first courses are released, we'll begin adding their translations.

CRB Framework

Our goal is not just to teach you Rust, but to equip you with tools that accelerate your development progress. Over the years of working with different crates and concepts, I've created a highly composable framework for building applications and developed an entirely new software architecture that extends the actor model. All of this will be available to you through the proprietary CRB framework.

Dev Assistant

By the way, for learning purposes we're developing a powerful dev assistant for coding with AI models. We're not revealing its full feature set yet, since our primary goal right now is to release the course lineup - but we do plan to launch the agent during 2026. So in the near future, the subscription will expand beyond courses and include tooling as well.

AI-driven Support

We also launched an AI-based support agent, which helps resolve questions quickly. It's now in testing, and we'll continue improving it as the support knowledge base grows. This significantly reduces overhead and allows us to invest more resources into content.

So what hasn't changed?!

Just like before, every piece of content is created by professional engineers, step by step, showing you how to build real applications.

How It All Works Under the Hood?!

I imagine you may be interested not only in the platform itself, but also in the question of how it was built. After all, what you're looking at is a full-stack Rust solution. And I don't plan to keep any of it secret - I'll be sharing some interesting implementation details here on the blog.

For now, get ready to dive into the courses - I hope you enjoy them.

Your Support 💖

Now more than ever, the project needs your support. My budget for this relaunch is limited, and your blog subscription, reposts, and especially your subscription to the platform itself will help us create something truly new together - a learning environment where building full applications feels like assembling a LEGO set.

---

Ready to explore the platform? Check out our interactive playgrounds and start building AI systems today.