Guided And Live-Data Playgrounds

Some public playground pages do not provision a lab session. That does not mean they are all the same.

The hub page (/playground/index.astro) splits these routes into two runtime classes:

• live-data -- reads real APIs or telemetry but does not provision infrastructure
• simulation -- guided interactive demos with no backend lab provisioning

As of 2026-03-26:

• Guided demos -- Cost Calculator, OpenClaw Security Lab, Glass UI Playground, EdgeMail Sandbox, API Explorer
• Live-data pages -- Live Activity Feed, Infrastructure Explorer, Monitoring Lab

These routes load instantly because there is no container or VM provisioning step. The page is a static shell with JavaScript-driven interactivity.

Important Correction

Older docs incorrectly grouped apkg Tutorial with simulation content. That is no longer true in the public runtime map. apkg Tutorial is classified as a real lab because it can launch the argo-os-experience VM.

The hub also avoids calling live-data pages "simulation" when telemetry is unavailable. It now uses fallback text such as:

• Telemetry may be stale
• Guided interactive demo

That wording is intentional and reflects runtime truth more accurately.

Build Swarm Simulator (/playground/build-swarm)

Route: src/pages/playground/build-swarm.astro

Note: This file does not currently exist. The Build Swarm Simulator is planned but not yet implemented.

The Build Swarm Simulator visualizes distributed package compilation across ArgoBox's build swarm infrastructure. It defines five simulated drones matching the real swarm configuration:

Drone	Galaxy	Cores	Role
Izar	Milky Way	16	Primary Drone
Tau-Beta	Milky Way	8	Binhost Drone
Capella	Milky Way	8	Sweeper Drone
Tarn	Andromeda	14	Remote Drone
Meridian	Andromeda	24	High-Core Drone

The simulation uses a sample package queue (Python, GCC, Firefox, Mesa, glibc, etc.) with realistic compile times and dependency counts. Users watch packages distributed across drones with build progress visualization and failure recovery.

Challenges are organized by tier:

• Beginner: Count drones, identify the two galaxy sites, calculate total cores, observe package distribution
• Intermediate: Analyze scheduling decisions, understand dependency ordering, compare cross-site latency effects
• Advanced: Predict optimal package assignment, identify bottleneck drones, analyze failure recovery behavior

The simulation includes an orbital visualization with animated drone nodes, a package queue, and a network topology diagram showing the two galaxy sites connected via Tailscale.

Cost Calculator (/playground/cost-calculator)

Mode: simulation

The Cost Calculator is a guided public tool for comparing self-hosted ArgoBox capabilities against commercial SaaS spend. It performs client-side pricing math and presents replacement categories, filters, and shareable outcomes. It is interactive, but it does not provision infrastructure or fetch live lab state.

OpenClaw Security Lab (/playground/openclaw-security)

Mode: simulation

This page is a guided attack-and-defense exercise around prompt injection and hardened agent boundaries. It is an interactive teaching surface, not a live lab engine route.

Glass UI Playground (/playground/glass-ui)

Mode: simulation

The Glass UI route is a visual design sandbox for blur, opacity, glow, and component styling. It is a client-side design tool with no infrastructure dependency.

EdgeMail Sandbox (/playground/edgemail)

Mode: simulation

The EdgeMail route is a product and architecture sandbox for the ArgoBox email stack. It walks the UI and system model but does not provision a lab or depend on the lab engine.

API Explorer (/playground/api-explorer)

Mode: simulation

The API Explorer catalogs route metadata, categories, methods, and auth hints. It is an indexed explorer, not a provisioning workflow.

Live Activity Feed (/playground/live-feed)

Mode: live-data

The Live Activity Feed is a read-only window onto real activity. It should be treated as live infrastructure telemetry rather than a simulation.

Infrastructure Explorer (/playground/infrastructure)

Route: src/pages/playground/infrastructure.astro Mode: live-data

The Infrastructure Explorer visualizes the dual-galaxy network topology with system metadata. The page defines the infrastructure data inline using the Galactic Identity System (sanitized hostnames and IPs for public display):

Milky Way Galaxy (sanitized 10.42.0.0/24):

• Altair-Link -- K3s host, gateway and services
• Capella-Outpost -- Workstation, development
• Izar -- Proxmox VE, build orchestrator and drone
• Tau-Beta -- Bare metal, build drone and binhost

Andromeda Galaxy (sanitized 192.168.20.0/24):

• Tarn -- Proxmox VE, hypervisor and orchestrator
• Meridian-Nexus -- Unraid, compute and storage hub
• Cassiel-Silo -- Synology, backup storage
• Mobius-Silo -- Synology, archive storage

The explorer renders each system as an interactive card with IP, Tailscale address, core count, RAM, role, and services. Network connections show the Tailscale mesh VPN linking both sites. Challenges progress from identifying systems and counting resources (beginner) through tracing network paths and understanding subnet routing (intermediate) to mapping the complete build swarm topology (advanced).

Note: This lab uses sanitized data from the Galactic Identity System. Real IPs (Jove 10.0.0.0/24, Kronos 192.168.50.0/24) are mapped to galaxy-themed values for public display.

Monitoring Lab (/playground/monitoring)

Route: src/pages/playground/monitoring.astro Mode: live-data

The Monitoring Lab provides an interactive dashboard for learning observability concepts. It uses live-data semantics in the public hub and should not be described as a pure simulation. The page defines sample metrics inline (cpu_usage_percent, memory_used_gb, disk_io_mbps, network_rx_mbps, requests_per_second, error_rate_percent) with trend indicators and sample alerts such as high memory usage on a build node.

Shared Patterns

These guided and live-data routes share these patterns:

• No LabLauncher -- No provisioning means instant page load.
• ChallengeTracker -- Guided exercises with tiered difficulty. Progress persists in localStorage under argobox-challenges-{templateId}.
• DocumentationPanel -- Collapsible reference panel with capabilities, learning objectives by tier, and external links.
• Static generation -- All pages are SSG (output: 'static'). Interactivity runs entirely in client-side <script> blocks.
• Data inline or read-only fetches -- Some routes render bundled datasets, while live-data pages fetch real telemetry without provisioning labs.