Welcome to the Playground
Explore real infrastructure in secure sandbox environments. Learn distributed systems, container orchestration, and DevOps practices by doing—not just reading.
Secure by Design
All playground environments are completely isolated from production infrastructure. Ephemeral containers auto-destruct after use. No data persists. Play freely.
Choose Your Playground
Each environment offers hands-on experience with real DevOps tools and techniques
Build Swarm Simulator
Watch a simulation of distributed package compilation. Visualize how 70 cores work together to compile Gentoo packages across 5 build drones.
- Simulated visualization
- Drone orchestration demo
- Package queue animation
- Failure recovery demo
apkg Tutorial
Learn Gentoo package management the easy way. Interactive walkthrough of the Argo Package Manager with command examples.
- Step-by-step guide
- Command examples
- Binhost mode
- Nix integration
Terminal Lab
Connect to a real Alpine Linux container. Run commands, explore the filesystem, and learn CLI basics in a live environment.
- Real LXC container
- Pre-configured tools
- Interactive challenges
- xterm.js terminal
Container Lab
Spin up real ephemeral LXC containers. Choose from multiple lab templates with live terminal access.
- Real containers
- Multiple templates
- Network isolation
- Auto-cleanup (60 min)
Infrastructure Explorer
Explore the dual-galaxy network topology with live system data. See real node status and how systems communicate across sites via Tailscale mesh.
- Live network topology
- Real system status
- Tailscale mesh view
- Multi-site overview
IaC Playground
Practice Infrastructure as Code with real Ansible. Provision a container with Ansible pre-installed and a target to configure.
- Real Ansible environment
- Target container
- Playbook examples
- Live execution
Ollama Lab
Set up, validate, and tune Ollama on Linux. Includes model storage overrides, API smoke tests, and OpenWebUI integration checks.
- Service setup checklist
- Model path migration
- API diagnostics
- OpenWebUI connection tests
RAG Workshop
Build a local-first RAG workflow from markdown vaults. Index files, run semantic search, and tune retrieval quality.
- Local indexing workflow
- Semantic query patterns
- Chunking strategy
- Retrieval tuning drills
Argo OS Experience
Access a real Gentoo QEMU VM with KDE Plasma desktop via VNC. Browse the portage tree, inspect make.conf, and experience Argo OS firsthand.
- KDE Plasma desktop (VNC)
- Real QEMU virtual machine
- Portage package tree
- Tarn-Host powered
Networking Lab
Practice networking with real interconnected containers. Configure routes, explore DNS, and debug connectivity across a 3-node topology.
- 3 real containers
- Private bridge network
- Routing challenges
- Network debugging
Monitoring Lab
Explore live infrastructure metrics from Prometheus and the build swarm. View real system health, node status, and resource utilization.
- Live Prometheus metrics
- Real node health data
- Build swarm status
- System resource graphs
For Homelabbers
Curious how to build a distributed build system? Want to understand multi-site networking with Tailscale? Explore working examples of infrastructure patterns you can adapt for your own homelab.
What Powers This Playground
Ready to Explore?
Pick a playground and start learning. Everything here is designed to be broken, rebuilt, and explored.