Getting Started - Overview

Estimated time: 60 minutes | Difficulty: Beginner

This guide walks you through creating your first Instruqt lab from scratch. Instruqt labs are interactive learning environments that let users practice with real tools and technologies in sandboxed environments. Whether you’re creating technical training, product demos, or hands-on workshops, this guide covers the essential concepts and steps to get you started.

Prerequisites

Before starting, verify you have:

• Git installed and configured with your name/email (Download Git)
• GitHub account with SSH key setup for pushing code (Sign up for GitHub)
• Instruqt CLI installed and authenticated (Installation guide)
• Code editor - VS Code recommended for HCL syntax highlighting (Download VS Code)

Lab configuration is written in HCL (HashiCorp Configuration Language), the same syntax Terraform uses. You don’t need prior HCL experience for this guide, but the HCL syntax specification is a useful reference for constructs the guide doesn’t cover, such as heredocs for multi-line strings.

To verify your prerequisites are properly configured, run:

git --version

git version 2.49.0

instruqt version

Version: 2265-8b823dd

If you encounter any issues with the prerequisites, check the Instruqt documentation or reach out to the Instruqt community for help.

Guide Structure

1. Project Setup - Initialize your lab, create a GitHub repository, and import it into Instruqt
2. Infrastructure - Create containers, networks, and services
3. Content & Tasks - Add interactive activities and validation
4. Testing & Deployment - Verify the platform picked up your lab and test it as a user

Complete steps in order as each builds on the previous one.