Lab Overview
The Overview tab provides a comprehensive view of your lab’s configuration, showing the structure of your instructional content, sandbox resources, UI tabs, and version control status in a single view.
Lab Information
Section titled “Lab Information”At the top of the Lab Overview, you’ll see your lab’s basic details.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Title | The lab title displayed to learners |
| Internal name | Your lab’s unique identifier (organization/lab-name) |
| Description | Brief overview of what the lab teaches. This description is displayed to the learners when the lab is starting |
If the description hasn’t been filled in yet, this area shows an italic This lab doesn’t have a description yet prompt that links to the Details tab instead.
To edit these fields, navigate to the Details tab.
Getting started with an empty lab
Section titled “Getting started with an empty lab”While a lab is still missing instructions, sandbox resources, or tabs, dismissible onboarding cards appear below the title and description to point you toward each:
- Add instructions links to the Instructions tab
- Add your sandbox links to the Sandbox tab
- Add your tabs links to the Tabs tab
Each card has a Learn more link to further documentation and a close button to dismiss it. A card disappears on its own once you’ve added the corresponding content, or if you dismiss it manually.
Instructions Summary
Section titled “Instructions Summary”See the structure of your instructional content at a glance.
The Instructions section displays the total count of chapters, pages, and activities in your lab for the current branch. This gives you a quick overview of your lab’s content structure. If the lab has no chapters or pages yet, this section shows “There are no instructions, outline or pages yet” instead of the counts.
To manage chapters and pages, see Managing Chapters & Pages.
Sandbox Resources
Section titled “Sandbox Resources”View all infrastructure resources that make up your lab environment.
The Sandbox section lists all the infrastructure resources configured for your lab on the current branch, including containers with their image names and network configurations.
To create and configure sandbox resources, see the reference documentation.
UI Tabs
Section titled “UI Tabs”See all tabs that will appear in the learner interface.
The Tabs section displays all the UI tabs configured for the current branch that learners will see in the lab interface, such as terminals and code editors, along with their target containers.
To create and configure tabs, see Creating Tabs.
Sidebar Components
Section titled “Sidebar Components”The right sidebar provides quick access to your lab’s settings and recent changes.
Settings
Section titled “Settings”The Settings widget mirrors the Details tab, showing a read-only summary of your lab’s appearance, time limit, idle, and controls configuration. Each group only appears if it has values configured:
| Group | Fields |
|---|---|
| Appearance | Theme |
| Time limit | Duration, Extend, Show Timer |
| Idle | Timeout, Show Warning (or a single Idle Timeout: Off row when idle timeout is disabled) |
| Controls | Show Stop Button |
If nothing is configured yet, the widget shows “This lab doesn’t have any settings configured yet”. Click the info icon for more details, or click Settings to open the Details tab and edit these fields.
Recent changes
Section titled “Recent changes”The Recent changes widget shows your lab’s commit history for the currently selected branch.
If your lab is connected to a repository, you’ll see the repository name with a GitHub icon, linking to the Version control tab in Project settings, followed by up to 5 recent commits. Each commit shows its message, author, date, and short commit hash. Click a commit to view it in the Change History tab, or click History to open the full change history.
If your lab isn’t connected to a repository yet, you’ll see a prompt to connect one instead, with a Connect repository button. See Integrating External Version Control for how to connect and disconnect a repository.
Summary
Section titled “Summary”The Lab Overview provides a centralized view of your lab’s configuration:
- Lab information (title, name, description)
- Content structure (chapters, pages, activities)
- Infrastructure (sandbox resources)
- Interface (UI tabs)
- Settings (appearance, time limit, idle, controls)
- Recent changes (commit history)
Use the Lab Overview as your starting point when opening a lab to quickly assess its current state.
Next Steps
Section titled “Next Steps”- Edit lab settings in the Details tab
- Manage content in the Instructions tab
- View commit history in the Change History tab
- Configure version control in Integrating External VCS