Labs

Labs are reusable, hands-on exercises that can be referenced from multiple courses. Each lab is self-contained and follows a shared structure so learners encounter a consistent experience across the academy.

Available labs

• Hello Pico — a first Pico walkthrough, referenced from the pico course. Machine-readable descriptor: labs/hello-pico/metadata.yaml.
• Hello Pico on Kubernetes — the first Crossplane lab: compose the same greeting onto a local Kubernetes cluster using an XHelloWorldPico XRD, a pipeline-mode Composition, and provider-kubernetes. Referenced from the crossplane course. Machine-readable descriptor: labs/hello-pico-on-kubernetes/metadata.yaml.

Lab structure

Each lab lives under labs/<name>/ and follows the shared lab template under templates/lab/ (in-repo scaffold, not published as a learner page):

labs/<name>/
  README.qmd         # Overview and entry point
  objectives.qmd     # Learning objectives and prerequisites
  walkthrough.qmd    # Step-by-step guidance
  solution.qmd       # Reference solution
  metadata.yaml      # Machine-readable descriptor (id: oe.lab.<slug>)
  downloads/         # Starter files and downloads
  screenshots/       # Screenshots used in the walkthrough

Labs are intentionally separate from courses so they can be reused: a single lab can appear in more than one course path. Cross-references (from lab to course, and from course to lab) live in the referenced_by / references_labs fields of the respective metadata.yaml files.

See also

• Exercises — smaller, focused practice tasks standardized alongside labs. Reference exemplar: exercises/pico-first-rule/.
• Courses — course sites that reference these labs.