Find your way around
By the end of this page you will know the four places you move around the platform from: the home launcher, the Dashboard page, the sidebar and the top header.
Some items below may be hidden on your platform if an administrator has switched that feature off. If a tile or sidebar entry mentioned here is missing, that is why — nothing is broken.
The home launcher
After you sign in you land on home — a launcher with a tile for each of your labs and for each part of the platform.
The top bar
| Item | What it does |
|---|---|
| Plan pill | Shows Pro or Free |
| MCP | Appears when AI connections are available to you. Shows how many clients are connected and lets you copy the server address. See MCP |
| Clock | The server's time — expiry countdowns are measured against it |
| Theme menu | Light, dark or automatic mode, and backgrounds. See Themes and appearance |
| Gear | My Account, Admin Panel (administrators only) and Sign out |
Search
Click Search labs & apps… or press Ctrl K (⌘K on a Mac) to jump to any lab or part of the platform by typing. The same search is behind the magnifier icon on every other page.
If your platform has an app store, a LabStore button sits next to the search box. See Store.
Your labs
The Labs tab shows your running labs, anything you pinned, and a Deploy a lab tile. A badge on the tab counts what is running. A second tab, Challenge Labs, does the same for security challenges.
With nothing running you see "Nothing running yet — deploy a lab to get started."
Each lab tile shows a status dot and, if the lab expires, a countdown. Tiles refresh on their own every half minute. Clicking a tile does its default action.
The tile menu
Click ⋯ on a lab tile for its menu:
| Item | What it does |
|---|---|
| Launch, Code editor, Dashboard, Connection info | Open the lab in that way. Mark one as the default and a plain click on the tile does it |
| Pin to top / Unpin from top | Keep the tile first in the grid |
| Customize icon | Pick an icon, brand logo or emoji, upload an image, or change its colour |
| Pause / Resume | Freeze the lab and bring it back. See Stop, pause and delete |
| Redeploy | Rebuild the lab from its saved settings |
| Stop | Stop the lab. Your home directory is kept |
| Renew | Extend the expiry. Shown only on labs that expire |
| Remove | Hide the tile from the launcher. The lab is not stopped or deleted |
A stopped lab gets a shorter menu. Removed tiles collect in a Removed row at the bottom of the grid, where one click restores them.
If a lab has no way to report that it is ready, launching it asks you to confirm with Launch anyway — it may still be starting up.
Platform tiles
Below your labs is one tile per part of the platform — for example Dashboard, My Devices, App Store, Machine Labs, Challenge Labs, Spot Quiz, Code Arena, Learn AI, Roadmaps, Syllabus AI, Discussions, Clubs, Clans, Feeling Lucky, Leaderboard, Services, Domains, Network and Access Keys. Which ones you see depends on how your platform is set up.
The Dashboard page
Open the Dashboard tile, or Dashboard at the top of the sidebar, for an overview of your progress and setup.
| Panel | What is in it |
|---|---|
| Welcome banner | Your Zeal and Jolt, your global rank, counts of quizzes, challenges, code problems, lessons and achievements, and shortcuts to the main areas |
| Clan | Your clan, or Browse Clans / Create One if you have none |
| Continue Learning | Three tabs: Your Activity (what you were doing), Your Setup (devices, linked domains, provisioned services, running labs) and Recommended |
| Explore | Roadmaps and lessons to start next |
| Connect | Clubs and discussions |
| Community Highlights | What others are doing |
| What's new? | Recent platform changes |
| Streak | Your daily streak. The ? button explains the rules — see Streaks |
| Smart Insights, Upcoming Events, Your Interests, Mistake Analysis, Guides | Right-hand column: suggestions, events, topics you follow, what you got wrong recently, and help articles |
The sidebar
On every page other than home, the sidebar on the left lists the platform by area. The toggle at the bottom folds it to icons; your choice is remembered.
| Group | Items | Documented in |
|---|---|---|
| — | Dashboard | The Dashboard page |
| — | Events | Events |
| Learn | Learn AI, Roadmap AI, Syllabus AI | Learn |
| Evaluate | Spot Quiz, Code Arena | Spot Quiz, Code Arena |
| Discuss | Recent, Clubs | Discussions, Clans and clubs |
| — | Feeling Lucky | Recommendations |
| Connectivity | My Devices, My Network, My Domains | Devices, Private networks, Domains |
| My Labs | Machine Labs, Challenge Labs, App Store | Labs, Challenge labs, Store |
| Instances | My Instances, My Templates, Workgroups | Running extra labs, Templates, Organizations and teams |
| — | Services | Databases and services |
| Clan Hall | My Clan, All Clans, Clan Leaderboard | Clans and clubs |
| Mastery Hall | Global, CTF, Quiz and Code Arena Leaderboard, League of Ronin | Leaderboards |
Numbers beside items such as My Devices and Machine Labs count what you currently have.
Your administrator can add extra links of their own near the top of the sidebar.
The top header
Every page other than home has a header across the top.
| Item | What it does |
|---|---|
| Home, Back, breadcrumbs | Return to the launcher, go back, or jump up a level |
| Search | The same Ctrl K search as on home |
| LabStore | Open the store, if your platform has one |
| Envelope | Your notifications, with an unread count. See Notifications |
| Theme menu | Colour mode and backgrounds |
| Codex | Your league avatar with your Zeal and Jolt. Opens a panel with your balances, Ongoing Missions (with timers), Available Challenges and Completed Missions |
| Avatar | Your account menu — see below |
| Chat | The icon at the far right opens the Global Chat side panel, including Pinned Messages |
The avatar menu
The top of the menu shows your name, your VPN Status, and your plan (Pro Plan or Free Tier). If you belong to an organization or department, a Switch account list appears here too — see Acting as an organization.
| Item | What it does |
|---|---|
| Visual Blur | Frosted-glass panels on or off |
| My Account | Your public profile page |
| Rank & Privileges | What your Zeal unlocks. See Zeal and Jolt |
| Change Background | Pick or create a background |
| My Files | Files you have uploaded |
| MCP | Your AI connections, when available to you |
| Account Settings | Limits, storage, SSH keys, sessions and appearance. See Account settings |
| Logout | Sign out |
Next steps
- Account settings — everything behind Account Settings
- Plans and limits — what your plan allows
- Deploy your first lab — if you have not yet