> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.ankra.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Playground

> A real, writable, ephemeral Kubernetes environment to try Ankra with - no cluster required.

## What Is the Playground?

The playground is a real, writable Kubernetes environment Ankra provisions just for you - a virtual cluster with its own API server, running on Ankra's infrastructure. Unlike a static demo, everything works: you deploy actual stacks through the actual pipeline, browse live resources, stream real logs, and ask the AI to build and ship things - all before connecting a cluster of your own.

<Note>
  Each organisation can have one playground at a time. It is provisioned on Ankra's shared playground infrastructure, isolated per organisation, and expires automatically after a few days of inactivity (you get a heads-up notification and email a day before).
</Note>

<Note>
  The playground replaces the old sandbox demo and is available to every organisation - there is nothing to enable. Organisations created before the change may still have a "sandbox-demo" cluster listed; it keeps working, but its deploys are simulated rather than run on real infrastructure. Start a playground for the real thing.
</Note>

***

## Key Characteristics

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Fully Writable" icon="pen">
    Deploy stacks, apply manifests, delete things, break things. It is a real cluster and it is yours alone.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Nothing to Install" icon="plug">
    Ankra provisions the environment and installs the agent for you. No helm command, no kubectl, no cloud account.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Starter Stack Included" icon="rocket">
    A small demo application deploys through the normal Ankra pipeline the moment your playground comes online - watch a real deploy land in the activity feed.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Ephemeral by Design" icon="hourglass">
    The playground expires after a few days (activity extends it). You are warned a day ahead, in-app and by email.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

***

## Starting a Playground

<Steps>
  <Step title="Choose the playground">
    On your first visit to Ankra you are offered the choice: connect your own cluster or try the playground. You can also start one any time from <b>Clusters</b> → <b>Try Playground</b>.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Wait about two minutes">
    Provisioning a real environment takes one to three minutes. The progress screen walks through the phases: reserving, starting the cluster, connecting the agent, deploying the starter stack.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Take the tour">
    You land on the cluster overview with a short tour that opens on your starter stack deploying live, then hands you the controls: deploy something yourself with the AI (press <code>⌘+J</code>).
  </Step>
</Steps>

<Tip>
  Try asking the AI: <i>"deploy nginx with 2 replicas"</i> - it builds the stack and ships it through the same pipeline your production deploys would use.
</Tip>

***

## What's Included

| What                | Details                                                                                                  |
| ------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **A real cluster**  | A single-tenant [vcluster](https://www.vcluster.com/) with its own API server, isolated per organisation |
| **The Ankra agent** | Pre-installed and connected - the platform manages it for you                                            |
| **A starter stack** | A small demo app deployed through the normal native-engine pipeline                                      |
| **Resource budget** | \~2 vCPU / 4 GiB memory, capped pods and storage - plenty for exploring                                  |
| **Direct deploys**  | Stacks deploy through the agent; no Git repository or credentials required                               |

***

## What You Can Do

Everything that works on an imported cluster works here:

* **Deploy stacks** - build them visually or ask the AI, and watch them come alive.
* **Browse live Kubernetes resources** - real pods, deployments, services, and events.
* **Stream logs and open terminals** - it is a real cluster.
* **Use the AI assistant** - analyse, deploy, troubleshoot.
* **Explore the activity feed** - every deploy and event, as it happens.

## Limits

* One playground per organisation; recreate it after expiry.
* A fixed resource budget (quota-enforced) and egress restricted to what deploys need - the playground is for trying Ankra, not for hosting workloads.
* No GitOps or cluster-access (kubeconfig) wiring - those are for clusters you own.

***

## Playground vs. Your Own Cluster

| Feature          | Playground               | Imported Cluster                         |
| ---------------- | ------------------------ | ---------------------------------------- |
| Setup            | One click, \~2 minutes   | One helm command on your cluster         |
| Ownership        | Ankra-hosted, ephemeral  | Yours, permanent                         |
| Write operations | Fully supported          | Fully supported                          |
| Resources        | Quota-capped budget      | Whatever your cluster has                |
| GitOps           | Not available            | Optional - add a repo for an audit trail |
| Lifetime         | Expires after a few days | Forever                                  |

***

## Ready for the Real Thing?

Everything you did in the playground works identically on your own cluster - connecting one takes a single helm command.

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Import a Cluster" icon="server" href="/guides/import-cluster">
    Follow the step-by-step guide to connect your real Kubernetes cluster.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Install the Agent" icon="download" href="/concepts/cluster-agent">
    Learn how to install and configure the Ankra Agent.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

***

Still have questions? [Join our Slack community](https://join.slack.com/t/ankra-community/shared_invite/zt-3a5rem8f8-cUho4epX2MoLT83bFf~VSA) and we'll help out.