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Astrona CLI

Astrona spins up local Kubernetes labs with kind, backed by whichever container runtime you have — Docker or Podman — or as a QEMU virtual machine when a lab needs a full OS instead of a container. Everything about a lab — its cluster, its bootstrap steps, its grading rules — is driven by a single YAML config file.

Astrona is the CLI behind astrona.io's hands-on labs, and it works the same way whether a lab config comes from a local directory, a URL, or a git repository — so anyone can author and run their own labs without the platform.

What it does

  • Local kind clusters — auto-detects Docker or Podman on your PATH and creates/deletes the kind cluster accordingly, no manual provider flags needed.
  • QEMU VM labs — for labs that need a real OS (not just a container), runtime.type: qemu boots one or more VMs from a base image, with SSH wired up automatically.
  • Config from anywhere — point --config/-c at a local directory, a local file, an http(s):// URL, or a git repository via --git.
  • Bootstrap — run init scripts and apply Kubernetes manifests when a lab starts.
  • Testing stage — a CI-only stage that applies a reference solution, so a lab author can prove their own lab is actually solvable and passes grading before publishing it.
  • Proctor grading — a student never grades their own work: astrona submit hands the environment to the Proctor, which runs declarative checks and/or custom scripts and returns a PASS/FAIL verdict.
  • CI-friendly — astrona test runs the whole bootstrap → testing → submit → teardown pipeline in one command, with --junit-xml output for any CI system that understands JUnit.

Where to go next