Labs Companion - akash-coded/aws-bedrock-agentcore-strands GitHub Wiki
The L.A.B. Simulator: Learn → Apply → Break. Auto-graded, decision-driven labs, every one offline and without an AWS account.
Open the labs on GitHub ↗ · the pathway · grade one in the Arena
Each lab has three phases, and the Break phase is the point:
| Phase | What happens | |
|---|---|---|
| L | Learn | A mental model, a diagram, and one decision you must make — with the trade-offs laid out and the answer withheld. Your decision changes what you build. |
| A | Apply | Implement against a spec. Public checks you can see, hidden checks on submit. Every check says what it teaches when it fails. |
| B | Break | Your working solution meets the cases that end real runs: BaseException from a library, a chunk bigger than the whole budget, a summariser that returns more than it was given. Survive them. |
In Codespaces, open one and type lab next. Locally:
python labs/runner/labctl.py list # the catalog
python labs/runner/labctl.py next # what you can start right now
python labs/runner/labctl.py start PDL-01 # copies a starter into your workspace
python labs/runner/labctl.py show PDL-01 # the brief
python labs/runner/labctl.py run PDL-01 # public checks
python labs/runner/labctl.py submit PDL-01 # public + hidden, records the attempt
python labs/runner/labctl.py break PDL-01 # now survive the Break phase
python labs/runner/labctl.py progress # per-track progress bars10 labs built · 4h 40m of hands-on work · every one runs offline, with no AWS account.
Decide what to build before building it
| Lab | Difficulty | Time | Teaches | Break phase |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PDL-01 · Agent, workflow, or script | easy |
25m | autonomy ladder, control flow, scoping | ✓ |
The loop, by hand, until nothing is magic
| Lab | Difficulty | Time | Teaches | Break phase |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AGL-01 · Dispatch a tool call | easy |
20m | tool dispatch, toolUse / toolResult, unknown-tool handling | ✓ |
| AGL-02 · Close the loop | easy |
25m | message history, role alternation, parallel tool calls | ✓ |
| AGL-03 · Stop the loop | medium |
30m | termination, step budget, oscillation | ✓ |
Schemas, contracts and honest failure
| Lab | Difficulty | Time | Teaches | Break phase |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| TOOL-03 · Fail honestly: no bare empties | medium |
25m | failure honesty, empty vs absent, tool contracts | ✓ |
What the agent keeps, and what it drops
| Lab | Difficulty | Time | Teaches | Break phase |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MEM-01 · A buffer that cannot overflow | medium |
30m | context budget, eviction policy, summarisation threshold | ✓ |
Grounding you can actually verify
| Lab | Difficulty | Time | Teaches | Break phase |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| RET-05 · Citations that survive verification | medium |
35m | citation integrity, grounding, provenance | ✓ |
Topologies, and what they cost
| Lab | Difficulty | Time | Teaches | Break phase |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MAS-02 · Cost a topology before you build it | medium |
30m | handoff multiplier, context re-transmission, merge cost | ✓ |
Proving it works, and blocking it when it does not
| Lab | Difficulty | Time | Teaches | Break phase |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EVAL-03 · A gate that can say no | medium |
30m | release gating, absolute vs average metrics, threshold governance | ✓ |
Deployed, observable, reversible
| Lab | Difficulty | Time | Teaches | Break phase |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PROD-02 · Failover that cannot be silent | medium |
30m | model failover, silent degradation, observable fallback | ✓ |
More labs are specified and open for contribution: the full pathway is the 41-lab map, and how to author one is the guide.
| Lab | Difficulty | Time | Learn it in |
|---|---|---|---|
| AGL-01 · Dispatch a tool call | easy |
20 min | Module 05 · The Agent Loop: No Framework to Strands |
| AGL-02 · Close the loop | easy |
25 min | Module 05 · The Agent Loop: No Framework to Strands |
| AGL-03 · Stop the loop | medium |
30 min | Module 05 · The Agent Loop: No Framework to Strands |
| EVAL-03 · A gate that can say no | medium |
30 min | Module 13 · Agentic QA and Evaluation |
| MEM-01 · A buffer that cannot overflow | medium |
30 min | Module 09 · LLM Memory Mechanics |
| MAS-02 · Cost a topology before you build it | medium |
30 min | Module 07 · Multi-Agent Patterns with Strands |
| PDL-01 · Agent, workflow, or script | easy |
25 min | Module 00 · Agentic Foundations |
| PROD-02 · Failover that cannot be silent | medium |
30 min | Module 14 · End-to-End Production Pipeline |
| RET-05 · Citations that survive verification | medium |
35 min | Module 10 · RAG, OpenSearch and LiteLLM |
| TOOL-03 · Fail honestly: no bare empties | medium |
25 min | Module 06 · Strands Foundations: Tools, Memory and MCP |
Post /drill AGL-101 in the Simulator Arena and a bot grades it in the thread; progress lands on the Scoreboard.
| Setup | You get | |
|---|---|---|
| 🚀 Codespaces | One click | Everything — hidden checks, progress, the DAG, briefs beside your editor |
| 💻 Local |
git clone, Python 3.11+ |
The same, on your machine |
| 💬 Simulator Arena | None. A comment box | Public + Break checks, graded by a bot in the thread |
The course companion · Teach it: the cohort kit · Exercises with answers
✏️ This page is generated from labs/README.md and the lab manifests, an edit made here is replaced at the next sync.