What Runs Here
The terminal gives you access to two separate things at once. On the filesystem side, you can navigate directories, create files, and write YAML manifests just as you would on a real Linux machine. On the cluster side, kubectl connects to an in-memory Kubernetes cluster where those manifests take effect.
Some supported commands:
| Category | Commands |
|---|---|
| Navigation | pwd, ls, cd, mkdir |
| File operations | cat, touch, rm, nano |
| Kubernetes | kubectl and all its subcommands |
Try the filesystem now. Run the following command to open a new file in the editor:
nano test.txtType anything, then save with Ctrl+S. Now display what you wrote:
cat test.txtNote that nano creates the file if it does not exist, so you never need touch first when editing. touch is useful only when you want an empty placeholder without opening an editor.
You created test.txt with nano and confirmed its content with cat. If you now click the reload icon below the terminal, will test.txt still be there?
Try it: Click the reload icon, then run ls.
Reveal answer
No. Resetting wipes both the cluster state and the virtual filesystem. Only your course progress tracked by the platform is preserved, not local files.
Mistakes Are Free
Breaking things here has no consequences. The reload icon below the terminal (or a page reload) resets both the cluster and the filesystem to their initial state. Use that deliberately: apply a broken manifest, delete a resource and observe what happens, change a value and check whether the behavior matches your expectation. Every failed attempt teaches more than reading about it.
Scope and Limitations
Not every Kubernetes feature is available in the simulator. The full list of supported commands and behaviors is on the supported features page. When a lesson uses something outside that scope, it says so explicitly. If you try a command or flag not covered in a lesson, the output may not match what a real cluster would produce.
For deeper exploration on your own machine, kind (Kubernetes in Docker) is the closest equivalent. The simulator outputs are aligned with kind, so what you observe here matches what you would get locally.
In the next lesson, you will see how this course maps to the three main Kubernetes certifications and where the Common Core fits in each path.