Meshery Academy

This repo is the official content repository for the Meshery Academy, which can be run stand-alone or alongside your Meshery deployment(s) for an integrated learning experience. This academy contains learning paths, challenges, and certifications, helping engineers learn how to manage cloud-native infrastructure with Meshery.

Academies as Meshery Extensions

Academies are modular, Git-native learning management systems (LMS), which can be run stand-alone and/or as an extension of your Meshery deployment(s) for an integrated learning experience. Academies emphasize hands-on, cloud-native education (AI, Cloud, Kubernetes, CNCF projects, configuration and infrastructure management) through structured curricula, interactive Labs, embedded visualizations, and verifiable credentials.

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Purpose	Primary source of Meshery learning content
Platform	Runs stand-alone or alongside your Meshery deployment(s)
Authoring	Markdown-based content with live local preview via Hugo
Content types	Learning paths · Challenges · Certifications · Infrastructure designs
Org ID	c5ada327-8a58-4c8a-b9fa-51b95696488c

📚 Overview

Features

• Git-native authoring & no vendor lock-in — Content lives in Git repositories (starter template: academy-example). Authors use Markdown + YAML frontmatter, custom Hugo shortcodes, and PR-based workflows. Hugo generates the static site.

• Meshery integration — Embed live, editable cloud-native designs, visualizations, and contextual infrastructure directly into Pages, Labs, and other content.

• Hands-on focus — Dedicated Labs, scenario-based Challenges, and interactive assessments alongside traditional content.

• Three curriculum types — Learning Paths (comprehensive teaching), Challenges (practical/problem-solving), and Certifications (formal validation). Each optimized for different goals.

• Advanced assessment engine — Quizzes, tests, and exams with multiple question types, progress gating, question banks, time limits, retakes, and strict scoring rules.

• Learner experience — Progress tracking and resumption, Learning Map sidebar navigation, central Study Area (Markdown + embedded media/interactives), content discovery via filters (type, level, tags, categories), and related content suggestions.

• Credentials — Free verifiable digital badges on completion of Learning Paths or Challenges; optional paid Certificates of Completion for Certifications (with shareable verification).

• Enterprise capabilities (white-labeling) — Multi-tenancy, custom branding (logos, colors), branded emails/notifications, custom shortcodes/CSS, and organization-specific content isolation.

• Local preview & publishing — make site (or Makefile targets) for authors; automated Git-based publishing workflows to hosted environments.

• Extensibility — Mix Markdown + HTML, custom CSS, reusable shortcodes (organization-specific in layouts/shortcodes/<org-uuid>/), and bundled assets (images/videos with size recommendations).

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🔗 Related Repositories

• meshery/meshery – Meshery core project
• meshery-extensions/meshery-academy – this repo
• meshery-extensions/digitalocean-academy
• meshery-extensions/tcslabs-academy

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🛠️ Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure you have the following installed:

Tool	Version	Link
Go	see go.mod	Install Go
Node.js / npm	see package.json	Install Node.js
Git	Latest	Install Git

(Note: Hugo Extended is managed locally via npm and does not need to be installed globally).

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🚀 Getting Started

1. Fork & Clone

# Fork this repository on GitHub, then clone your fork
git clone https://github.com/<your-username>/meshery-academy.git
cd meshery-academy

2. Install Dependencies

make setup

3. Run the Site Locally

Preferred: Start the Hugo development server with drafts and future content enabled, using the Makefile target:

make site

The site will be available at http://localhost:1313/academy/ (or the port shown in your terminal).

Note: The local preview uses basic styling. Full Academy branding is applied after content is integrated into the cloud platform.

4. Other Useful Commands

Command	Description
make setup	Install npm dependencies
make site	Build and run site locally with draft and future content enabled
make build	Build the site for production
make build-preview	Build site for preview draft and future content enabled (honors BASEURL)
make clean	Clear build cache and restart the dev server
make lint-fix	Fix Markdown linting issues with markdownlint-cli2
make check-go	Verify Go is installed locally
make theme-update	Update the academy-theme Hugo module to the latest version

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📁 Repository Structure

meshery-academy/
├── .github/                         # GitHub-related resources and automation
|   ├── archive/meetings             # Archived meeting minutes and discussion notes   
|   ├── assets/images                # README assets
│   ├── build/                       # Makefile includes
│   ├── ISSUE_TEMPLATE/              # Templates for bug reports, feature requests, and documentation issues
|   ├── welcome/                     # Assets used in contributor welcome messages
│   ├── workflows/                   # CI/CD pipelines
│   └── PULL_REQUEST_TEMPLATE.md
├── content/                         # 📝 All learning content lives here
│   ├── _index.md                    # Site root page
│   ├── learning-paths/              # Learning paths
│   ├── certifications/              # Certification content
│   ├── challenges/                  # Challenge content
│   └── content-formatting-examples/ # Examples of Markdown and Hugo shortcodes
├── layouts/                         # Hugo layout overrides & shortcodes
│   ├── _partials/                   # Partial templates
│   └── shortcodes/                  # Custom Hugo shortcodes
├── static/                          # Static assets
├── public/                          # Generated site output (git-ignored)
├── resources/                       # Hugo resource cache
├── go.mod / go.sum                  # Go module dependencies
├── hugo.yaml                        # Hugo configuration
├── Makefile                         # Build & development commands
├── package.json                     # Node.js dependencies
└── README.md                        # Project documentation

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✍️ Content Authoring

Content Hierarchy

The Academy content follows this structure: Learning Path → Course → Chapter → Lesson.

content/
└── learning-paths/
    ├── _index.md
    └── <orgID>
        └── <your-learning-path>/
            ├── _index.md
            └── <your-course>/
                ├── _index.md
                └── content/
                    ├── lesson-1.md
                    └── lesson-2.md

How to Add an Image

1. Place your image files directly in the same directory as your markdown content (Page Bundling method):

content/learning-paths/<orgID>/
└── your-course/
    └── your-module/
        ├── _index.md
        └── meshery-logo.png

How to Add a Video

Embed videos in a visually distinct card using:

{{</*card title="Video: Example" */>}}
<video width="100%" height="100%" controls>
    <source src="https://example.com/your-video.mp4" type="video/mp4">
    Your browser does not support the video tag.
</video>
{{</* /card*/>}}

How to Add a Meshery Design

1. Place Design Assets Put your design files (e.g., cdn.js, design YAMLs) alongside your course or module content, ideally following the same directory conventions used for images.

2. Embed Using the meshery-design-embed Shortcode In your markdown file, use:

{{< meshery-design-embed
id="embedded-design-0e3abb9c-39e7-4d09-b46f-26a0238c3c3d"
src="cdn.js"
>}}

• Replace id with the unique identifier for your design.
• Replace src with the path to your JS asset responsible for rendering.

Always use these shortcodes for images, videos, and embedded designs. This keeps assets portable, ensures they resolve correctly for each organization, and integrates properly with the Academy platform’s build and deployment flow.

Adding Assessments

Assessment files use the Academy test layout. Question and option IDs must be unique within their scope.

---
title: "Assessment Example"
id: "assessment-example"
type: "test"
layout: "test"
passPercentage: 70
maxAttempts: 3
timeLimit: 30
numberOfQuestions: 1
questions:
  - id: "q1"
    text: "Meshery Academy content is authored in Markdown."
    type: "true-false"
    marks: 1
    options:
      - id: "true"
        text: "True"
        isCorrect: true
      - id: "false"
        text: "False"
---

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Local Development

To preview your content locally, run:

make setup
make site

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Deploying & Going Live

Once your learning path content is ready and tested locally, open a pull request in this repository.

Meshery Extension contributors and maintainers will review and merge your changes.

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Contributing

We welcome contributions to improve:

• Content accuracy and clarity
• Additional learning paths, challenges, or certifications
• Shortcodes, layouts, and formatting

1. See CONTRIBUTING.md for details on branching, committing, and opening PRs.
2. Please review our CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md and SECURITY.md before contributing.

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Resources

• Community Slack: https://slack.meshery.io/

Happy Learning!