Quick Start

Open the workspace

Go to chinilla.dev/workspace in your browser.

Pick a starting point

The launcher gives you three options:

1. Guided Wizard - Answer a few questions (domain, workflow, scale, concerns) and review an AI-generated first draft
2. Template - Start from a pre-built system. Three categories:
   • Lessons - Small, focused templates that teach specific behaviors (Pipeline Basics, Branching & Merging, Resilience Patterns, Batch & Scale, Full Loop)
   • Software - Backend architectures (E-Commerce, Microservices, IoT Pipeline)
   • Business - Real-world workflows (Coffee Shop, Food Delivery, Hospital ER, Factory Floor, Pottery Business)
3. Blank Canvas - Drop components manually

First time? Start with a Lesson template. Each component has a detailed description explaining what its behavior does and what to watch for when you run the simulation.

Your first design (manual)

1. Press A or click the Add button to open the component palette
2. Drag a Client and an API onto the canvas
3. Press C or select the Connect tool, then click the Client followed by the API
4. Double-click a component to edit its name, description, and metrics

Simulate

Click Play to run the deterministic runtime. Watch packets flow through your connections, see where queues build up, and spot the first bottleneck. Open the Runtime Panel (R key) for live metrics, stability analysis, and stress test controls.

Stress test

Open the Stress Test tab in the Runtime Panel to push your design harder:

• Quick Scenarios - One-click presets: Baseline, Peak Traffic, Outage, Slowdown
• Traffic controls - Adjust request count (up to 20) and arrival pattern
• Fault injection - Kill a component or inject latency to simulate degraded performance

Iterate

Use the AI chat (H key) to ask for improvements, or manually add components to address bottlenecks. Re-run the simulation to confirm progress.