​
Quickstart Guide

Get up and running with Plato Hub in minutes. Create and deploy your first simulator with just a few commands.

​
Your First Simulator

1

Clone a Simulator

Clone an existing simulator:
plato hub clone custom-sim
cd custom-sim
This downloads the simulator code and sets up your local development.
2

Create Configuration

Create your plato-config.yml file:
plato-config.yml
compute:
  cpus: 1                    # Number of CPU cores for the VM
  memory: 2048               # Memory in MB for the VM
  disk: 10240                # Disk space in MB for the VM
  app_port: 8080             # Port your main application runs on
  plato_messaging_port: 7000 # Port for Plato worker communication

datasets:
  base:                      # Dataset name - you can have multiple
    entrypoint:
      type: "docker"         # How to start services (only "docker" supported)
      file: "docker-compose.yml"        # Path to your docker compose file
      healthy_wait_timeout: 300         # Seconds to wait for services to start
      required_services: ["*"]          # Services to wait for ("*" = all)
    mutation_listeners:      # Database monitoring configuration
      db:                    # Listener name (can be anything)
        type: "db"           # Type of listener (only "db" supported)
        db_type: "postgresql" # Database type
        db_host: "localhost" # Database host
        db_port: 5432        # Database port
        db_user: "app_user"  # Database user
        db_password: "password"          # Database password
        db_database: "app_db"            # Database name
This configuration defines your VM resources and how your simulator runs.
3

Deploy

Push your changes to deploy:
plato hub git push
That’s it! Your simulator is now deployed and ready to use.Your deployed simulator is accessible as:
  • Service: custom-sim
  • Version: {git-commit-hash} (e.g., a1b2c3d)
  • Tag: {git-branch-name} (e.g., main, feature-auth)

​
Project Structure

Your simulator project needs just one required file: 
custom-sim/
  plato-config.yml           # Required: VM and service configuration
  
  # Your app files - organize however you like
  src/
  app/
  config/
  docker-compose.yml
  ...
plato-config.yml - The only required file. Defines your VM resources, datasets, and how services start.

​
Configuration Reference

​
Compute Section

The compute section defines the VM resources for your simulator:
  • cpus (1-8) - Number of CPU cores allocated to the VM
  • memory (512-16384 MB) - RAM allocated to the VM
  • disk (1024-102400 MB) - Disk space for the VM
  • app_port (1024-65535) - Port your main application listens on
  • plato_messaging_port (1024-65535) - Port for Plato worker communication

​
Datasets Section

The datasets section defines different environments (base, test, production-copy, etc.):

​
Entrypoint Configuration

  • type - Always “docker” (only supported type)
  • file - Path to your docker-compose.yml file
  • healthy_wait_timeout (30-1800 seconds) - How long to wait for services to start
  • required_services - Array of service names to wait for, or [”*”] for all services

​
Mutation Listeners

Database monitoring configuration for tracking state changes:
  • type - Always “db” (only supported type)
  • db_type - Database type: “postgresql”, “mysql”, or “sqlite”
  • db_host - Database hostname or IP
  • db_port - Database port number
  • db_user - Database username
  • db_password - Database password
  • db_database - Database name

​
Multiple Datasets Example

datasets:
  base:
    entrypoint:
      file: "docker-compose.yml"
      required_services: ["web", "db"]  # Only wait for specific services
    mutation_listeners:
      main-db: { ... }
      
  test-data:
    entrypoint:
      file: "test/docker-compose.yml"
      healthy_wait_timeout: 600  # Longer timeout for test environment
    mutation_listeners:
      test-db: { ... }

​
Next Steps