Lab 1: First Steps

Getting Started with the Chat Playground

Lab Overview

Welcome to your first lab! In this session, you'll get familiar with the playground project and meet Eliza, a simple local chatbot. You'll learn about the project structure and basic bot functionality.

Skill Level: 1 Prerequisites: None

Exercises

Exercise 1.A: Learn about the playground project

Skill Level: 1 Prerequisites: None
Directions:

Navigate to the GitHub repository. Review the "README" file to become familiar with the project structure, purpose, and how it works.

Exercise 1.B: Meet Eliza

Skill Level: 1 Prerequisites: None
Directions:

Navigate to the live app. Have a chat with Eliza. Remember that it's a local, simple bot, so not that smart, but totally local and free.

Exercise 1.C: Analyze Eliza

Skill Level: 1 (2 for extra credit) Prerequisites: None
Directions:

Navigate to Eliza's rule set in the repo and review it. Note that she's far simpler than a real LLM, but this simplicity means it's lightning fast and free, which is great for a playground.

View Eliza's Rules

Extra Credit:

Review the SimpleBot JavaScript code that processes the rules and creates the bot at runtime.

View SimpleBot Code

Key Learning Points

Next Steps

Once you've completed these exercises, you'll be ready to move on to Lab 2: Broken Bot, where you'll learn about security vulnerabilities and guardrails.