Quick start¶

The fastest way to a running Moodle is to open the hosted app — no install, no server, nothing leaves your browser.

Try it online¶

Open moodle-playground.com.
Wait for the runtime to boot (a full Moodle runs in your browser via WebAssembly — first boot takes a few seconds).
Log in with the default admin account:

Username	Password
`admin`	`password`

State is ephemeral

Everything runs in memory. A reload keeps your data within the same tab session, but closing the tab destroys it and clicking Reset Playground starts fresh. Do not use it to store real data.

Load a blueprint¶

A blueprint is a JSON file that provisions an instance at boot (courses, users, plugins, and more). Load one by adding ?blueprint-url= to the app URL:

https://moodle-playground.com/?blueprint-url=/assets/blueprints/examples/course-with-content.blueprint.json

This boots a Moodle with a ready-made course. Browse the other shipped examples and learn how to write your own in the Blueprints overview.

Run it locally in 3 commands¶

You only need a local copy to develop or contribute. Install Node.js 18+, Git, and PHP 8.3 with pdo_sqlite (make bundle runs PHP to build the install snapshot), then:

npm install
make prepare && make bundle
make serve

Then open http://localhost:8080.

Why a local server?

The playground relies on a service worker, which only registers on https:// or http://localhost. Opening index.html from the filesystem will not work.

For the full toolchain (all Moodle branches, PHP/Composer requirements, docs preview, tests, and lint) see Run it locally.

Next steps¶

Blueprints overview — provision courses, users, and plugins.
Basic usage — navigate the app, switch versions, and reset state.
Architecture — how the browser-only runtime works.
PR previews — test pull requests in the playground.