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"I always start stuff although I tell myself I don't have time for it... and yet, here we are."

netlab-ui is a web interface for netlab (ipspace/netlab). Build and edit network lab topologies visually, work with netlab YAML, and deploy labs from your browser. It supports containerlab containers, libvirt virtual machines, and external devices, with features depending on the provider.

Use the visual topology editor to add nodes and links, configure netlab modules, and inspect your lab. Deploy and destroy labs, open device shells, run commands across nodes, and explore live traffic and network reports from the same UI.

The canvas is powered by clab-ui, with netlab-specific editors and lifecycle actions implemented in this project.

Try the UI preview · Quick start · Features and provider support

In action

Draw labs on a canvas Open a netlab topology as a diagram and edit it there — nodes, links and netlab's own interface names.	Deploy with live progress One click on Deploy, then watch nodes come up as containerlab starts them and Ansible configures them.
Every running lab, one place to clean up See every lab netlab is tracking on the host, then shut one down, force a cleanup, or forget a stale record.	Everything one keystroke away Ctrl+P finds labs, nodes, IP addresses, AS numbers and actions — and lights up what it found on the canvas.
Edit nodes the netlab way Device, modules, custom configs and a preview of the exact configuration netlab generates.	netlab plugins, documented in place Browse every netlab plugin, switch them on per lab, see what they hook into, and read the manual behind the info button.
A shell on every node Terminals in the browser — the device CLI or Linux shell netlab connect would give you.	One command, every node Send a command to a group of nodes and read every answer, one collapsible section per node. show commands go to each device's CLI.
Lenses: one lab, every view Physical cabling, addressing, routing, services, paths and live traffic: switch the canvas between views of the same running lab.	Break things on purpose Take a link down or add delay and loss from its menu — then watch the routing protocols react.
Validate the lab, then break it Run the lab's netlab validate tests, then a fault test: take a link down, check the fabric holds, and get a pass/fail verdict.	Monitor any lab, with Grafana inside Health against the topology, per-link and per-protocol metrics, and Grafana dashboards in a tab, for FRR or any other vendor.
See what changed on the devices Snapshot every node's running config, change things by hand, and get a per-device diff of exactly what moved.	netlab reports, interactive Addressing, BGP, OSPF and wiring reports as searchable tables, rendered HTML or text — download any format.
Bring your own AI agent Claude Code, Codex, Copilot, Kiro or any MCP tool, connected to the lab. It proposes changes; you review the diff.

Quick start

netlab-ui is the one tool to install. It finds your netlab, or installs one for you in a private environment, and drives it from there (netlab-ui upgrade updates the UI itself):

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Muddyblack/netlab-ui/main/packaging/install.sh | bash
netlab-ui                  # then open http://127.0.0.1:8000
netlab-ui netlab install   # only if you have no netlab yet (or press "Install netlab for me" in Settings → Environment)

Already have netlab, or a checkout you test pull requests with? It uses the first netlab on your PATH, or netlab-ui netlab use /path/to/netlab (plus [tools.env] for a PYTHONPATH). See docs/install.md for options, NixOS and updating. Or run the UI as a container; it runs the netlab and containerlab you have on the host, as you, on any distribution:

docker compose -f https://github.com/Muddyblack/netlab-ui.git up -d        # answer Y at the prompt (or add -y); labs live in ~/netlab-labs

Open http://localhost:8000. The flags that matter, multi-user setups and building it yourself are in docs/container.md. To run from source instead, see CONTRIBUTING.md.

Documentation

Features	Shortcuts, run on nodes, search, running configs, exercises, live traffic, faults, packet capture, providers, reports
Monitoring	The netlab monitoring plugin: metrics, routing-protocol state and Grafana dashboards for any lab and vendor — also usable without the UI
AI agents	Start Claude Code, Codex, Copilot, Kiro and more connected to your lab, or connect any MCP tool; review what it proposes
Installing on Linux	The install script, updating, NixOS module, remote access
Running as a container	Images, required flags, several users on one server
Desktop app	The Electron shell around the same UI
Architecture	How netlab-ui builds on clab-ui and netlab
netlab docs: netlab-ui	netlab-ui as a netlab external tool (tools: [netlab-ui]); the page goes live once ipspace/netlab#3913 is merged
Contributing	Dev setup, checks, API types, clab-ui patches, showcase

Thanks

None of this exists without ipspace/netlab and srl-labs/containerlab-app (clab-ui) / srl-labs/containerlab doing the actual hard work underneath. Big thanks to SRL Labs and Nokia for open-sourcing and maintaining tools this good ❤️