Our demo systems are valuable resources designed to help all internal team members throughout the sales cycle. See a full list of our supported systems [here](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/customer-success/solutions-architecture/coe/demo-architecture/da-infra-navigation-project/-/blob/main/README.md). We want you to make the most of these tools and encourage you to reach out for support whenever needed.
## Important Boundaries
-**Internal use focus**: These instances are not intended as platforms to freely provide access and licenses to friends, family, or external parties who are not customers.
-**Customer account restrictions**: Outside of Learn Labs, customers should not be provisioned accounts on these instances due to potential exposure to red data.
-**Exception process**: We understand that special circumstances may arise with customers. In such cases, please contact the Demo Architecture Team first for approval.
## Compliance
Team members who don't adhere to these guidelines may temporarily lose access to demo instances until the matter is resolved with manager approval.
## What We Encourage
-**Full utilization of all demo tools**: These systems exist to be used! Don't hesitate to explore their capabilities.
-**Learning through experience**: Accidents happen! If you accidentally take down an instance or make an admin mistake while learning, that's completely fine when done in good faith.
-**Not worrying about overuse**: The platforms are built to handle your needs. There's no need to worry about using too many minutes or resources - that's exactly what they're there for.
-**Asking questions**: Our team is here to help. Reach out with any questions or for support when needed.
## Support Contact
For questions, exception requests, or support, please reach out to the COE Demo Architecture Team in the internal #demo-architect-partners Slack channel.
All team members are encouraged to contribute their pre-sales or post-sales workshops to be supported by the COE team's infrastructure. By doing so, your workshop will be added to Learn Labs, making it easy for you and other sales teams across the organization to repeat your events seamlessly. Contributing your content allows others to leverage your work and hopefully contribute back as well. We accept a wide variety of content types.
### Guidelines
1.**Broad Applicability**: The content should not be specific to a single customer. It should be repeatable and relevant for any customer, regardless of region. Targeted vertical content is accepted and encouraged, but please keep in mind that others may use it for non-vertical customers as well. While it's acceptable to suggest multiple workshops focused on a specific topic like AI, please do your due diligence to ensure your content is not redundant with existing workshops. All existing workshop content will be viewable through the [Demo Architect Portal](https://cloud.gitlabdap.com/) and stored in the [Learn Labs sample projects](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-learn-labs/sample-projects)
2.**Setup Instructions**: If your workshop requires additional resource setup (e.g., attaching a cluster), please include clear setup instructions.
3.**Styling Guidelines**:
- Write all hands-on steps in Markdown, assuming they will be added as issues for the customer.
- Use **bold** for anything the customer needs to click.
- Use *italics* for anything the customer needs to look at.
- Include a title with `[[_TOC_]]` at the top of every issue.
- Number prep work steps starting at 0. Otherwise, start at step 1.
- Make code copyable when possible. For example:
```plaintext
How to enable experimental and beta AI features for GitLab Duo?
```
Requiring students to write out instructions often leads to problems.
- Link to relevant documentation when possible. For example:
> [Docs for GitLab Discussion Summary](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/user/discussions/index.html#summarize-issue-discussions-with-duo-chat)
- For extensive code changes, provide a "finished" branch for each issue. For example if the goal of the exercise is to show a DAG, have a branch called "finished DAG" available on the project. [Example](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-learn-labs/sample-projects/tanuki-racing/-/tree/DAG?ref_type=heads)
- Reference this [sample file](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-learn-labs/sample-projects/tanuki-racing/-/blob/main/Courses/Workshops/Duo_Enterprise/1_Modern_Development_With_GitLab_AI.md?ref_type=heads) for guidance.
4.**Things to Avoid**:
- Stay within the GitLab platform whenever possible - including the use of the Web IDE versus local IDEs. Requiring customers to download separate IDEs or other tools can lead to issues with firewalls, versioning, and security.
- Avoid [experimental or early development features](https://docs.gitlab.com/development/documentation/experiment_beta/), as they may have unexpected outages and frequent changes. If you must include one, clearly call it out in the instructions.
- Be mindful of workshop length. If it approaches 3 hours, consider breaking up the content.
- Prioritize accessibility for both slides and content. Ensure high contrast to avoid issues for people with color blindness.
- Currently, we do not support top-level group owner demos. Assume students will be owners of a subgroup but will have zero access to the top-level group.
### Expectations
Once your workshop content is contributed through the [Demo Architect Portal](https://cloud.gitlabdap.com/), the COE team will review it and work with you to get it polished and added to our infrastructure. We'll handle the technical setup so you can focus on delivering engaging workshops.
By contributing, you're helping build a valuable resource for the entire sales organization. We appreciate your collaboration in creating impactful, reusable workshop content. If you have any questions during the contribution process, don't hesitate to reach out to the [COE Demo Architecture team](https://gitlab.enterprise.slack.com/archives/C05E9EG6M5W) for guidance.
