Conf T 🖥️

A professional CLI training tool for practicing command-line skills across multiple platforms.

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What is Conf T?

Conf T is an interactive, terminal-based learning tool that helps you practice real command-line commands across multiple environments — without needing access to live hardware or cloud instances.

You get a simulated shell prompt, type the command, and receive instant feedback. Missed it? Get a hint. Stuck? Skip and review later. Conf T tracks your progress so every session builds on the last.

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✨ Features

Feature	Description
🖥️ Simulated Prompts	Realistic shell prompts per platform (Router#, user@ubuntu:~$, PS C:\>)
✅ Smart Validation	Regex-based matching with alias support (e.g. conf t → configure terminal)
🔄 Review Mode	Automatically re-queues skipped/failed commands for targeted practice
💡 Hints & Explanations	Type hint for a nudge; get a full explanation after each answer
📊 Progress Tracking	Accuracy stats, completed lessons, and history saved locally
🧩 Extensible	Add new lessons by dropping a JSON file into conf_t/lessons/
🎫 Multiple Platforms	640+ tasks across Cisco IOS, Linux, PowerShell, Git, and Docker
📚 Structured Curriculum	Beginner → advanced learning paths with prerequisites and capstone labs
🗺️ Curriculum Browser	Difficulty grouping, progress icons, recommended next lesson, soft prerequisite warnings

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🚀 Quick Start

Requirements

• Python 3.10+

Install (recommended)

# Easiest — isolated global install (recommended)
pipx install conf-t

# Or with pip
pip install conf-t

# Launch
conf-t

# Jump straight into practice
conf-t --continue

Install from source (developers)

git clone https://github.com/Elshayib/conf-t.git
cd conf-t
pip install -e ".[dev]"
conf-t

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🎮 Usage

conf-t

You will be greeted with an interactive menu:

╔══════════════════════════════╗
║         Conf T  v0.4.0       ║
╚══════════════════════════════╝

? Select an option:
  › ★ Daily Review (3 due)     ← shown when tasks are ready
    1. Practice a Lesson
    2. Review All Failed Commands
    3. View Progress & Stats
    4. Reset All Progress
    5. Create a Custom Lesson
    6. Exit

Curriculum browser

When practicing a lesson, the curriculum browser groups lessons by difficulty, shows your progress (✓ ◐ ○) and passed/total · % (e.g. 7/12 · 58%), highlights a recommended next lesson, and lets you filter by topic tags. Prerequisites warn softly before starting. Re-entering a lesson lets you resume, start over, or pick a task to continue from.

Spaced repetition: failed commands resurface on a schedule (due now → 1 day → 3 days → 7 days). When tasks are due, Daily Review appears at the top of the main menu.

CLI flags

conf-t                              # interactive menu (default)
conf-t --continue                   # resume review, last lesson, or recommended next
conf-t --list                       # list all lessons
conf-t --list --platform Cisco      # filter by platform
conf-t --list --tags vlan,ospf      # filter by tags
conf-t --lesson cisco_basic         # start a lesson by ID
conf-t --review                     # daily review (due tasks)
conf-t --review-all                 # review entire failed queue
conf-t --stats                      # print progress and exit
conf-t --version

During a practice session:

Input	Action
hint	Show a hint without using an attempt
skip	Reveal the answer and move on
exit / quit	Confirm and exit the session

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📦 Lesson Library

Conf T ships with 68 lessons and 640 practice tasks across five platforms.

Platform	Lessons	Tasks	Focus
Cisco IOS	21	231	CCNA-aligned switching, routing, security, services
Linux	15	144	Shell, systemd, networking, scripting, troubleshooting
PowerShell	12	102	Cmdlets, pipeline, scripting, remoting, automation
Git	10	80	Workflow, branching, merging, recovery
Docker	10	83	Images, containers, compose, networking, volumes

Cisco IOS Curriculum (CCNA-aligned)

Difficulty	Lessons
Beginner	cisco_basic, cisco_show_commands, cisco_interface_basics
Intermediate	cisco_vlan_fundamentals, cisco_trunking_dtp, cisco_inter_vlan_routing, cisco_etherchannels, cisco_stp, cisco_static_routing, cisco_ospf_single_area, cisco_nat_pat, cisco_dhcp, cisco_acl_standard, cisco_port_security, cisco_ssh_hardening
Advanced	cisco_ospf_multiarea, cisco_acl_extended, cisco_wlan, cisco_qos, cisco_hsrp, cisco_troubleshooting_lab

Linux Curriculum

Difficulty	Lessons
Beginner	linux_basic, linux_file_operations, linux_text_processing, linux_package_management
Intermediate	linux_advanced, linux_permissions_deep, linux_process_management, linux_systemd, linux_networking, linux_users_groups, linux_cron_scheduling
Advanced	linux_lvm_storage, linux_firewall, linux_shell_scripting, linux_troubleshooting_lab

PowerShell, Git & Docker

Each platform follows a beginner → intermediate → advanced → capstone path. Capstone labs (*_troubleshooting_lab) mix scenarios from prior lessons. Use the in-app lesson browser to explore the full list.

Progress migration: v0.3.0 adds per-task progress (task_progress) and migrates existing failed_tasks automatically. Task IDs use the format lesson_id__action. Legacy v0.1.x progress should still be reset from the main menu if task IDs no longer match.

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🧩 Adding Custom Lessons

Create a .json file in conf_t/lessons/ using this schema:

{
  "id": "my_custom_lesson",
  "title": "My Custom Lesson",
  "platform": "Cisco",
  "description": "Short description of what this lesson covers.",
  "difficulty": "beginner",
  "tags": ["custom"],
  "prerequisites": ["cisco_basic"],
  "estimated_minutes": 15,
  "tasks": [
    {
      "id": "my_custom_lesson__configure_terminal",
      "prompt": "Enter global configuration mode.",
      "prefix": "Router#",
      "expected": "^configure\\s+terminal$",
      "aliases": ["conf t", "config t"],
      "hint": "The command starts with 'configure'.",
      "explanation": "'configure terminal' (or 'conf t') enters global config mode."
    }
  ]
}

Task ID convention: {lesson_id}__{action_slug} — globally unique across all lessons (required at scale).

Platform case rules:

• Cisco, PowerShell → case-insensitive matching
• Linux, Git, Docker → case-sensitive matching

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🏗️ Architecture

conf_t/
├── main.py        # Entry point — bootstraps the app
├── cli.py         # All UI/terminal rendering and menus
├── engine.py      # Business logic (pure Python, no UI)
├── models.py      # Data classes: Task, Lesson, SessionStats
└── lessons/       # JSON lesson files (one per lesson)

Design principle: engine.py is completely UI-agnostic — making it trivial to expose the engine via a REST API (FastAPI) or port it to a mobile/web frontend in the future.

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🤝 Contributing

Contributions, lesson packs, and bug reports are very welcome! Please read CONTRIBUTING.md before opening a PR.

See CHANGELOG.md for release history.

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📄 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License — see the LICENSE file for details.

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Made with ❤️ by Islam Elshayib