Start with the digital-twin boundary

A lab you can trust has clear edges: who owns what, and who is allowed to change it. netplex. draws four lines, in plain words. This page is the short version.

1. Intent - your lab file, in Git. What you want is a file: lab.npx.yml plus one plain-text config per device. It lives in your Git folder, so git diff shows exactly what changed and you can go back any time. netplex. does not keep the only copy.

2. Plan and apply - netplex. shows the change before it happens. netplex lab plan writes nothing. It lists what would be added, changed or deleted, what restarts, and what is destructive. netplex lab push then applies the same plan you reviewed, matched by its hash, so you never apply something you did not see.

3. Execute - netplex. runs it. Starting devices, wiring links and cleaning up afterwards are done by netplex.'s own runtimes (QEMU, Docker, IOL and others). You do not script this part.

4. Automate - your tools drive it. If you want Terraform, Ansible, a CI job or an AI tool, use the REST API, the CLI or the MCP server. We left Terraform and Ansible out of the product on purpose: they belong on your side of the line, and the plan above is the same for every caller.

Presentation is state. Where each device sits on the canvas, the drawings and labels you add, and the look of the lab are saved in the lab file too. Clone the folder and the lab opens looking the same.

No management network is added behind your back. Devices get only the links you draw. A new device starts with no network at all, no automatic IP address and no hidden route to the internet. Internet access appears only when you wire the device to a Cloud gateway node.

Offline is normal. None of this needs the internet. The plan, the apply and the Git loop all work on an isolated network.

The questions people actually ask:

• Does netplex. replace Git? No. Git holds the intent; netplex. reads and writes that folder.
• Can an AI tool change my lab without asking? Only if you set the approval policy to allow. The default is ask, and netplex. enforces it, not the AI tool.
• How does this compare with other tools? See the comparison pages.