Load an existing lab (attach only)

LOAD attaches to an existing EVE lab without owning its topology. You operate the lab that already exists on the server. There is no managed clone and no Git copy of topology.yml or configs/.

This is different from Import an existing lab: import snapshots the source into Git and creates a managed working copy. LOAD only records which lab to talk to.

When to use LOAD

Goal Mode
Adopt a lab into Git and edit YAML import
Start, stop, wipe, inspect, or console on a lab you do not manage in Git load
Author a new lab from scratch create

LOAD is read-only for topology. You cannot validate YAML, deploy, plan, reconcile, destroy, or pull presentation. The agent allows status, inspect, and exec (start, stop, wipe).

VS Code / Cursor

  1. Connect to the agent.
  2. Sidebar → Load Lab.
  3. Choose the existing EVE lab path (for example /Customers/OSPF.unl).
  4. The extension creates IaC/<name>/.eve-iac.yml with mode: load only.

Use the sidebar or AI tools for lifecycle and consoles. Selecting the lab does not start or stop nodes.

CLI (local marker, then agent ops)

Create the LOAD context on disk (no agent call, no URL required):

eve-iac load /Customers/OSPF.unl

Default output directory: ./IaC/<basename>/ (basename of the lab path without .unl).

Explicit directory:

eve-iac load /Customers/OSPF.unl ./IaC/ospf-watch

Custom name when using the default ./IaC/<name>/ layout:

eve-iac load /Customers/OSPF.unl --name ospf-watch

The marker looks like:

version: 1
mode: load

source:
  lab: /Customers/OSPF.unl

Then configure the agent and run LOAD-allowed operations:

export EVE_IAC_URL=https://eve.example:8787
export EVE_IAC_CA_FILE=./eve-iac-ca.pem
eve-iac session
eve-iac status ./IaC/ospf-watch
eve-iac inspect ./IaC/ospf-watch --refresh
eve-iac exec ./IaC/ospf-watch start
eve-iac exec ./IaC/ospf-watch stop
eve-iac exec ./IaC/ospf-watch wipe --yes

plan, deploy, reconcile, destroy, validate, and import are rejected locally for LOAD projects.

Inspect vs import snapshot

Inspect uses a light live snapshot (observation only, no ZIP export). It does not write topology.yml locally. To adopt a lab into Git, use import, not LOAD + inspect.

Next steps