Guided Tour¶

Walk through everything IAPM can do - without touching a single line of code. This tour takes about 15 minutes and covers both the Demo Grid and the Chaos Simulator.

Part 1 - Explore the Demo Grid¶

The Demo Grid is the fastest way to see IAPM 3D in action. It generates a realistic service topology with live telemetry data, all running locally on your machine.

Step 1: Launch IAPM 3D¶

Open IAPM 3D. If you haven't installed it yet, see the installation guide.

Step 2: Select the Demo Grid¶

In the grid picker, select "Demo". Within a few seconds, demo services will begin appearing on the Grid.

Step 3: Look Around the Grid¶

You're now standing on a live Grid populated with interconnected demo services. Take a moment to get oriented:

• Services appear as blocks on the Grid surface, arranged by their relationships
• Connections between services show how requests flow through the system
• Color and activity indicators reflect the health and traffic volume of each service

Use your mouse or controller to move around. Zoom in on a service to see more detail, or zoom out to see the full topology.

Step 4: Switch Between Views¶

IAPM 3D offers multiple ways to visualize the same data:

Press N to switch to the Graph view. Notice how the same services are now displayed as a network diagram showing dependencies. Press M to return to the Grid.

Step 5: Talk to Tessa¶

Tessa is IAPM's AI Assistant. Open the Tessa panel and try asking questions about the demo data:

• "What services are running?"
• "Show me the slowest endpoints"
• "Are there any errors?"
• "Which service has the most dependencies?"

Tessa works with demo data exactly the same way she works with production data - this is a great time to get familiar with what she can do.

Step 6: Enter the Diagnostics Room¶

Select a service on the Grid and navigate into it to reach the Diagnostics Room. This is where you can inspect individual traces, view span waterfalls, and understand exactly what happened during a request.

Inside the Diagnostics Room:

• Trace timelines show the full journey of a request across services
• Span details reveal timing, attributes, and status codes
• Error indicators highlight where things went wrong (if any)

Part 2 - Inject Chaos¶

Now that you know how to navigate IAPM, it's time to break things on purpose. The Chaos Simulator lets you inject failures into a live microservice environment and watch IAPM detect and visualize them.

Step 1: Open the Chaos Simulator¶

Go to demo.iapm.app in your browser. A unique sandbox is created for you automatically - no signup required.

Step 2: Generate Normal Traffic¶

Click the buttons to generate normal, healthy traffic. This creates baseline telemetry - requests flowing between services without errors.

Switch to IAPM and watch the services come alive. You should see activity indicators and healthy request traces appearing.

Step 3: Inject a Latency Spike¶

Back in the Chaos Simulator, trigger a latency scenario. This introduces artificial delays into service responses.

In IAPM, look for:

• Slower response times on affected services
• Trace waterfalls that show elongated spans
• Dependency chains where the delay ripples downstream

Step 4: Inject Errors¶

Trigger an error scenario. This generates HTTP 500 responses and exception traces.

In IAPM, watch for:

• Red indicators appearing on affected services
• Error traces in the Diagnostics Room with full stack information
• Health changes reflected in service status

Step 5: Trigger a Cascading Failure¶

This is where it gets interesting. Trigger a cascading failure and watch as a problem in one service propagates to its dependents.

In IAPM, you'll see:

• The failure origin - the first service to fail
• The propagation path - downstream services turning red as failures cascade
• The blast radius - the full scope of affected services

Step 6: Ask Tessa What Happened¶

With failures still active, open Tessa and ask:

• "What went wrong?"
• "Which service caused the cascade?"
• "What's the root cause?"

Tessa analyzes the telemetry in real time and can help you trace problems back to their source - exactly how you'd use her during a real incident.

Part 3 - What to Try Next¶

You've covered the basics. Here are some ideas to go deeper before connecting your own applications.

Experiments to Try¶

• Compare views during a failure - Toggle between Grid (M) and Graph (N) during a cascading failure to see which view reveals the problem fastest
• Race Tessa - Inject a failure and try to find the root cause before Tessa does
• Latency hunting - Inject a subtle latency spike and practice tracing it through span waterfalls in the Diagnostics Room
• Dependency mapping - Use the Graph view to map out all service dependencies, then predict what will happen when you fail a specific service

Keep Going¶

When you're ready to move beyond the sandbox:

Instrument Your Application Explore IAPM Features Browse Scenario Walkthroughs