> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.generalrobotics.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Your first session > Start a cloud simulator from the GRID shell and watch it come alive — no robot required You've [installed the CLI and logged in](/v2.1/get-started/installation). This page takes the shortest path to a robot you can program: a **cloud simulator session**. No hardware, about five minutes, and you end up inside a live workspace where real robot code runs. ## 1. Start a sim ```text theme={null} GRID # sim start ``` ## 2. Pick a robot and a scene The wizard opens with a **New Sim Session** card that fills in as you pick. First, the robot — tabs group them by form factor (**←/→** to switch tabs): ```text theme={null} Select a robot: Arms │ Mobile arms │ Quadrupeds │ Humanoids │ Wheeled │ Aerial │ Controllers ▸ Flexiv Rizon 4 Franka Panda Kinova Gen 3 SO-101 … ``` Pick **Franka Panda**. It runs on one simulator, so the wizard jumps straight to scenes (robots available on more than one simulator get a simulator step in between): ```text theme={null} Select scene for isaac: ▸ tabletop · Empty tabletop environment tabletop_objs · Tabletop with objects for manipulation ``` Pick **tabletop\_objs**, then review. The card now shows every choice plus a generated session name (`{robot}-{scene}-{date}-{time}`) — press **enter** to launch. If you want to see exactly what you're deploying, press **e** at any step: the session config opens as YAML in your editor, and your edits carry into the launch. ## 3. Watch it boot ```text theme={null} Starting session... Requesting GPU (isaac)... Allocated — franka-panda-tabletop-objs-0727-163950 (service: service-grid--bro104ajnv) Waiting for pod route... Route ready — connecting to pod Session ready Opening franka-panda-tabletop-objs-0727-163950 in browser ● Sim franka-panda-tabletop-objs-0727-163950 running on sim list to view · sim open to reopen the workspace UI: https:///grid-service/service-grid--bro104ajnv/vscode/?tkn= ``` Your cluster allocated a GPU, booted Isaac Sim next to a browser IDE, and opened the workspace. Two things to notice in the shell: * The **statusline** at the bottom now shows `●` with your session name — green means this shell has a live session attached. * The **UI link** is durable. Close the tab, reopen the link — same session. ## 4. It's alive The workspace is VS Code in your browser, running on the session pod. On first open it asks *"Do you trust the authors of the files in this folder?"* — this is your own session workspace, so choose **Yes, I trust the authors**. The session workspace: the seeded welcome notebook open in the browser IDE, first cell connected to the simulated Franka arm in the Isaac tabletop scene What you're looking at: * **`sessions//notebook.ipynb`** — a welcome notebook seeded for the robot you picked, already open, kernel ready. * **Sample Notebooks** (the GRID icon in the activity bar on the left) — ready-made notebooks for common tasks; open any of them to explore. The sidebar starts here; the file explorer is one click away above it. * **Sim Streaming** and **Visualization** panels — the live scene view and camera/sensor streams for this session. ## 5. Do one real thing Run the notebook's first cell (**shift+enter**): ```python theme={null} from grid_sim_client.isaac.robot import IsaacArm isaac_arm_0 = IsaacArm() ``` It goes green in about a second. That's not a mock — your code is now holding a connection to the Franka in the running scene. The second cell connects the other half of GRID, cloud models: ```python theme={null} from grid_cortex_client import CortexClient client = CortexClient() # reads GRID_CORTEX_API_KEY + GRID_CORTEX_BASE_URL from env print(client.get_info()) ``` `get_info()` lists the models actually deployed in your cluster, and `client.help("")` shows usage for any of them — see the [model catalog](/v2.1/models/overview) and the [grid-cortex-client reference](/v2.1/python-api/grid-cortex-client/overview) for what you can call. ## 6. Housekeeping Back in the shell (or any new terminal), list the simulations available in the selected context: ```text theme={null} GRID # sim list Active ● franka-panda-tabletop-objs-0727-163950 isaac running 0m ago ``` Use `status` to check simulations started or resumed from this machine, including after restarting the CLI or switching context. It shows each simulation's original context and live state; unreachable or unknown state is reported explicitly. Opening or listing a simulation does not add it to this machine's launch records. `sim open` reopens the workspace UI — with one sim running it needs no name. When you're done, stop it (release the GPU — sims don't stop themselves): ```text theme={null} GRID # sim stop franka-panda-tabletop-objs-0727-163950 Stop sim "franka-panda-tabletop-objs-0727-163950"? (y/N) y Stopping sim franka-panda-tabletop-objs-0727-163950... Sim stopped ● Sim franka-panda-tabletop-objs-0727-163950 stopped ``` With no name, `sim stop` lets you pick from the active sims; either way it confirms before stopping (in a script, pass `-y`). One timing note: the GPU takes \~20 seconds to return to the pool, so if an immediate restart reports `no GPU available`, wait a moment and retry. If anything misbehaves, three commands have your back: * `error` — replay the last failure in full detail. * `diagnostics` — bundle redacted logs + config into a tarball for support. * `debug on` — verbose logging with inline stack traces for this shell. ## Where next You have a live robot and a workspace — the next two pages are the same staircase with more weight on it: * **Write real robot code**: [Your first skill](/v2.1/get-started/first-skill) * **Point it at hardware**: `robot add` onboards your robot, then `skill run --dev` lets you choose an online robot and opens this same workspace at your skill's folder, wired to the physical machine — see [Deployment](/v2.1/deployment/camera-calibration) * **Every command in the shell**: the [CLI reference](/v2.1/cli/reference) ## Related topics - [MDP Config](/simulation/isaac/session_configuration/mdp.md) - [Session Config Overview](/simulation/isaac/session_configuration/overview.md) - [Workflow Config](/simulation/isaac/session_configuration/workflow.md) - [Sensors](/simulation/isaac/sensors.md) - [ROS2 Communication](/simulation/isaac/comms.md)