Pick the level that matches what you already know. Each rung takes 15-30 minutes and leaves you with a real working PMA instance you can build on.
The PMA /learn/ path is a ladder. Each rung adds one concept on
top of the last. You don't have to climb every step — drop in at
the level that matches your background.
Status: the ladder pages are being written as part of the
PMA rebuild (ticket #3932). Until each page lands, the link
below points to the legacy Dutch equivalent under
/projects/asd-pma/*(see/structurefor the
full legacy map).
| You are… | Start at | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Brand new to PMA | Level 1 (install) | Twenty minutes to a working dev install |
| Comfortable with Docker, new to PMA | Level 2 (add a service) | The manifest pattern is what makes PMA different |
| Already running PMA, just need one more service | Level 2 | Add a new packages/ directory and apply |
| Need all the services running together | Level 3 (multi-service) | The enterprise profile, with SSO + n8n connecting things |
| Just set up Authentik externally and want PMA to use it | Level 4 (SSO) | Configure existing identity provider |
| Inherited a running PMA, learning ops | Level 5 (backup/restore) | Practice the recovery side before you need it |
| Need to push changes to a live PMA | Level 6 (release/rollback) | release-run is the only deploy verb |
| Promoting from dev to prod | Level 7 (deploy to prod) | Multi-environment + hardening checklist |
Then the ladder isn't what you want — reference is:
/pma/reference/manifest (planned) or /asd/reference/net-manifest./pma/reference/cli (planned) (PMA just recipes) or /asd/reference/cli (asd CLI)./pma/services./pma/cookbook./pma/concepts, five paragraphs.Every /pma/learn/ page has the same shape so you can scan a
level you've never seen and know exactly where to look:
| Block | What's in it |
|---|---|
| You need | Prereqs + skip-ahead link if you already know this rung |
| Setup | What we're going to build, in 2-3 sentences |
| Recipe | The minimal copy-pasteable snippet (manifest YAML + just commands) |
| Result | How to verify it worked |
| Why it works | One paragraph for the curious; skippable |
| What's next | One primary next step + optional side quests |
This is the same six-block scenario format used in
/asd/learn/.
/pma/cookbook — single-problem recipes/pma/compared — head-to-head with Cloudron,/pma/services — per-service deep-dives./pma/reference — schemas + CLI + glossary./pma/internals — how PMA works under the hood.