5-Minute Quickstart

Deploy your first Cascade Platform application and see it execute end-to-end.

What You’ll Do

In 5 minutes, you’ll:

Create a simple CDL application
Deploy it to Cascade Platform
Start a workflow instance
Monitor execution

No prior workflow experience needed!

Step 1: Create Your Application

Create a file called quickstart-app.yaml:


apiVersion: cascade.io/v1
kind: Application
metadata:
  name: quickstart-hello
spec:
  workflows:
    - name: hello_world
      description: "Hello World workflow"
      start: GreetingState
      states:
        - name: GreetingState
          type: Task
          resource: urn:cascade:activity:greet
          parameters:
            name: "{{ workflow.input.user_name | default: 'World' }}"
          result: $.greeting
          next: CompleteState
 
        - name: CompleteState
          type: Task
          end: true

What this means:

GreetingState - Task that calls the greet activity with a name parameter
CompleteState - Final state that marks workflow as complete
result - Captures the greeting output into workflow state

Step 2: Deploy Your Application

Deploy the application to Cascade Platform:


cascade app apply --file quickstart-app.yaml

Expected output:


✓ Application 'quickstart-hello' deployed successfully
✓ Workflows registered: hello_world
✓ Ready to execute

Step 3: Start a Workflow Instance

Execute the workflow:


# Start the workflow
cascade process start hello_world --app=quickstart-hello
 
# Output: instance ID like "inst-abc123def456"

Copy the instance ID (you’ll need it next).

Step 4: Monitor Execution

Check the status of your workflow:


# Replace inst-abc123def456 with your actual instance ID
cascade process inspect inst-abc123def456 --app=quickstart-hello

Expected output:


Instance ID: inst-abc123def456
Status: COMPLETED
Workflow: hello_world

States:
  ✓ GreetingState (completed in 45ms)
  ✓ CompleteState (completed in 2ms)

Result:
  greeting: "Hello, World!"
  execution_time: 47ms

What Just Happened

Here’s the execution flow:


1. You created application.yaml
           ↓
2. Cascade validated and deployed it
           ↓
3. You started a workflow instance
           ↓
4. Temporal orchestrated the execution
           ↓
5. GreetingState activity executed (your code called the 'greet' function)
           ↓
6. CompleteState marked workflow as done
           ↓
7. Result persisted to PostgreSQL
           ↓
8. You inspected the completed instance

Try More Commands

View All Instances


cascade process list --app=quickstart-hello

View Application Details


cascade app inspect quickstart-hello

View Workflow Logs


cascade logs --app=quickstart-hello --instance=inst-abc123def456

View Execution Trace


cascade trace --instance=inst-abc123def456

What’s Next?

Congratulations! You’ve successfully:

✅ Deployed an application
✅ Executed a workflow
✅ Monitored the results

Continue Your Learning

Your First Workflow - Build a more complex workflow with human tasks and decisions
Core Concepts - Understand workflows, states, and activities
Examples - Real-world working applications

Common Commands Reference

Command	Purpose
`cascade app apply --file app.yaml`	Deploy an application
`cascade app list`	List all applications
`cascade app inspect <app-name>`	View application details
`cascade process start <workflow> --app=<app>`	Start a workflow
`cascade process inspect <instance-id> --app=<app>`	View workflow status
`cascade logs --app=<app> --instance=<id>`	View workflow logs
`cascade trace --instance=<id>`	View execution trace

Next: Your First Workflow - Build something more complex! 🚀