# Duroxide Quick Start Guide
This guide helps you get started with Duroxide in 5 minutes. Perfect for LLMs and developers who want to understand the framework quickly.
## What is Duroxide?
Duroxide is a framework for building **reliable, long-running workflows** that can survive failures and restarts. Think of it as "async Rust with superpowers" - your workflows can run for hours, days, or indefinitely.
## Core Concepts (30 seconds)
- **Orchestrations**: Your main workflow logic (async functions)
- **Activities**: Stateless functions that do actual work (can use sleep/polling/HTTP internally)
- **Timers**: Use `ctx.schedule_timer(ms)` for orchestration-level delays
- **Deterministic Replay**: If something fails, Duroxide replays your code to get back to the same state
- **Durable Futures**: Special futures that remember their state across restarts
## ⚠️ Key Rules
### 1. Timers vs Activities
**For orchestration delays, use timers. Activities can use any async operations:**
```rust
// ✅ CORRECT: Use timers for orchestration delays
use std::time::Duration;
ctx.schedule_timer(Duration::from_secs(5)).into_timer().await; // Wait 5 seconds
// ✅ ALSO CORRECT: Activities can use sleep, HTTP calls, database queries, etc.
// Activities are just regular async functions and can do anything
```
### 2. DurableFuture Conversion Pattern
**CRITICAL: You MUST call `.into_*().await`, not just `.await`!**
```rust
// ✅ CORRECT patterns:
let result = ctx.schedule_activity("Task", "input").into_activity().await?;
ctx.schedule_timer(Duration::from_secs(5)).into_timer().await;
let event = ctx.schedule_wait("Event").into_event().await;
// ❌ WRONG - Missing conversion methods:
// let result = ctx.schedule_activity("Task", "input").await; // Won't compile!
// ctx.schedule_timer(Duration::from_secs(5)).await; // Won't compile!
```
## Minimal Example
```rust
use duroxide::*;
use duroxide::providers::sqlite::SqliteProvider;
use std::sync::Arc;
// 1. Define an activity (your business logic)
let activities = ActivityRegistry::builder()
.register("Greet", |ctx: ActivityContext, name: String| async move {
Ok(format!("Hello, {}!", name))
})
.build();
// 2. Define an orchestration (your workflow)
.into_activity().await?;
Ok(greeting)
};
// 3. Set up and run
let store = Arc::new(SqliteProvider::new("sqlite:./data.db", None).await.unwrap());
let orchestrations = OrchestrationRegistry::builder()
.register("HelloWorld", orchestration)
.build();
let rt = Runtime::start_with_store(store.clone(), Arc::new(activities), orchestrations).await;
let client = Client::new(store);
client.start_orchestration("inst-1", "HelloWorld", "World").await?; // Returns Result<(), ClientError>
```
## Common Patterns
### 1. Function Chaining
```rust
async fn process_order(ctx: OrchestrationContext) -> Result<String, String> {
let inventory = ctx.schedule_activity("ReserveInventory", "item1").into_activity().await?;
let payment = ctx.schedule_activity("ProcessPayment", "card123").into_activity().await?;
let shipping = ctx.schedule_activity("ShipItem", &inventory).into_activity().await?;
Ok(shipping)
}
```
### 2. Parallel Processing (Fan-Out/Fan-In)
```rust
async fn process_multiple(ctx: OrchestrationContext) -> Vec<String> {
let futures = vec![
ctx.schedule_activity("Process", "item1"),
ctx.schedule_activity("Process", "item2"),
ctx.schedule_activity("Process", "item3"),
];
let results = ctx.join(futures).await;
// Process results...
}
```
### 3. Human-in-the-Loop (Approvals)
```rust
async fn approval_workflow(ctx: OrchestrationContext) -> String {
let timer = ctx.schedule_timer(std::time::Duration::from_secs(30)); // 30 second timeout
let approval = ctx.schedule_wait("ApprovalEvent");
let (_, result) = ctx.select2(timer, approval).await;
match result {
DurableOutput::External(data) => data, // Got approval
DurableOutput::Timer => "timeout".to_string(), // Timeout
_ => "error".to_string(),
}
}
```
## Key APIs
### OrchestrationContext Methods
- `ctx.schedule_activity(name, input)` - Schedule an activity
- `ctx.schedule_timer(delay)` - Create a timer
- `ctx.schedule_wait(event_name)` - Wait for external event
- `ctx.join(futures)` - Wait for all futures to complete
- `ctx.select2(future1, future2)` - Race between two futures
- `ctx.trace_info(message)` - Logging (replay-safe)
### DurableFuture Methods
- `.into_activity()` - Await activity result
- `.into_timer()` - Await timer completion
- `.into_event()` - Await external event
## Complete Working Example
```rust
use duroxide::providers::sqlite::SqliteProvider;
use duroxide::runtime::registry::ActivityRegistry;
use duroxide::runtime::{self};
use duroxide::{ActivityContext, Client, OrchestrationContext, OrchestrationRegistry, OrchestrationStatus};
use std::sync::Arc;
#[tokio::main]
async fn main() -> Result<(), Box<dyn std::error::Error>> {
// Setup
let store = Arc::new(SqliteProvider::new("sqlite:./data.db", None).await?);
let activities = ActivityRegistry::builder()
.register("ProcessOrder", |ctx: ActivityContext, order_id: String| async move {
println!("Processing order: {}", order_id);
tokio::time::sleep(std::time::Duration::from_millis(100)).await;
Ok(format!("Order {} processed", order_id))
})
.build();
let orchestration = |ctx: OrchestrationContext, order_id: String| async move {
ctx.trace_info("Starting order processing");
// Process multiple orders in parallel
let futures = vec![
ctx.schedule_activity("ProcessOrder", format!("{}-1", order_id)),
ctx.schedule_activity("ProcessOrder", format!("{}-2", order_id)),
];
let results = ctx.join(futures).await;
let success_count = results.len();
Ok(format!("Processed {} orders successfully", success_count))
};
let orchestrations = OrchestrationRegistry::builder()
.register("OrderProcessor", orchestration)
.build();
// Run
let rt = runtime::Runtime::start_with_store(
store.clone(), Arc::new(activities), orchestrations
).await;
let client = Client::new(store);
client.start_orchestration("order-1", "OrderProcessor", "ORDER-123").await?; // Returns Result<(), ClientError>
match client.wait_for_orchestration("order-1", std::time::Duration::from_secs(5)).await? { // Returns Result<OrchestrationStatus, ClientError>
OrchestrationStatus::Completed { output } => {
println!("✅ Success: {}", output);
}
OrchestrationStatus::Failed { details } => {
println!("❌ Failed ({}): {}", details.category(), details.display_message());
}
_ => println!("⏳ Still running..."),
}
rt.shutdown(None).await; // Graceful shutdown
Ok(())
}
```
## Next Steps
1. **Run the examples**: `cargo run --example hello_world`
2. **Read the full docs**: Check `examples/README.md` for comprehensive examples
3. **Explore patterns**: Look at `tests/e2e_samples.rs` for advanced scenarios
4. **Build something**: Start with a simple workflow and add complexity
## Why Use Duroxide?
- **Reliability**: Your workflows survive crashes, restarts, and failures
- **Simplicity**: Write normal async Rust code, Duroxide handles the complexity
- **Determinism**: Same input always produces the same output, even after failures
- **Composability**: Build complex workflows from simple, reusable pieces
- **Observability**: Built-in logging and tracing for debugging
## Common Use Cases
- **E-commerce**: Order processing, inventory management, payment workflows
- **DevOps**: Deployment pipelines, infrastructure provisioning, rollbacks
- **Data Processing**: ETL pipelines, batch processing, data validation
- **Business Processes**: Approval workflows, document processing, notifications
- **IoT**: Device management, data collection, alert processing
## Getting Help
- **Examples**: Start with `examples/` directory
- **Tests**: Look at `tests/e2e_samples.rs` for working code
- **Documentation**: Check `docs/` for detailed architecture info
- **Issues**: Open an issue if you find bugs or need help
---
**Ready to build reliable workflows? Start with `cargo run --example hello_world`!**
