A hands-on onboarding flow for the Cardano Developer Portal #1885
paulobressan
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@rober-m Could you please give your thoughts about the places "..." that are missing information? |
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A hands-on onboarding flow for the Cardano Developer Portal
Context & problem
The portal was recently restructured into a 7-module curriculum (Fundamentals, Start Building,
Tokens/NFTs, Staking & Governance, Smart Contracts, Build a dApp, Ship to Production). The docs are
good and thorough.
That thoroughness is also the friction. If you show up with a concrete goal ("I just want to mint an
NFT", "how do I accept ADA payments?"), the curriculum reads like a textbook you're expected to work
through in order. The homepage cards (Smart Contracts, Native Tokens, Integrate Payments, Transaction
Metadata…) all send you to a module overview page, which is more reading before you get to do
anything. There's no fast, guided, do-it-now path.
Goal
An onboarding flow that keeps new developers moving from one section to the next instead of giving up
partway through. In each section, you don't just read the theory, you run it and
get a real result back. When you learn a new programming language/framework/tool, the thing that keeps you going is
watching your own code actually work. We want that same feeling here. Every step ends in something
concrete, and each small win is what makes you want to start the next one.
The idea
Add an onboarding section, separate from the deep curriculum, organized into tiers (Beginner,
Intermediate, Advanced, Expert). Each tier is a handful of use-cases that teach Cardano by explaining
and running real code. Beginners get momentum right away, and the curriculum/deep-dives stay as the reference
you graduate into once you want the full detail.
The onboarding flow
The flow orients the developer, gets their environment up and running, and then guides them through the tiers.
Each part below is a section we'd build. The specifics of how each lesson is written are for later.
Introduction
A short "what is Cardano and how should I think about it", enough to set the mental model without
turning into a wall of text. It would introduce the eUTxO model (value and state live in UTxOs, not
account balances) and native tokens as first-class assets, and set the expectation for what the
developer will have built by the end of the tiers.
Ecosystem
A quick map of what's out there before the developer picks tools, so they aren't choosing blind:
Providers, Indexers & Data, Nodes & Clients, Wallets, Dev Environments, and so on). Onboarding
points at that rather than re-explaining it.
that need no infrastructure to self-hosted options (Kupo, Dolos, Oura, cardano-db-sync, Ogmios)
for full control.
Environment
Getting to a working setup quickly, so the developer can actually run the lessons. This would cover
cardano-init, connecting to a public test network and getting test ADA from the faucet,
and connecting a CIP-30 browser wallet. The goal is that by the end of this section, they have
everything installed to complete the first tier.
Quick Start
An e2e example that makes the developer feel they can accomplish a lot with very little effort. E.g, creating a fully functional Escrow DApp, but instead of explaining everything and going step by step, we provide the steps mechanically in an easy-to-perform way. The developer won't understand the why behind what they just did, but they'll have a fully functional DApp in an hour or two and get a rough feel for the parts involved and how they connect. The main objective of the e2e project is to entice the student to learn more. To make them feel that "building on Cardano is easy".
Tiers
The heart of the proposal. Each tier is a set of use-cases, and each use-case is one short lesson that
ends in a result the developer can see and verify. They can be worked in order or picked individually.
Beginner
Intermediate
Advanced
clients from a contract's blueprint
Expert (use-cases projects)
At this point, the developer can write a validator and spend from it. Expert is about building a whole
dApp and running into the problems production teams actually deal with: UTxO concurrency, off-chain
infrastructure, oracles, scaling, and privacy. Each capstone maps to a real open project they can
study, run, and extend.
Covers the full on-chain and off-chain loop.
What one lesson looks like
The value of the onboarding is in keeping every lesson to the same simple shape:
reacted to. Always something concrete you can verify.
The result step is what makes this work. Reading about a transaction is easy to forget, submitting one
and watching it confirm is not. Over time, the "Try it" step could become fully interactive, running
against a bundled devnet and eventually an in-browser playground, so there's no setup between a
beginner and their first success.
Homepage
The homepage should invite a newcomer to do something rather than to start reading.
actually wants to build, each of which pulls them through the relevant onboarding steps. For
example: Build an NFT marketplace, Build a DEX, Build an auction, Build a crowdfunding app,
Build an escrow, Build a wallet dApp.
not as the front door.
Build on the curriculum, don't replace it
The onboarding is a fast lane on top of the existing docs, not a rewrite. The curriculum stays the
source of truth, and every onboarding step links back into it for depth. New developers get momentum,
and the full material is one click away when they want it.
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