helloworld/Main.java and most examples use OrkesApiClient — crash without auth for OSS users

[nthmost-orkes]

Problem

The primary examples (helloworld/Main.java, workflowops/Main.java, and all io.orkes.* examples) use ClientUtil, which builds an io.orkes.conductor.client.ApiClient — an Orkes-specific client that requires authentication credentials.

OSS Conductor does not use authentication. This means the "recommended" examples are nonfunctional for any OSS user.

Tracked as a zero-to-one onboarding blocker in conductor-oss/getting-started#51

Observed Behavior

Running helloworld/Main.java with only CONDUCTOR_SERVER_URL set:

Caused by: java.lang.NullPointerException: Cannot invoke "String.trim()" because
the return value of "java.lang.System.getenv(String)" is null
    at io.orkes.conductor.client.ApiClient$ApiClientBuilder.applyEnvVariables(ApiClient.java:186)

(See also: #94 for the NPE itself.)

Root Cause

examples/src/main/java/io/orkes/conductor/sdk/examples/util/ClientUtil.java uses:

ApiClient.builder()
    .useEnvVariables(true)
    ...
    .build();

ApiClient is the Orkes-flavored client. The base ConductorClient works without auth:

var client = new ConductorClient("http://localhost:8080/api");

The only examples that work out-of-the-box for OSS are in the com.netflix.conductor.gettingstarted package (CreateWorkflow, StartWorkflow, HelloWorker), but these are buried and not prominently documented.

Additional Context

The io.orkes.* examples also hardcode orkes.io email addresses and HTTP task URLs pointing to orkes-api-tester.orkesconductor.com, which further signals they are Orkes-specific.

Suggested Fix

• Either add a ClientUtil-equivalent that works for OSS (env CONDUCTOR_SERVER_URL only, no auth)
• Or clearly document which examples require Orkes vs. which work with OSS
• Update helloworld/Main.java to use the base ConductorClient so it works for OSS users

Zero-to-one tracking: conductor-oss/getting-started#51