Getting Started

1. Overview

Ocean is a domain-specific language and generation platform for describing software systems once, independently of the technology used to build them, and turning that description into a real, running implementation. You write what a system is — its data, behavior, interfaces, and connections — and Ocean’s generators handle turning that into code for a chosen language, framework, and database.

Ocean exists for the gap between “I know what this system should do” and “I have working code for it”: the repetitive plumbing, the drift between documentation and implementation, and the cost of re-describing the same architecture every time the target technology changes. If you’ve ever redrawn the same service diagram for the third framework this year, that’s the problem Ocean is for.

This path is for anyone who wants a working feel for Ocean before reading deep reference material — engineers evaluating Ocean, new team members, and curious readers alike. No prior Ocean knowledge is assumed.

The complete path is designed to deliver this outcome:

opened Ocean App, explored the Onboarding: Task Manager Bundle, generated and ran its application, modified its DSL, and regenerated it — all in the browser, with nothing to install.

Reading and doing all of it takes about 30–45 minutes, most of it hands-on rather than reading.

2. The Path

Each page builds on the one before it. Follow them in order the first time through:

1. What Is Ocean? — the mental model, in a few minutes.
2. Prerequisites — what you actually need (less than you’d expect).
3. Run the First Example — open, generate, and run Onboarding: Task Manager in Ocean App.
4. Understand the First Bundle — what you just explored, explained.
5. Make the First Change — edit the model, regenerate, and observe the expected effect.
6. The Everyday Workflow — the loop you’ll repeat from here on.
7. Next Steps — where to go depending on your goal.

3. Already Comfortable Reading DSL? Use an Example Instead

If you’d rather explore hands-on without the guided narration, skip straight to Examples — every example includes its own Horizon (orientation) and Voyage (walkthrough). This path exists for readers who want the narration; it doesn’t gatekeep anything the examples don’t already offer.

4. Ocean, Not Ocean-Atlas

One distinction worth making before you start: Ocean is the platform and DSL this path teaches you to use. Ocean-Atlas — the site you’re reading right now — is the canonical knowledge base about Ocean. You’re using Ocean-Atlas to learn Ocean; you are not installing or running Ocean-Atlas itself. Nothing in this path requires cloning or building this documentation site.