Wordflow: Learn Temporal by Building a Word Game

You’ll build the backend of Wordflow, a timed word game, one Temporal concept at a time. The web app and HTTP routing are already written. You write the Workflows, Activities, and Worker, plus the API code that uses the Temporal Client to start, signal, query, and update Workflows.

Each lesson adds one feature to the game and teaches the concept behind it. By the end you’ll have used the Temporal design patterns that come up most in real systems.

You need: a GitHub account, and to be comfortable in the language you choose. No Temporal experience needed.

Start

1. Pick a language. Each one lives on its own branch:

   Language	Branch
   Go	go
   Python	python (coming soon)

2. Switch to that branch on GitHub, then choose Code → Codespaces → Create codespace on <branch>. Setup takes a few minutes.

3. The course opens in a browser tab once the Codespace is ready. If it doesn’t, open the Ports tab and open Course (port 8000). Each lesson page shows the concepts, the build steps for your language, and a checklist that remembers your progress.

You can also read the lessons here on GitHub, starting with course/00-setup.

The main branch only has the shared material (lesson text, web app, puzzles), so it won’t run on its own.

How each lesson works

• README.md explains the concept and what you’ll build. It is the same for every language.
• build.md walks you through the code in your language.
• Check it tells you what you should see in the game and in the Temporal UI. If you see it, move on.
• You write all your code in app/. Each lesson’s finished code is in solutions/NN/. Run a solution with make worker S=NN and make server S=NN to compare.

Lessons

#	Lesson	What you add	Concepts and patterns
00	Setup	Nothing yet	Temporal Service, Temporal UI, the project
01	Your first Workflow	Start a game	Workflow, Worker, Task Queue, Client, Workflow ID
02	Activities	Load puzzles from storage	Activity, retries, timeouts, determinism, non-retryable errors
03	Signals and Queries	Guess words, see the board	Long-running Workflow, Signal, Query
04	Updates	Instant guess results	Update, validator, Update-with-Start, Request-Response via Updates, Early Return
05	Durable Timers	A game clock you can extend	Timer, cancellation, Updatable Timer
06	Entity Workflows	Players with points	Entity Workflow, ID conflict policy
07	Child Workflows	Players start their own games	Child Workflow, parent close policy
08	Workflow to Workflow	Hints that cost points	Activity Dependency Injection, idempotent Updates, Workflow mutex
09	Signal-with-Start	A global leaderboard	Signal-with-Start, singleton Workflow
10	Continue-As-New	Players who play forever	Event History limits, Continue-As-New
11	Retries in depth	Bonus words from a flaky dictionary	Retry policies, Fixed Count, Fixed Wall-Time, Delayed Retry, Non-Retryable Errors
12	Determinism and replay	An activity feed, and a broken deploy	Replay, nondeterminism errors, replay testing
13	Versioning	Ship the change safely	Patching with GetVersion, Worker Versioning

Optional exercises, after Lesson 13:

Exercise	What you add	Pattern
Saga	Gift points to a friend	Saga, compensation
Pick First	Race two dictionary regions	Pick First, cancellation
Approval	Players submit puzzles for review	Parallel Execution, Approval
Schedules	Puzzle of the day	Schedules, Delayed Start

Reference

• API and Temporal names
• Temporal documentation
• Design patterns