Scalus Onboarding Guides

Choose your learning path based on your background. Each guide provides a structured onboarding experience with checklists, time estimates, and curated resources.

Choose Your Developer Path

What to Expect

Each onboarding guide includes:

• Phased Learning - Progressive difficulty from quick start to production-ready
• Interactive Checklists - Track your progress through the material
• Time Estimates - Know how long each phase takes (30 min to 3 hours per phase)
• Quick Wins - Concrete achievements at each milestone
• Curated Resources - External learning materials for topics you need to learn

Which Path Should I Take?

Choose “For Scala Developers” if:

• ✓ You’re comfortable with Scala 3 syntax
• ✓ You understand functional programming
• ✓ You’re new to blockchain development
• ✓ You want to learn how Cardano works

Time to first validator: ~30 minutes Time to proficiency: ~2-3 hours

Choose “For Cardano Developers” if:

• ✓ You understand Cardano’s eUTxO model
• ✓ You’ve written Plutus validators before (Haskell, Aiken, etc.)
• ✓ You’re new to Scala
• ✓ You want to use professional tooling and debugging

Time to first validator: ~45 minutes (after Scala basics) Time to proficiency: ~4-6 hours (including Scala learning)

Still Deciding? Start Here

Start with For Scala Developers if you have any Scala experience, even minimal. You’ll pick up Cardano concepts faster than learning a new programming language.

Start with For Cardano Developers if you’re already building on Cardano and want to switch to Scalus. The included Scala resources will get you up to speed quickly.