This guide walks you through running your first workloads on Numaflow. It is organized so you meet the simplest building block first, then layer on complexity:
- Prerequisites & Installation - set up the tools and install Numaflow.
- MonoVertex - deploy a single-vertex workload (source to sink, no Inter-Step Buffer Service required).
- Pipeline - connect multiple vertices with edges, from a simple pipeline to an advanced one.
- What's Next - explore more sources, sinks, user-defined functions, and examples.
A MonoVertex is the simplest way to run Numaflow: a single vertex that reads from a source, optionally transforms the data, and writes to a sink. It needs no Inter-Step Buffer Service and has no edges, so it is the fastest thing to get running. Start here.
A Pipeline connects multiple vertices with edges and an Inter-Step Buffer Service. Use it when you need multiple processing stages, branching, joins, or windowed aggregation (reduce). Move on to this once you are comfortable with a MonoVertex.
Both run the same source, sink, transformer, and map containers, so what you learn with a MonoVertex carries directly over to pipelines.
Ready? Begin with Prerequisites & Installation.