Pipeline Track — overview

The Pipeline Track is yaml-first. It is for data people: analysts, ops, and anyone who needs Clinker to transform, cleanse, validate, and reshape data. You write pipeline YAML and run a command. You do not need to know Rust, and you do not need to know how the engine works inside.

What you’ll be able to do

• Read a pipeline and predict what it does to your data.
• Build one from a real example: declare a schema, transform fields, route and group records, and write outputs.
• Check a pipeline before you run it (--dry-run, --explain).
• Fix errors and set up a dead-letter queue so one bad row doesn’t sink the job.
• Run it for real with sensible memory limits, and schedule it with your own tools.

How this track teaches

You start every lesson from a real, working pipeline, change it, then build your own. You never start from a blank page. You run pipelines in a safe sandbox right on the page, and you predict the result before you run, because guessing first is what makes it stick.

Status

This route is the Pipeline Track’s home in the shared Clinker Academy site. Its design corpus lives under docs/pipeline-track-planning/; the cross-track standards it follows live under docs/shared-curriculum/.

Want to know how Clinker does it?

This track stays at the YAML level. If you ever get curious about the engine underneath, the Engine Track picks up exactly there. Follow the labeled “go deeper” links in each lesson.