Course lesson 01 · Getting Started
Intro & Overview
The course builds Smart Links, a short-link SaaS application whose redirects can vary by country and whose dashboard reports clicks and destination health. Its central lesson is how to divide a full-stack product into services with different responsibilities, then connect Cloudflare compute and storage products. React and the other libraries provide the working example; this is a systems course rather than a beginner framework tutorial.
Primary source: course video 01 · Supplied English subtitles · 00:20:15.
Understand the idea
- The user application contains both the browser interface and a thin backend for authentication, routing, and ordinary create/read/update operations.
- The data service owns public redirects, data processing, and longer background work, keeping these responsibilities separate from dashboard requests.
- Data Ops is shared source code: database schemas, reusable queries, Zod validation schemas, and types; it is not a third deployed service.
- HTTP requests, scheduled events, and queue messages can trigger backend work; Durable Objects, Workflows, browser rendering, and AI provide different capabilities.
What the course does
- Inspect the finished dashboard: create links, set a default destination, and configure country overrides.
- Identify the two apps and shared Data Ops package in the pnpm workspace.
- Trace dashboard data through its backend to the database, and distinguish that path from public link redirects.
- Use the starter repository for following along and the completed repository or supplied snippets to compare work when stuck.
Watch for
- The instructor explicitly assumes existing development knowledge and moves quickly through framework code.
- Added advice: treat the broad cost and platform superiority comparisons as the instructor’s opinions at recording time, not current pricing guidance.
Recall before revealing
Why does this project have two applications and a shared package?
Reveal the explanation
The apps separate user-facing CRUD/authentication from redirects and background processing; the package lets both reuse the same data definitions and queries.
Try it
Draw three boxes for the user application, data service, and Data Ops. Place link editing, public redirecting, and database query definitions in their appropriate boxes.
Check your result
You can explain each responsibility and show that shared code is imported into deployable apps rather than called as another network service.
Practice prompts and answer checks are added teaching material. Answer from memory first, then compare and explain any difference.
Rewatch only what you need
Open this lesson in your original course library and seek to the times below. Videos are not hosted on this site.
- 00:07:00 — Course scope and pace
- 00:09:00 — Smart Links product demonstration
- 00:13:02 — User application versus data service responsibilities
- 00:15:02 — Shared package and request flow
Companion primary documentation: Cloudflare Workers runtime APIs. For recorded API names, commands, limits, and prices, check the version you use.