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Quick Start

This guide walks you through the Breakfast Schedule -- a program that coordinates making scrambled eggs, bacon, and toast in parallel. By the end, you'll understand how programs, tracks, steps, and triggers work together.

Open the Example

Open the Breakfast Schedule directly in the web app:

Open Breakfast Schedule on rhylthyme.com

Or from the web app sidebar, click Examples and select Breakfast Schedule.

Opening an example from the sidebar

What You'll See

The Breakfast Schedule has three tracks running in parallel:

Track Steps What Happens
Scrambled Eggs Crack & Whisk, Heat Pan, Cook Eggs Prep the eggs, heat the pan, then cook
Bacon Prepare Bacon, Cook Bacon Lay out the bacon, then cook until crispy
Toast Make Toast Starts late (at 8 minutes) so the toast is fresh when everything else finishes

Understanding the Timeline

Switch to the Timeline view using the view toggle at the bottom. You'll see:

  • Each track is a horizontal row with colored bars for each step
  • Steps within a track are sequential -- "Cook Eggs" can't start until "Heat Pan" finishes
  • Tracks run in parallel -- Eggs and Bacon start at the same time
  • The Toast track has a delayed start (8 minutes in), shown by the gap before its bar

Timeline view of the Breakfast Schedule

How Triggers Work

Look at how the steps connect:

  • "Crack and Whisk Eggs" uses programStart -- it begins immediately
  • "Heat Pan" uses afterStep: eggs-crack-whisk -- it starts when whisking finishes
  • "Cook Eggs" uses afterStep: eggs-heat-pan -- it starts when the pan is hot
  • "Make Toast" uses programStartOffset: 480 -- it starts 8 minutes after the program begins, timed so the toast finishes with everything else

Variable Durations

Several steps have variable durations -- they have a minimum and maximum time, with a default that auto-completes. In the Breakfast Schedule:

  • "Heat Pan" runs 60-120 seconds (default 90s). You can click Mark Complete once the minimum has passed.
  • "Cook Eggs" runs 120-180 seconds (default 150s).
  • "Cook Bacon" runs 480-720 seconds (default 600s).

Variable-duration steps show a completion trigger icon on their timeline bar.

Resource Constraints

The program defines resource constraints:

  • Stove burners: max 2 concurrent -- you can't cook eggs, bacon, and something else all at once
  • Prep work: max 2 concurrent
  • Toaster: max 1

Switch to the Resources view to see resource utilization over time. Red shading indicates overutilization.

Run It

  1. Click Start in the execution controls
  2. Watch the colored progress bars advance along each step
  3. The Itinerary view shows a step-by-step list with countdowns
  4. Steps turn green as they complete
  5. Use the Speed dropdown to run at 10x or 20x for faster testing
  6. Click Mark Complete on variable-duration steps to finish them early

Running the Breakfast Schedule with execution controls

Create Your Own

Use the AI Chat panel on the right side of the web app. Try typing:

Create a schedule for making a simple pasta dinner with garlic bread

The AI will generate a complete Rhylthyme program with tracks, steps, triggers, and resource constraints, and visualize it automatically.

Next Steps