# Cerulion Docs

## Docs

- [Core concepts](https://docs.cerulion.com/cerulion/concepts.md): The mental model behind Cerulion: workspaces, nodes, graphs, topics, and schemas, and how they fit together.
- [Define a node](https://docs.cerulion.com/cerulion/guides/define-a-node.md): Create a node type with ports and a trigger policy, then write its tick() in Rust.
- [Inspect topics](https://docs.cerulion.com/cerulion/guides/inspect-topics.md): Discover and watch live topics, open the TUI, and inspect recorded trace bags.
- [Messages and schemas](https://docs.cerulion.com/cerulion/guides/messages-and-schemas.md): Use built-in ROS 2 message types in a node, and define a custom workspace schema.
- [Wire and run a graph](https://docs.cerulion.com/cerulion/guides/wire-and-run-a-graph.md): Create a graph, stage node instances, wire their inputs, validate, and run it.
- [Installation](https://docs.cerulion.com/cerulion/installation.md): Get closed-alpha access to Cerulion, then install the CLI from source and verify it works.
- [Quickstart](https://docs.cerulion.com/cerulion/quickstart.md): Build and run a two-node Cerulion graph from scratch, then watch its messages live with topic echo.
- [CLI reference](https://docs.cerulion.com/cerulion/reference/cli.md): Complete reference for every cerulion command, subcommand, flag, and argument.
- [Graph and schema files](https://docs.cerulion.com/cerulion/reference/graph-and-schema-files.md): Exact YAML field specifications for graph files and schema files.
- [Message types](https://docs.cerulion.com/cerulion/reference/message-types.md): The native_ros2_messages packages, representative types, the ROS2-to-Rust type mapping, and the generated type triple.
- [Node macro reference](https://docs.cerulion.com/cerulion/reference/node-macro.md): Complete reference for the #[cerulion_node] and #[cerulion_node_impl] macros and the #[input]/#[output] field attributes.
- [Trigger policies](https://docs.cerulion.com/cerulion/reference/trigger-policies.md): The trigger policy SPEC grammar, macro-attribute equivalents, the defaulting matrix, and policy short labels.
- [Why Cerulion](https://docs.cerulion.com/cerulion/why-cerulion.md): How Cerulion compares to ROS 2 on the single-machine real-time graph: zero-copy by default, deterministic replay, and deadlines that fail loudly.
- [Cerulion](https://docs.cerulion.com/index.md): Deterministic, microsecond-scale IPC for robotics. The performance of bare shared memory with the ergonomics of a modern framework.