Getting Started

Baedeker runs a WebAssembly module through decode → validate → lower → instantiate → execute. This page walks through the smallest end-to-end example.

Install

Baedeker is a Rust workspace published to crates.io:

[dependencies]
baedeker-core = "0.1"

For a command-line harness, install the CLI:

cargo install baedeker-cli

Your first module

This is the execute example (crates/baedeker-cli/examples/execute.rs), running a module that exports add(i32, i32) -> i32:

#![allow(unused)]
fn main() {
use baedeker_core::binary::module::Module;
use baedeker_core::lower::lower_module;
use baedeker_core::runtime::{Store, Value, execute_export};

// The four-stage pipeline every Baedeker run goes through.
let module = Module::decode(WASM_BYTES).expect("decode");
module.validate().expect("validate");
let reg = lower_module(&module).expect("lower");
let store = Store::instantiate(&reg).expect("instantiate");

let results = execute_export(&reg, &store, "add", &[Value::I32(20), Value::I32(22)])
    .expect("execute");
assert_eq!(results, vec![Value::I32(42)]);
}

WASM_BYTES is a &[u8] containing a .wasm binary. In the example it is embedded with include_bytes!("add.wasm"); in your code it comes from wherever modules originate (the filesystem, the network, a build step).

Run the bundled examples

# Full pipeline ending in executing an exported function.
cargo run -p baedeker-cli --example execute
# add(20, 22) = [I32(42)]

# Decode + structural summary (no validation or execution).
cargo run -p baedeker-cli --example inspect

Decode without executing

To inspect a .wasm binary’s structure:

baedeker path/to/module.wasm

To validate and lower it to an ahead-of-time artifact:

baedeker compile path/to/module.wasm -o module.bdkaot

Next steps

• Architecture — the four-stage pipeline in depth.
• Executing a Module — the runtime API.
• Embedding via FFI — the C ABI for host embedding.