Most "how do I learn this thing?" answers are link dumps. A quickstart, a feature tour, a couple of API references, maybe a video. You read them and you can recognize the words but you can't yet write the code, because nothing connects.
For Durable Workflow, there is one answer that connects: the Sample App. It is a runnable Laravel 13 project with one workflow per pattern surface — deterministic chains, elapsed-time measurement, microservice coordination, browser automation, webhook-started workflows, AI activity loops, and a signal-driven travel-agent saga. Each one ships with an artisan command that runs it, an MCP entry that exposes it to AI clients, and a Waterline screen that proves the run committed.
This post walks through the loop the sample app is built around: read, run, change. It is the loop we use ourselves when a new engineer joins the project. Forty-five minutes later they can explain the difference between a signal and an update, and they have a workflow they wrote running in Waterline.