---
title: "Sam Goodwin"
description: "Sam Goodwin presents Alchemy as infrastructure built from Effect programs and typed requirements."
plain: "Sam Goodwin presents Alchemy as infrastructure built from Effect programs with typed requirements."
group: person
terms:
  - "Sam Goodwin"
sources:
  - url: https://youtu.be/YEn4A7XxgF4
    title: "#116 Infrastructure as Effects with Sam Goodwin - YouTube"
    publisher: "Sam Goodwin"
    note: "Infrastructure conversation; used for Sam's Effect and Alchemy explanation."
    accessed: "2026-10-01"
  - url: https://youtu.be/fPSxB7ZgSJw
    title: "Alchemy, Infrastructure as Effects | Office Hours 27 🔥 - YouTube"
    publisher: "Sam Goodwin"
    note: "Office-hours demonstration; used for infrastructure as Effects."
    accessed: "2026-10-01"
  - url: https://youtu.be/MtKHzAH6uXM
    title: "Sam Goodwin - Alchemy - YouTube"
    publisher: "Sam Goodwin"
    note: "Alchemy interview; used for Layers, cloud libraries, and SaaS as NPM."
    accessed: "2026-10-01"
---

# Sam Goodwin

> For agents: start with the [agent guide](https://ratstack.sh/llms.txt). Every page is Markdown by default; add `Accept: text/html` for HTML.

New on /news: [Effect Office Hours 52 with Resonate HQ](/news).

Sam describes a cloud application as a computation: a description of work with a result or error.
Its infrastructure context is the cloud environment and dependencies in which it runs.
Its flow is the sequence of work. [Happy Path 116, 24:55](https://youtu.be/YEn4A7XxgF4?t=1495).

He explains that runtime clients, business logic, and infrastructure policies stay related even when they live in separate files. [Happy Path 116, 30:31](https://youtu.be/YEn4A7XxgF4?t=1831).

He built [cafe](https://github.com/Effect-TS/cafe), the reference app for the [CAFE stack](/lore/cafe-stack).

## Sources

1. [#116 Infrastructure as Effects with Sam Goodwin - YouTube](https://youtu.be/YEn4A7XxgF4)
   Sam Goodwin. Infrastructure conversation; used for Sam's Effect and Alchemy explanation. Accessed 2026-10-01.

2. [Alchemy, Infrastructure as Effects | Office Hours 27 🔥 - YouTube](https://youtu.be/fPSxB7ZgSJw)
   Sam Goodwin. Office-hours demonstration; used for infrastructure as Effects. Accessed 2026-10-01.

3. [Sam Goodwin - Alchemy - YouTube](https://youtu.be/MtKHzAH6uXM)
   Sam Goodwin. Alchemy interview; used for Layers, cloud libraries, and SaaS as NPM. Accessed 2026-10-01.

## Linked from

- Agent guide → An Effect stack so pure (aspirational) Kit Langton will blush. → [Read page](https://ratstack.sh/llms.txt)

- CAFE names the Cloudflare, Alchemy, Foldkit and Effect stack → CAFE is a named stack: Cloudflare runs the app, Alchemy declares it, Foldkit draws the UI, and Effect does the typed work. → [Read page](https://ratstack.sh/lore/cafe-stack)

- Change log → What changed in the files served here, newest first. → [Read page](https://ratstack.sh/log)

- Context and requirements → Effect requirements make a computation's needed services visible in its type. → [Read page](https://ratstack.sh/lore/context-and-requirements)

- Full agent guide → An Effect stack so pure (aspirational) Kit Langton will blush. → [Read page](https://ratstack.sh/llms-full.txt)

- learn-alchemy → Learn how Alchemy 2 turns an Effect program into a planned Cloudflare deployment. → [Read page](https://ratstack.sh/skills/learn-alchemy)

- Rat Stack lore | rat-stack → Short, source-grounded notes on the ideas and decisions behind rat-stack. → [Read page](https://ratstack.sh/lore)

- Source change history (log.md) → The generated change log as Markdown. → [Read page](https://ratstack.sh/log.md)