Introduction to Cascadia PLM

Cascadia is an open-source Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) system for hardware companies. It helps engineering teams manage parts, documents, and change orders with full revision history and traceability.

The Cascadia dashboard showing parts, documents, and change order statistics.

What You Can Do

With Cascadia PLM, you can:

• Manage Parts & BOMs - Create parts, build assemblies, and track bill of materials with multi-level hierarchy
• Control Documents - Store technical documents with check-in/check-out and version control
• Track Engineering Changes - Use ECOs (Engineering Change Orders) with Git-style branching to manage changes without blocking other work
• Capture Requirements - Link requirements to parts for full traceability
• Coordinate Work - Assign tasks and track progress with Kanban boards
• Visualize Relationships - See BOM trees and relationship graphs at a glance

Who Is This For?

Cascadia is designed for:

• Hardware startups who need PLM but can't afford enterprise solutions
• Engineering teams who want version control that works like Git
• Companies with developers who prefer code-based configuration over UI wizards
• Organizations in aerospace, medical devices, electronics, or manufacturing

Key Differentiator: ECO-as-Branch

Traditional PLM systems block parts while changes are in progress. Cascadia uses a Git-style branching model where:

• Multiple ECOs can work on the same part simultaneously
• Changes are isolated until approved and released
• Revision letters are assigned automatically on merge
• Full history is preserved with merge commits

Traditional PLM:     PN-001: A → B → C → D (linear, blocking)

Cascadia:           main:     [A] ────────── [B] ────── [C]
                               │              ↑          ↑
                    eco/ECO-1: └──[work]─────┘          │
                    eco/ECO-2: ──────────[work]─────────┘

Built-In Item Types

Item Type	Description
Part	Manufacturing parts with materials, make/buy, cost, and BOM relationships
Document	Version-controlled files with check-in/check-out
Change Order	ECO/ECN/MCO workflows for engineering changes
Requirement	Requirements with priority, acceptance criteria, and traceability
Task	Work items with assignees, due dates, and Kanban support

Organizational Structure

Cascadia organizes data in a hierarchy:

• Programs - Projects or product lines (also serve as permission boundaries)
• Designs - Version containers with branches and commits
• Items - Parts, documents, and other engineering data

Why Cascadia?

Traditional PLM	Cascadia PLM
Configure through UI wizards	Define in TypeScript with full IDE support
Export/import XML for version control	Git-native configuration with code review
Proprietary scripting languages	Standard TypeScript/JavaScript ecosystem
Vendor lock-in with licensing fees	Open source (AGPL license)
Black-box deployments	Docker/Kubernetes with full control

Technology Stack

For developers interested in the technical details:

Layer	Technology
Framework	TanStack Start (full-stack TypeScript)
Database	PostgreSQL with Drizzle ORM
UI	Tailwind CSS + Radix UI components
Auth	Oslo.js + Arctic (OAuth)

See the Architecture Overview for more details.

Current Status

Pre-Release Software

Cascadia is in active development (Late Phase 2 / Early Phase 3). Core features are implemented and functional, but the system is not yet recommended for production use without evaluation.

Next Steps

• Installation Guide - Set up your development environment
• Quick Start - Create your first items
• Architecture Overview - Understand the system design