I have a .instance file. How do I get an actual object instance?
Using InstanceCookie (note that if you have an entire folder of .instance files, there’s a more efficient way to get all of them):
DataObject dob = DataObject.find (theDotInstanceFileObject);
InstanceCookie ck = dob.getLookup().lookup(InstanceCookie.class);
MyObject obj = (MyObject) ck.instanceCreate();
(you can and should call ck.instanceClass() to ensure the type cast is correct ahead of time)