OpenFlow

Open source · Self-hosted

Workflow automation
you own

OpenFlow is a self-hosted engine and visual editor for building automations. Import familiar workflow JSON, run nodes you control, and deploy with Docker — no cloud lock-in.

View on GitHub Quick start
Clean-room node factory Docker one-command install 400+ specs & executors
OpenFlow visual workflow editor with node palette, canvas graph, and AI assistant panel
Product

See it in action

Workflow library, template marketplace, and a canvas that feels built for operators — not demos.

OpenFlow workflows list with new, import, and template actions
Workflows Create, import JSON, or start from an example.
OpenFlow template marketplace with community workflow cards
Templates Browse community flows with compatibility badges.
OpenFlow canvas showing Schedule Trigger, HTTP Request, IF, and branch nodes
Editor Branching graphs, expressions, credentials, and assistant.
Why OpenFlow

Built for people who run their own stack

A full product surface — editor, engine, credentials, and workers — designed to stay under your control.

Visual workflow editor

Canvas-first UI powered by React Flow. Drag nodes, wire branches, inspect data, and iterate without leaving the browser.

Familiar workflow JSON

Targets the publicly documented workflow format and expression style so exports can be opened, edited, and saved. Independent implementation — not a fork of any proprietary source tree.

Credentials & secrets

Encrypted credentials, environments, variables, and secret providers so production secrets stay out of your graph definitions.

Queue-backed workers

Hono API, Postgres via Prisma, and BullMQ on Redis for durable runs — the pieces you need for real self-hosted workloads.

Plugin SDK

Author nodes with a stable TypeScript surface: defineNode, execution context, and helpers — the only supported path for builtins and future plugins.

Templates & projects

Projects, sharing, RBAC, data tables, and a template marketplace path so teams can reuse patterns instead of rebuilding every flow.

How it works

Design, execute, operate

OpenFlow is a single deployable stack: a React editor for humans, a graph engine for nodes, and Postgres + Redis for state and jobs.

Design on the canvas

Build workflows from triggers and actions. Configure parameters with expressions, pick credentials, and organize work into projects.

Engine runs the graph

The runtime walks the graph, evaluates expressions, passes items between nodes, and records execution history you can inspect in the UI.

Host it yourself

Docker Compose brings up API, worker, Postgres, and Redis. Point TLS at the API and you are in production-shaped territory.

Editor, API, engine, and data stores Editor React · React Flow API + Worker Hono · BullMQ Engine Nodes · Expressions Postgres Redis
How it was made

Clean-room by design

OpenFlow grows coverage without copying third-party source. Public docs become specs; specs become SDK nodes — with isolation and validation at every stage.

Early on, the project rejected a managed-cloud-only backend. Workflow execution needs long-running workers, persistent state, and control over the sandbox — so OpenFlow ships as a self-hosted app: TypeScript end to end, Hono for the API, Prisma for Postgres, BullMQ for the queue.

Node coverage is the hard problem. Instead of vendoring someone else’s codebase, OpenFlow uses a clean-room factory: agents read public documentation and write behavioral specs; a separate implement path is allowed to see only those specs and the OpenFlow Plugin SDK — never third-party source trees.

Temporary corpus used for speccing lives outside the git tree and is wiped after the SPEC stage. Implement and validate gates keep the repo free of forbidden material. The result is hundreds of specs and executors grown at scale, with AI in the loop and human-owned process rules.

TypeScript React TanStack Start React Flow Hono Prisma Postgres BullMQ Redis Docker
1

SPEC

Public docs → behavioral markdown under docs/specs/nodes/

2

Wipe corpus

No third-party packs remain in the factory run tree

3

IMPLEMENT

Spec + SDK only → executor, tests, registry registration

4

VALIDATE

Gates and checks; fail cycles back to SPEC when needed

Who made it

Built by Chen Chiu

Independent open-source project under the real-limitless GitHub account.

Chen Chiu

Creator · @real-limitless

Building OpenFlow as a self-hosted automation platform with a clean-room node factory — so ownership of the runtime and the process stays with the people running it.

GitHub profile Open an issue
Get started

Running in minutes

Only Docker is required for the recommended path. No manual database setup.

terminal docker compose 
# one-line installer (interactive TUI)
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/real-limitless/OpenFlow/main/scripts/get-openflow.sh | bash

# or clone and start
git clone https://github.com/real-limitless/OpenFlow.git
cd OpenFlow
docker compose up -d

# open the app → Run sample workflow → Execute
# → http://localhost:3000

First open

Use Run sample workflow for a zero-credential success. With auth on, create the instance owner at /setup first.

Developing locally

Need Node.js 22+ and Docker for Postgres + Redis. Then: npm run setup and npm run dev.

Full install docs