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Platform

Build it once. Run it everywhere.

FlowFuse is an application platform for building, deploying and managing industrial applications on Node-RED, across IT, OT and IIoT, from the edge to the cloud, governed from one place.

Overview

Two things to take away.

How application code is distributed across your sites, and the major components that carry it. Everything below is one of those two.

FlowFuse Platform - runs and connects your instancesDevice Agent - bridges platform to the edgeaccessmanaged byUsersoperators & teamsHosted Instanceone or many · cloud or your serverDashboardlive operator UITeam BrokerMQTT message busFlowFuse Tablesshared SQL databaseRemote Instanceone per device, across sites

Where each piece sits: instances running your applications, the Device Agent bridging the platform to the edge, and the broker and database every instance can reach.

How it works

From a flow in an editor to the same application at every site.

Five stages, in the order a team meets them. Each one links into the guide or the documentation that owns it.

01Build

Build.

One editor, one runtime. Standard Node-RED, so the flows stay yours and the skills already exist.

Node-RED

The open runtime and flow editor underneath everything. FlowFuse runs standard Node-RED, which is what keeps an application portable and the foundation yours.

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FlowFuse Expert

Describe what you need and get starting flows, Function node code, SQL and dashboard UI in the editor, plus a plain-language explanation of any flow you inherited.

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Blueprints

Working starting points for common industrial problems, deployable as they are and then adapted, instead of starting from a blank canvas.

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FlowFuse Dashboard

The operator-facing interface, built from the same flows rather than bolted on from a separate tool, so the UI and the logic ship together.

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02Deliver

Deliver.

Two ways code moves. Promote a whole application, or publish the parts worth standardising. This is the decision that makes an estate scale or not.

Editorbuilt onceSnapshotversioned artifactPipelinedev, staging, productionInstances & groupsown environment variables
Whole app: one snapshot promoted to every target, each supplying its own configuration.
Subflow or nodeworth standardisingPackageversionedTeam Libraryinstalled as a dependencyLocal applicationsassembled per site
Pieces: shared blocks the central team maintains and each site assembles from.
Whole app

Capture the application as a snapshot and promote that exact snapshot through development, staging and production, and out to a device group. Each target supplies its own environment variables, so one artifact runs at every site without an edit.

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Pieces

Publish the parts worth standardising, subflows and custom nodes, as packages into a library your teams install from. Local teams keep ownership of their own application while the central team still controls the parts that matter.

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Hardware apps

The three shapes an application takes on a device: a sealed Packaged App identical everywhere, a Configurable App tuned by a per-site config file, or an Edge Building Block wired into flows the site owns.

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Software apps

The three shapes it takes on an instance: a headless Packaged App, a user-facing Data-Driven App backed by a store, or a Shared Building Block many instances embed.

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03Run

Run.

The same runtime next to the equipment, on-prem and in the cloud, addressed as a fleet rather than one machine at a time.

Hosted Instances

Managed Node-RED on FlowFuse infrastructure or on your own server, with the platform handling the runtime so your team handles the application.

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Remote Instances

The Device Agent runs the same applications on edge hardware, including networks with no inbound access, so a plant behind a firewall is still a deployment target.

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Device groups

Devices addressed as a fleet, so the target of a deployment can be a hundred machines rather than one, and a rollback is one action rather than a hundred.

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OT, IT and IIoT architectures

The worked layouts for each: edge with the server in IT or a DMZ, air-gapped sites, on-prem and per-site cloud hosting, and a Unified Namespace across every site.

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04Connect

Connect.

What the application reads and writes. Two data services are built into every install, and anything else is exposed to the fleet the same way.

Team Broker and UNS

A managed MQTT broker in every install, so a Unified Namespace does not start with procuring infrastructure. Edge publishes once and many subscribe, across sites.

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FlowFuse Tables

A relational store built in and exposed to every instance, for applications that need to keep state rather than pass it on.

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Integrations

Industrial protocols and enterprise systems, from OPC UA and Modbus through to ERPs, databases and cloud APIs.

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Project Nodes

Instance-to-instance messaging without standing up a broker or opening a port, which is also how you expose any other store or service to the fleet.

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05Govern

Govern.

One place to say who may do what, and to show afterwards what actually happened.

Role-based access control

Who can edit, who can deploy, who can only look, per team and per application, enforced by the platform on every call rather than by convention.

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Single sign-on

SAML and LDAP against the identity provider you already run, so joining and leaving the platform follows joining and leaving the company.

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Audit logs

A record of who changed and deployed what, at team and instance level, which is the part that turns a claim about control into evidence.

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Self-hosted and certified

SOC 2 Type 1 and Type 2, with a self-hosted option for sites where nothing may leave the perimeter.

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Build what’s next.

Documentation.

Reference and how-to for every component on this page.

Read the docs
Application guide.

The decisions behind an application, before you build it.

Open the guide
Blueprints.

Working applications for common industrial problems.

Browse blueprints
Professional services.

Our engineers on your first application, with you.

See services

See it on your operations

Talk to an engineer about which delivery method fits your estate, or explore pricing to find the right fit.