Node Packs

Node packs share custom nodes between N-WAVE installs, and with the browser demo, as files. A pack holds one or more custom nodes. Importing it adds those nodes to the node menu; no change to N-WAVE itself is needed.

Sharing your nodes

1. Make the nodes: Add node → Custom process, or Convert to custom node on any node's Code tab (Custom nodes).
2. Open Add node → Node packs → Export.
3. Tick the nodes, give the pack a name and a version (and optionally a description and an author), and click Download pack. You get <pack-id>-<version>.nwave-pack.json.

N-WAVE checks the pack the way an import would before it downloads it.

Installing a pack

Open Add node → Node packs → Import, then do one of these:

• choose a pack file;
• paste the URL of a pack file and click Load;
• open Community packs and click Load next to a pack from the community index.

The preview lists every node with its checks:

• Errors (red): the node can't be imported; it's skipped. Typical causes are a source that doesn't declare the process or workflow the node names, or a port that isn't in the source.
• Warnings (yellow): the node imports, but check it. For example, an input the source parser couldn't infer.
• Already installed: the node's id is in use. Choose:
  • Replace it: the default when the installed node came from the same pack, as when updating the pack.
  • Keep both (rename): the default otherwise.
  • Skip this node.

Click Import. nf-core modules and subworkflows that the nodes include are installed first, then the nodes are saved:

• In an installation, they go to the server (NWAVE_CUSTOM_NODE_DIR; with the Docker setup, results/.nwave/custom-nodes), so everyone using it sees them.
• In the demo, they go to this browser.

They appear in the node menu under Pack: <pack name>. They generate the same Nextflow code as in the install they came from.

Installed lists the packs with their nodes. Remove pack deletes the pack's nodes, and saved workflows lose those nodes. You can still edit a pack node like any custom node; it stays listed under its pack.

Pack format (version 1)

{
  "format": "n-wave-node-pack",
  "formatVersion": 1,
  "id": "bam-tools",
  "name": "BAM tools",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "description": "Sorting and statistics for BAM files",
  "author": "Jane Doe",
  "homepage": "https://example.org/bam-tools",
  "createdWith": "N-WAVE 1.2.10",
  "nodes": [
    {
      "id": "custom_head_lines_1791311681007",
      "label": "Head lines",
      "description": "The first lines of a file",
      "icon": "Code",
      "processName": "HEAD_LINES",
      "source": "process HEAD_LINES {\n  input:\n  path input_file\n  val max_lines\n ... }",
      "inputs": [
        { "name": "input_file", "kind": "path", "label": "Input file" },
        { "name": "max_lines", "kind": "val", "label": "Max lines", "settingType": "integer", "defaultValue": "20" }
      ],
      "outputs": [{ "name": "result", "emit": "result", "label": "Result" }],
      "arguments": [],
      "config": ["ext.args = '--quality 30'"],
      "nfcore": { "modules": [], "subworkflows": [] }
    }
  ]
}

Field	Required	Meaning
format, formatVersion	yes	Always "n-wave-node-pack", and 1 for this version. Newer versions are refused by older N-WAVE releases with a message to update.
id	no	Lowercase letters, digits, -, _, .. Made from the name if missing. Installed nodes remember it, so a later version of the pack replaces them.
name, version	yes	Shown in the node menu ("Pack: name") and the library.
description, author, homepage, createdWith	no	Shown in the import preview.
nodes	yes	1 to 200 nodes.

Each node:

Field	Required	Meaning
id	yes	Letters, digits, _, -, . (up to 120). Unique in the pack. It identifies the node in workflows, so keep it when you release a new version of the pack.
label, description, icon	label yes	How the node appears. icon is a lucide name.
kind	no	"workflow" for a named Nextflow workflow (such as a converted nf-core subworkflow), otherwise a process.
processName, source	yes	The process or workflow name and its Nextflow source. The source must declare that name.
inputs	no	Input ports (kind: "path") and settings (kind: "val", with settingType text, integer, float, boolean, select (with options) or expression, and defaultValue). Every input must be declared in the source.
outputs	no	Output ports. emit names the source's emit: (empty for the first unnamed output).
arguments	no	How inputs are passed to the process. Derived from the source when missing.
config	no	Process configuration lines, such as ext.args.
nfcore	no	nf-core modules (such as samtools/sort) and subworkflows the source includes. They're installed with the pack. Includes missing from the list are added, with a warning.

Community index

The node library lists the packs in a community index. Its URL is https://raw.githubusercontent.com/HCIstudio/N-WAVE-node-packs/main/index.json unless the frontend is built with VITE_NODE_PACK_INDEX_URL. The index lives in its own data repository, so sharing a node with everyone is a pull request there, not to N-WAVE:

{
  "format": "n-wave-node-pack-index",
  "formatVersion": 1,
  "packs": [
    {
      "id": "bam-tools",
      "name": "BAM tools",
      "version": "1.0.0",
      "description": "Sorting and statistics for BAM files",
      "author": "Jane Doe",
      "url": "packs/bam-tools-1.0.0.nwave-pack.json"
    }
  ]
}

url can be absolute or relative to the index. To contribute:

1. Export your pack.
2. Add the file under packs/.
3. Add an entry to index.json.
4. Open a pull request.