Flowdepth — crypto order flow, below the surface

Flowdepth is an open-source native desktop terminal for crypto order flow and options analytics, built in Rust as an advanced fork of Flowsurface.

Flowdepth combines crypto order-flow charts with footprint and L2 heatmap views, adaptive volume bubbles, Binance iceberg/replenishment detection, Deribit GEX, and Derive observed maker flow. A persistent market-data cache, automatic reconnect, and historical gap recovery help charts remain useful through longer sessions and network interruptions.

Important

Beta status: Flowdepth is experimental but usable beta software and is evolving quickly. Back up important layouts before updating. Beta releases may contain regressions. Flowdepth is derived from and continues to credit the upstream Flowsurface project.

Why Flowdepth?

Flowdepth extends Flowsurface for traders and market observers who want deeper crypto order-flow tooling in a native desktop application. Its development focuses on richer execution and liquidity visualization, resilient market-data ingestion and recovery, and crypto-options analytics while preserving the open-source Rust foundation of the upstream project.

Detection and analytics such as possible iceberg activity, GEX, and observed maker flow describe market data; they are not certain trading signals.

Download

Automated beta builds are available from the Flowdepth Releases page. They are generated from the develop branch after the full quality gate succeeds.

For a quick start:

1. Open the Releases page.
2. Download the package for your platform: Windows x64, Linux x64, or universal macOS.
3. Extract the archive.
4. Run flowsurface.exe on Windows or the flowsurface binary on Linux/macOS.

The application binary and Rust package are currently still named flowsurface for upstream compatibility.

Windows and macOS beta binaries are not currently signed. Windows SmartScreen may require More info → Run anyway. On macOS, control-click the binary and choose Open, or allow it under System Settings → Privacy & Security.

Release channels

• Beta builds: automated builds from develop, published as GitHub prereleases after formatting, check, Clippy, tests, and all platform packages succeed. Tags use develop-<commit>, where <commit> is the seven-character Git commit identifier used for the build.
• Stable releases: not currently available.

Key features

• Order-flow charts: footprint views, historical L2 heatmaps, Time & Sales, DOM/ladder, candlesticks, comparisons, volume profiles, and cumulative volume delta.
• Adaptive volume bubbles: configurable clustering of aggressive executions with adaptive thresholds, side/delta coloring, bounded labels, and stable live updates.
• Possible Binance iceberg/replenishment detection: optional markers for evidence of passive absorption on Binance USDⓈ-M perpetuals. The detector is probabilistic, disabled by default, and does not prove that an exchange-native iceberg order exists.
• Crypto options analytics: BTC and ETH GEX profiles sourced from Deribit, plus independently displayed Derive observed maker flow matched to Deribit contracts.
• Persistent market-data cache: local storage for klines, open interest, trades, and derived bubble summaries with gap detection, deduplication, and invalidation.
• Connection recovery: automatic reconnect, historical gap backfill, bounded retries, stale-request cancellation, and sequence-aware recovery.
• Workspace tools: persistent layouts, saved-state recovery, customizable themes, pane linking, loading/coverage feedback, and an in-app debug terminal.
• Public market data: market data is received directly from exchange REST APIs and WebSockets. Current features do not require exchange trading credentials.

Historical trades on footprint charts

Live trades are captured over WebSocket. Binance charts can optionally backfill the visible range from data.binance.vision daily files, the paginated REST API, or both. Historical trade fetching for Bybit and Hyperliquid is not available; OKX support remains work in progress.

Installation

Prebuilt beta packages

Follow the quick-start download steps. Packages contain the application binary and the assets needed by that platform.

Build from source

Requirements:

• Rust; the pinned version and components are defined in rust-toolchain.toml.
• Git.
• Platform dependencies:
  • Debian/Ubuntu: sudo apt install build-essential pkg-config libasound2-dev
  • Arch Linux: sudo pacman -S base-devel alsa-lib
  • Fedora: sudo dnf install gcc make alsa-lib-devel
  • macOS: install Xcode Command Line Tools with xcode-select --install.
  • Windows: use a Rust MSVC toolchain; no additional project dependency is required.

Install directly from the develop branch:

cargo install --git https://github.com/Niketion/flowdepth.git --branch develop flowsurface
flowsurface

Or clone, build, and run the repository:

git clone --branch develop https://github.com/Niketion/flowdepth.git
cd flowdepth
cargo build --release --locked
cargo run --release --locked

The application binary and Rust package are currently still named flowsurface for upstream compatibility. The public project and fork are named Flowdepth; internal crate and module names intentionally retain their upstream-compatible names.

Technical documentation

• Adaptive volume bubbles
• Binance iceberg/replenishment detector
• Derive maker flow and GEX architecture
• Contributing guide
• Security policy
• Code of Conduct

Notable changes from upstream/main

The develop branch adds the order-flow, options, caching, recovery, diagnostics, saved-state, and build automation features summarized above. Windows uses a single-native-window compatibility mode to avoid an upstream multi-window redraw issue, while macOS and Linux retain native multi-window behavior.

See the complete upstream/main...develop source comparison.

Project relationship

Flowdepth is a fork of Flowsurface. It retains upstream compatibility and attribution and does not seek to obscure or replace the origin of its code. Flowdepth-specific features are developed independently, and Flowdepth releases and support are separate from official Flowsurface releases.

The Rust package and executable remain named flowsurface for compatibility. Changes can be reviewed directly in the upstream/main...develop comparison.

Credits

• Flowsurface and its contributors, whose project is the foundation of this fork.
• Kraken Desktop, formerly Cryptowatch, which inspired the original project.
• Halloy, an open-source reference for foundational design and architecture.
• iced, the Rust GUI library used by the application.

Community

Questions and discussion are welcome in this repository's GitHub issues. The existing Discord invite leads to the upstream Flowsurface community; Flowdepth releases and support remain separate.

Please read the contribution guide and Code of Conduct before contributing.

License

Flowdepth is distributed under the GNU General Public License v3.0 or later, consistent with its Flowsurface foundation. Contributions are shared under the same license.