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Quick Start

This guide takes you from zero to a visible Snakemake run in FlowO: deploy (or use a demo server), sign in, configure flowo login, run Snakemake with --logger flowo, and confirm the run on the Dashboard and Runs pages.

Option A — Use an existing deployment (optional)

Tip

If your team publishes a public evaluation host, use that URL in the steps below and obtain any shared demo credentials from the maintainers. Do not run confidential pipelines on shared sandboxes; credentials and URLs may change without notice.

  1. Open the deployment URL in a browser and sign in (or register if allowed).
  2. On your workstation, install the logger plugin (see Option B) and run:
flowo login --host https://your-flowo-host
  1. Complete the browser approval flow; the CLI stores the token under ~/.config/flowo/config.toml (mode 0600).

Login page with email and password fields

Typical terminal output after a successful login (no token is printed):

$ flowo login --host https://your-flowo-host
Opening browser for authentication…
Waiting for you to approve this device in the browser…
Login successful. Configuration saved to ~/.config/flowo/config.toml
  1. Run Snakemake from any project directory:
snakemake --logger flowo --logger-flowo-name "demo-quickstart" --logger-flowo-tags demo,qc
  1. In the UI, open Dashboard and Runs (/runs) to see the new run.

Dashboard with non-empty status cards and charts


Option B — Local Docker Compose

1. Deploy FlowO

  1. Fetch configuration (adjust URLs if you mirror the repo):
curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/zhanghaomiao/flowo/main/compose.yml
curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/zhanghaomiao/flowo/main/env.example
cp env.example .env
  1. Edit .env
  2. Set FLOWO_WORKING_PATH to a host directory that will contain (or parent) your Snakemake working directories so logs and previews resolve.
  3. Set SECRET_KEY and database passwords for anything beyond local trials.
  4. Optionally set DOMAIN / FLOWO_HOST when serving behind HTTPS.

  5. Start services

docker compose up -d
  1. Open the app — default http://localhost:3100, register the first user (if enabled), then sign in.

2. Install the plugin and CLI login

pip install snakemake-logger-plugin-flowo
flowo login --host http://localhost:3100

Use the same flow as Option A: run flowo login, approve in the browser, confirm the token is saved under ~/.config/flowo/config.toml.

3. Run Snakemake with FlowO

cd /path/to/your/snakemake/project

snakemake --logger flowo \
  --logger-flowo-name "My first run" \
  --logger-flowo-tags "demo,quickstart"

What happens next?

  1. Runs — Open Runs in the top navigation (/runs). The new execution appears with status, tags, and progress.
  2. Detail — Click the run name to open /runs/{id}: DAG on the left; Jobs, Timeline, Code, and Result tabs on the right.
  3. Dashboard — Aggregate cards and charts update as events arrive (SSE).

Next steps