Export and import a flow#

Export writes the current flow to a JSON file. Import reads one back. Use them to move a flow between machines, to keep a flow under version control, or to send a working pipeline to someone else.

The transform library is the better place to keep flows you use yourself. Files are for when you need a flow outside the app.

Export the current flow#

Click Export flow on the toolbar and a save dialogue opens, with the file named after the flow. The app replaces characters that filenames cannot contain with hyphens. A notification confirms the export.

The file contains the whole flow: every block with its position and settings, every connection, the flow's variables, and the canvas viewport. Open it again and you are back exactly where you left off.

Warning An export also carries the results of the last run and the contents of the trigger. Whatever was in a Manual Input box, the text loaded by a File Input trigger, the paths a File Watch trigger points at, and every block's most recent output all travel with the file. Run a flow on a real sample and that sample is in the export. Check before sharing one, and clear the execution log first to drop the stored outputs.

Import a flow file#

Click Import flow and a file picker opens. The app always imports the flow into a new tab, and that tab becomes the active one, so an import never overwrites what you are working on. A flow saved without a name arrives as Imported Flow.

Cancel either dialogue and nothing happens.

When an import fails#

A file that is not a valid flow raises a 'Could not import flow' notification that says what was wrong. The message names the problem. When the trouble is in a specific block or connection, the message gives the position too.

The causes are much the same each time. The file is not valid JSON, or it is JSON but not a flow, or it is a flow whose blocks or connections are missing something they need. A hand-edited export is the usual way to arrive here.