Developing Flows

Node-RED allows you to quickly start developing applications by dragging in nodes and wiring them together to create flows. This can be a great way to get started, but as flows grow over time, it can lead to applications that are harder to maintain.

This guide provides some recommendations and best practices for how to create Node-RED flows that will be reusable, easier to maintain and more robust.

This guide assumes that you are already familiar with the basic usage of Node-RED. If you are looking for more information about using Node-RED, the User Guide and Cookbook are good resources to help you get started.

Flow structure

This section looks at how you can organise your flows, strategies for splitting them into smaller, reusable components and how to customise them for different platforms.

Message design

This section looks at how the design of messages can help create nodes and flows that work well together and are easier to maintain.

Documenting flows

All good code should have good documentation to match. This section looks at what tools and techniques Node-RED provides to help you document them.