<p align="center">
<img src="assets/flowstone.svg" alt="FlowStone Logo" width="220" height="248">
</p>
# FlowStone
[](https://github.com/nshkrdotcom/flowstone/actions/workflows/ci.yml)
[](https://hex.pm/packages/flowstone)
[](https://hexdocs.pm/flowstone)
[](https://github.com/nshkrdotcom/flowstone/blob/main/LICENSE)
**Asset-first data orchestration for the BEAM.**
FlowStone is an orchestration library for Elixir that treats *assets* (named data artifacts) as the primary abstraction. It's designed for building reliable, auditable data pipelines where persistence, lineage tracking, and operational visibility matter.
## Quick Start
**v0.5.0** introduces a simplified API that works with zero configuration:
```elixir
defmodule MyApp.Pipeline do
use FlowStone.Pipeline
asset :greeting do
execute fn _, _ -> {:ok, "Hello, World!"} end
end
asset :numbers do
execute fn _, _ -> {:ok, [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]} end
end
asset :doubled do
depends_on [:numbers]
execute fn _, %{numbers: nums} -> {:ok, Enum.map(nums, &(&1 * 2))} end
end
asset :sum do
depends_on [:doubled]
execute fn _, %{doubled: nums} -> {:ok, Enum.sum(nums)} end
end
end
# Run with automatic dependency resolution
{:ok, 30} = FlowStone.run(MyApp.Pipeline, :sum)
# Check if a result exists
true = FlowStone.exists?(MyApp.Pipeline, :sum)
# Retrieve cached result
{:ok, 30} = FlowStone.get(MyApp.Pipeline, :sum)
```
No explicit registration, no server configuration needed. FlowStone auto-registers pipelines and uses in-memory storage by default.
## Installation
Add to your `mix.exs`:
```elixir
def deps do
[
{:flowstone, "~> 0.5.0"}
]
end
```
## When to Use FlowStone
FlowStone is the right choice when you need:
| Use Case | Why FlowStone |
|----------|---------------|
| **ETL/ELT pipelines** | Partition-aware materialization, dependency tracking |
| **Data warehouse orchestration** | Scheduled jobs, backfill support, lineage queries |
| **Audit-sensitive workflows** | Comprehensive audit logging, approval gates |
| **Durable job execution** | Oban-backed persistence, jobs survive restarts |
| **Multi-format data storage** | Pluggable I/O managers (PostgreSQL, S3, Parquet) |
### Ideal Workloads
- Daily/hourly batch processing with date-partitioned data
- Data transformation pipelines with explicit dependencies
- Workflows requiring human approval checkpoints
- Systems where "what produced this data?" matters (lineage)
- Long-running jobs that must not be lost on node failure
## When to Use Something Else
FlowStone is **not** the best fit for:
| Use Case | Better Alternative |
|----------|-------------------|
| **Real-time distributed compute** | [Handoff](https://github.com/polvalente/handoff) - native BEAM distribution, resource-aware scheduling |
| **High-throughput stream processing** | [Broadway](https://github.com/dashbitco/broadway), [GenStage](https://github.com/elixir-lang/gen_stage) |
| **Simple background jobs** | [Oban](https://github.com/sorentwo/oban) directly |
| **Ad-hoc parallel computation** | [Task.async_stream](https://hexdocs.pm/elixir/Task.html), [Flow](https://github.com/dashbitco/flow) |
| **ML model training/inference** | [Nx](https://github.com/elixir-nx/nx) + distributed compute layer |
**Rule of thumb:** If your data needs to survive a restart and you care about lineage, use FlowStone. If you need fast ephemeral computation across nodes with resource awareness, use Handoff.
## High-Level API
The v0.5.0 API is pipeline-centric and works with zero configuration:
### Running Assets
```elixir
# Run an asset (resolves dependencies automatically)
{:ok, result} = FlowStone.run(MyPipeline, :asset_name)
# Run with a specific partition
{:ok, result} = FlowStone.run(MyPipeline, :daily_report, partition: ~D[2025-01-15])
# Force re-execution (ignore cache)
{:ok, result} = FlowStone.run(MyPipeline, :asset_name, force: true)
# Run without dependencies (fails if deps not already materialized)
{:ok, result} = FlowStone.run(MyPipeline, :asset_name, with_deps: false)
```
### Retrieving Results
```elixir
# Get cached result
{:ok, result} = FlowStone.get(MyPipeline, :asset_name)
{:error, :not_found} = FlowStone.get(MyPipeline, :never_run)
# Check if result exists
true = FlowStone.exists?(MyPipeline, :asset_name)
# Get execution status
%{state: :completed, partition: :default} = FlowStone.status(MyPipeline, :asset_name)
```
### Cache Management
```elixir
# Invalidate cached result
{:ok, 1} = FlowStone.invalidate(MyPipeline, :asset_name)
# Invalidate specific partition
{:ok, 1} = FlowStone.invalidate(MyPipeline, :asset_name, partition: ~D[2025-01-15])
```
### Backfilling
```elixir
# Process multiple partitions
{:ok, stats} = FlowStone.backfill(MyPipeline, :daily_report,
partitions: Date.range(~D[2025-01-01], ~D[2025-01-31])
)
# Parallel backfill
{:ok, stats} = FlowStone.backfill(MyPipeline, :daily_report,
partitions: [:a, :b, :c, :d],
parallel: 4
)
# stats => %{succeeded: 31, failed: 0, skipped: 0}
```
### Introspection
```elixir
# List all assets
[:greeting, :numbers, :doubled, :sum] = FlowStone.assets(MyPipeline)
# Get asset details
%{name: :doubled, depends_on: [:numbers]} = FlowStone.asset_info(MyPipeline, :doubled)
# Get DAG visualization
FlowStone.graph(MyPipeline) # ASCII art
FlowStone.graph(MyPipeline, format: :mermaid) # Mermaid diagram
```
### Pipeline Module Shortcuts
Pipelines also get convenience methods:
```elixir
defmodule MyApp.Pipeline do
use FlowStone.Pipeline
# ...
end
# These work on the pipeline module directly
{:ok, result} = MyApp.Pipeline.run(:sum)
{:ok, result} = MyApp.Pipeline.get(:sum)
true = MyApp.Pipeline.exists?(:sum)
[:greeting, :numbers, :doubled, :sum] = MyApp.Pipeline.assets()
```
## Configuration
FlowStone works with zero configuration, but can be customized:
```elixir
# config/config.exs
# Add persistence (auto-enables Postgres storage and lineage)
config :flowstone, repo: MyApp.Repo
# Or configure explicitly
config :flowstone,
repo: MyApp.Repo,
storage: :postgres, # :memory (default), :postgres, :s3, :parquet
lineage: true, # auto-enabled when repo is set
async_default: false # use sync execution by default
```
See the [Configuration Guide](guides/configuration.md) for details.
## Core Concepts
### Assets
Assets are named data artifacts. Each asset declares:
- **Dependencies** - other assets it consumes
- **Execute function** - computation that produces the asset's value
- **Partition** - temporal or dimensional key (dates, tuples, custom)
```elixir
asset :daily_sales do
depends_on [:raw_transactions, :product_catalog]
execute fn context, deps ->
sales = compute_sales(deps.raw_transactions, deps.product_catalog)
{:ok, sales}
end
end
```
### Short-Form Assets
For simple assets, use the short form:
```elixir
# Short form - value is returned directly
asset :config, do: {:ok, %{batch_size: 100}}
# Equivalent to:
asset :config do
execute fn _, _ -> {:ok, %{batch_size: 100}} end
end
```
### Implicit Result Wrapping
With `wrap_results: true`, you can skip the `{:ok, ...}` wrapper:
```elixir
defmodule MyApp.Pipeline do
use FlowStone.Pipeline, wrap_results: true
asset :numbers do
execute fn _, _ -> [1, 2, 3, 4, 5] end # Automatically wrapped as {:ok, [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]}
end
asset :doubled do
depends_on [:numbers]
execute fn _, %{numbers: nums} -> Enum.map(nums, &(&1 * 2)) end
end
end
```
### Partitions
FlowStone supports partition-aware execution for time-series and dimensional data:
```elixir
# Date partitions
{:ok, _} = FlowStone.run(MyPipeline, :report, partition: ~D[2025-01-15])
# DateTime partitions
{:ok, _} = FlowStone.run(MyPipeline, :hourly_stats, partition: ~U[2025-01-15 14:00:00Z])
# Custom partitions (atoms, tuples)
{:ok, _} = FlowStone.run(MyPipeline, :regional_report, partition: {:us_east, ~D[2025-01-15]})
```
Access the partition in your execute function:
```elixir
asset :daily_data do
execute fn ctx, _ ->
date = ctx.partition
{:ok, fetch_data_for_date(date)}
end
end
```
### I/O Managers
Pluggable storage backends for asset data:
| Manager | Use Case |
|---------|----------|
| `FlowStone.IO.Memory` | Development, testing (default) |
| `FlowStone.IO.Postgres` | Structured data, small-medium payloads |
| `FlowStone.IO.S3` | Large files, data lake integration |
| `FlowStone.IO.Parquet` | Columnar analytics data |
## Advanced Features
### Scatter (Dynamic Fan-Out)
Runtime-discovered parallel execution:
```elixir
asset :scraped_article do
depends_on [:source_urls]
scatter fn %{source_urls: urls} ->
Enum.map(urls, &%{url: &1})
end
scatter_options do
max_concurrent 50
rate_limit {10, :second}
failure_threshold 0.02
end
execute fn ctx, _deps ->
Scraper.fetch(ctx.scatter_key.url)
end
end
```
### ItemReader (Streaming Scatter Inputs)
Read scatter items incrementally from external sources:
```elixir
asset :processed_items do
scatter_from :custom do
init fn _config, _deps -> {:ok, %{items: fetch_items(), index: 0}} end
read fn state, batch_size ->
batch = Enum.slice(state.items, state.index, batch_size)
new_state = %{state | index: state.index + length(batch)}
if batch == [], do: {:ok, [], :halt}, else: {:ok, batch, new_state}
end
end
execute fn ctx, _deps ->
{:ok, process_item(ctx.scatter_key)}
end
end
```
### ItemBatcher (Batch Scatter Execution)
Group scatter items into batches for efficient execution:
```elixir
asset :batched_processor do
depends_on [:source_items]
scatter fn %{source_items: items} ->
Enum.map(items, &%{item_id: &1.id})
end
batch_options do
max_items_per_batch 20
batch_input fn deps -> %{total: length(deps.source_items)} end
on_item_error :fail_batch
end
execute fn ctx, _deps ->
# ctx.batch_items - list of items in this batch
# ctx.batch_index - zero-based batch index
# ctx.batch_count - total number of batches
sum = Enum.sum(Enum.map(ctx.batch_items, & &1["item_id"]))
{:ok, %{batch_sum: sum}}
end
end
```
### Signal Gate (Durable External Suspension)
Zero-resource waiting for external signals (webhooks, callbacks):
```elixir
asset :embedded_documents do
execute fn ctx, deps ->
task_id = ECS.start_task(deps.data)
{:signal_gate, token: task_id, timeout: :timer.hours(1)}
end
on_signal fn _ctx, payload ->
{:ok, payload.result}
end
on_timeout fn ctx ->
{:error, :timeout}
end
end
```
### Conditional Routing
Select a single branch at runtime:
```elixir
asset :router do
depends_on [:input]
route do
choice :branch_a, when: fn %{input: %{mode: :a}} -> true end
default :branch_b
end
end
asset :branch_a do
routed_from :router
depends_on [:input]
execute fn _, _ -> {:ok, :a} end
end
asset :branch_b do
routed_from :router
depends_on [:input]
execute fn _, _ -> {:ok, :b} end
end
asset :merge do
depends_on [:branch_a, :branch_b]
optional_deps [:branch_a, :branch_b]
execute fn _, deps -> {:ok, deps[:branch_a] || deps[:branch_b]} end
end
```
### Parallel Branches
Run heterogeneous branches in parallel and join results:
```elixir
asset :enrich do
depends_on [:input]
parallel do
branch :maps, final: :generate_maps
branch :news, final: :get_front_pages
end
parallel_options do
failure_mode :partial
end
join fn branches, deps ->
%{maps: branches.maps, news: branches.news, input: deps.input}
end
end
```
### Approval Gates
Pause execution for human review:
```elixir
asset :high_value_trade do
execute fn context, deps ->
trade = compute_trade(deps)
if trade.value > 1_000_000 do
{:wait_for_approval, message: "Large trade requires sign-off", context: trade}
else
{:ok, trade}
end
end
end
```
### Rate Limiting
Distributed rate limiting for APIs and external services:
```elixir
# Check rate limit
case FlowStone.RateLimiter.check("api:openai", {60, :minute}) do
:ok -> call_api()
{:wait, ms} -> {:snooze, div(ms, 1000) + 1}
end
# Semaphore-based concurrency control
FlowStone.RateLimiter.with_slot("expensive:operation", 10, fn ->
expensive_operation()
end)
```
### Lineage Tracking
Query what data produced what:
```elixir
# What did :report consume?
FlowStone.Lineage.upstream(:report, ~D[2025-01-15])
# => [%{asset: :cleaned, partition: "2025-01-15"}]
# What depends on :raw?
FlowStone.Lineage.downstream(:raw, ~D[2025-01-15])
# => [%{asset: :cleaned, partition: "2025-01-15"}]
```
## Testing
FlowStone provides test helpers for isolated pipeline testing:
```elixir
defmodule MyApp.PipelineTest do
use FlowStone.TestCase, isolation: :full_isolation
test "runs asset with mocked dependencies" do
{:ok, result} = run_asset(MyPipeline, :doubled, with_deps: %{numbers: [1, 2, 3]})
assert result == [2, 4, 6]
end
test "asserts asset existence" do
{:ok, _} = FlowStone.run(MyPipeline, :greeting)
assert_asset_exists(MyPipeline, :greeting)
end
end
```
See the [Testing Guide](guides/testing.md) for more patterns.
## Telemetry
FlowStone emits telemetry events for observability:
- `[:flowstone, :materialization, :start | :stop | :exception]`
- `[:flowstone, :scatter, :start | :complete | :failed | :instance_complete | :instance_fail]`
- `[:flowstone, :signal_gate, :create | :signal | :timeout]`
- `[:flowstone, :route, :start | :stop | :error]`
- `[:flowstone, :parallel, :start | :stop | :error | :branch_start | :branch_complete | :branch_fail]`
- `[:flowstone, :rate_limit, :check | :wait | :slot_acquired | :slot_released]`
## Low-Level API
For advanced use cases, the low-level API provides full control:
```elixir
# Manual registration with explicit options
{:ok, _} = FlowStone.Registry.start_link(name: MyRegistry)
{:ok, _} = FlowStone.IO.Memory.start_link(name: MyMemory)
FlowStone.register(MyApp.Pipeline, registry: MyRegistry)
# Configure I/O manually
io = [config: %{agent: MyMemory}]
# Materialize with explicit options
FlowStone.materialize(:report,
partition: ~D[2025-01-15],
registry: MyRegistry,
io: io
)
# Materialize with all dependencies
FlowStone.materialize_all(:report,
partition: ~D[2025-01-15],
registry: MyRegistry,
io: io
)
```
## Documentation
### Guides
- [Getting Started](guides/getting-started.md) - Step-by-step introduction
- [Configuration](guides/configuration.md) - Configuration options and patterns
- [Testing](guides/testing.md) - Testing patterns and helpers
### Reference
- **Design overview:** `docs/design/OVERVIEW.md`
- **Architecture decisions:** `docs/adr/README.md`
- **Comparison with Handoff:** `docs/scratch/20251215/flowstone-vs-handoff-comparison.md`
- **Examples:** `examples/` directory
### Examples
Run the examples:
```bash
# Individual examples
mix run examples/01_hello_world.exs
mix run examples/02_dependencies.exs
mix run examples/03_partitions.exs
mix run examples/04_backfill.exs
```
## Status
FlowStone is in **alpha**. Core execution, persistence primitives, and safety hardening are implemented. The v0.5.0 release introduces a simplified API layer while maintaining full backward compatibility.
## Contributing
Contributions are welcome. Please read the ADRs first to understand current decisions and constraints.
## License
MIT
