FBPX

FBPX is a flow-based programming toolkit for the JavaScript ecosystem. Instead of writing an application as a sequence of statements, you describe it as a graph: a set of nodes — small, reusable pieces of functionality — wired together by links over which data packets flow.

The whole graph lives in a plain-text .fbp file, so your architecture is versioned, reviewed, and diffed like any other source code.

What it looks like

The smallest useful flow reads like this:

provider ./{ns}.{name}.yml

'Hello World!' -> msg Log(console/log)

One node — Log, of kind console/log — receives a single packet (Hello World!) on its msg port and logs it.

The same idea at slightly larger scale: the hello_world example on this site parses a live RSS feed, logs every headline, and reads each one aloud.

provider ./{ns}.{name}.yml

"http://rss.cnn.com/rss/edition_world.rss" -> url Rss(network/rss)

Rss out -> msg Log(console/log) out -> msg SayIt(console/say)

The pieces

Nodes are the building blocks. A node definition is a YAML file that declares its input and output ports plus the function that runs when data arrives. Nodes are resolved by a provider line — either from local files or from a remote registry:

• provider ./{ns}.{name}.yml — resolve nodes from local YAML files
• provider https://api.fbpx.io/v1/nodes/{user}/{ns}/{name} — resolve nodes from the registry

Links connect one node's output port to another node's input port: Rss out -> msg Log.

Input (IIP) is a literal value fed directly into a port: 'Hello World!' -> msg Log. Prepending @ to the port — 'Hello World!' -> @msg Log — turns the input into context, stored inside the flow definition itself so it travels with the flow.

The graph is executable

The graph is not just a diagram. A single runtime, @fbpx/flow, executes the same .fbp file on the command line, inside a server, or in a browser — and the CLI covers the whole lifecycle around it:

• fbpx run — execute a flow
• fbpx graph — render a flow as a dot graph
• fbpx convert — inspect the parsed graph
• fbpx install — install node dependencies
• fbpx deploy — publish a flow to the registry
• fbpx serve — expose a flow over the FBP protocol

Because nodes are just npm packages behind a small protocol, the entire npm ecosystem is available as a component library. The heavy lifting of a flow is usually done by existing packages — wrapped in a thin node definition and composed into a graph.

Get started

FBPX is in active development; expect the surface to move as the ecosystem matures.

• Install the CLI
• Write your first flow
• Browse the language reference, the CLI reference, the flow API, and the examples