Foundations

The foundation to build on: what FlowFuse is, its core pieces, and how code is shared across teams.

FlowFuse is an application platform for building, deploying and managing industrial applications on Node-RED — across IT, OT and IIoT, from the edge to the cloud, governed from one place.

The big picture

FlowFuse Platform — runs and connects your instancesDevice Agent — bridges platform to the edgeaccessmanaged byUsersoperators & teamsHosted Instanceone or many · cloud or your serverDashboardlive operator UITeam BrokerMQTT message busFlowFuse Tablesshared SQL databaseRemote Instanceone per device, across sites

The core pieces

  • Single platform — Manage, secure, and govern everything from one place.
  • Instances — Node-RED runtimes. A Hosted Instance runs on FlowFuse-managed infrastructure (cloud or your own server); a Remote Instance runs on your own edge hardware via the Device Agent. Same runtime either way — it connects to whatever the job needs (hardware, data, cloud) and can serve its own Dashboard. What an instance connects to →
  • Team Broker — A shared message bus that ties data together across sites.
  • Database — One shared operational data store.
  • Dashboards — Operator-facing UIs for the people who run it.
  • Edge & device management — Deploy and manage across many devices, lines, and plants.
Remote Instance — A Remote Instance lives in both worlds: edge execution down in OT, or an on-prem worker under an IT/cloud platform.
In the FlowFuse docs — that's the mental model in plain language. For the full glossary — every FlowFuse piece and term (Applications, Instances, Snapshots, Pipelines, Team Broker, Tables, Devices and more) — see the FlowFuse Concepts documentation.

How code gets shared

Two ways code moves in FlowFuse: promote a whole app through environments, or compose an app from shared parts.

App delivery methods → — whole app or reusable pieces: how a build reaches every place that should run it.