FlowFuse Application GuideFlowFuse Guide
Foundations
The foundation to build on: what FlowFuse is, its core pieces, and how code is shared across teams.
The big picture
FlowFuse platform — runs and connects your Node-RED instances
Hosted Instance
one or many, in the cloud
Dashboard
live operator UI
Team Broker
MQTT message bus
FlowFuse Tables
shared SQL database
Remote Instances — one per device, across sites
Remote Instance
one per device, across sites
Edge hardware
PLC
controller
IO module
sensors & actuators
Gateway
protocol bridge
Embedded
microcontroller
LoRaWAN GW
wireless sensors
- Platform
- Edge
- Hardware
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 Node-RED, managed the same way — they differ only in where the runtime lives.
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.
FlowFuse Concepts documentation →The method, in four moves
- 1Say what it doesOne plain sentence. No nouns you would have to explain.
- 2Pick the packageMatch it to a package — often several (most real apps are more than one piece).
- 3Decide where data goesChoose the target(s): FlowFuse Tables (relational), an external time-series DB, the Team Broker, or a single service.
- 4Read off the sentencePackage plus target is the architecture, stated in one line.
How code gets shared
Two ways code moves in FlowFuse: promote a whole app through environments, or compose an app from shared parts. Both live on the App delivery methods page — and when dev and prod sit on separate servers, a GitHub bridge (an architecture decision) carries the versioned code between them.