Installation

This guide covers installing and setting up Reflow on your system. Pick a path based on the language you're integrating from.

Quickest path: a language SDK

Most users start with one of the language SDKs. They wrap the Rust runtime in idiomatic shapes and ship pre-built native binaries for darwin / linux / windows — no Rust toolchain required to use them.

The SDK chapters walk through each one with a hello-world example. Optional actor packs (loadPack(...)) bring heavier palettes — GPU, ML, browser automation, ~6,700 SaaS API actors — into any SDK install at runtime.

Building from source (Rust)

The rest of this page covers building the Rust runtime from source — what you'll want if you're embedding Reflow in your own native host, contributing to the runtime itself, or rebuilding libreflow_rt_capi for a platform we don't ship pre-built.

Prerequisites

Before installing Reflow, ensure you have:

Required

• Rust 1.85 or later
• Git for cloning the repository

Optional (for scripting support)

• Deno 1.30+ for JavaScript/TypeScript actors
• Python 3.8+ for Python actors
• Docker for isolated Python execution

Installation Methods

Method 1: Use Reflow as a Rust Library

For application code, depend on the unified runtime crate:

[dependencies]
reflow_rt = "0.1"

Method 2: Build from Source

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/offbit-ai/reflow.git
   cd reflow
   

2. Build the project:

   cargo build --release
   

3. Run examples or package crates locally:

   cargo test -p reflow_rt
   cargo package -p reflow_rt --list
   

Method 3: Use Lower-Level Crates Directly

reflow_rt is the recommended user-facing entry point. Lower-level crates remain available when a project needs a narrower dependency surface:

[dependencies]
reflow_graph = "0.1"
reflow_actor = "0.1"
reflow_network = "0.1"
reflow_components = { version = "0.1", default-features = false }

Feature Flags

reflow_rt keeps optional component families out of the default install path:

[dependencies]
reflow_rt = { version = "0.1", features = ["gpu", "media", "ml"] }

Available Features

Runtime Dependencies

JavaScript/TypeScript (Deno)

Install Deno:

# macOS/Linux
curl -fsSL https://deno.land/x/install/install.sh | sh

# Windows (PowerShell)
iwr https://deno.land/x/install/install.ps1 -useb | iex

# Using package managers
brew install deno          # macOS
scoop install deno         # Windows
snap install deno          # Linux

Python Support

Install Python 3.8+:

# macOS
brew install python

# Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt update
sudo apt install python3 python3-pip

# Windows
# Download from https://python.org

For Docker-based Python execution:

# Install Docker
# macOS/Windows: Docker Desktop
# Linux: docker.io package
sudo apt install docker.io  # Ubuntu/Debian

Verification

Verify your installation:

# Check the user-facing runtime crate
cargo check -p reflow_rt

# Verify the crate package contents
cargo package -p reflow_rt --list

Platform-Specific Notes

macOS

• Use Homebrew for easy dependency management
• Xcode Command Line Tools required for Rust compilation

Linux

• Ensure build-essential is installed
• Some distributions may need pkg-config and libssl-dev

# Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt install build-essential pkg-config libssl-dev

# CentOS/RHEL
sudo yum groupinstall "Development Tools"
sudo yum install openssl-devel

Windows

• Use Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) for best experience
• Visual Studio Build Tools required for Rust compilation
• Consider using scoop or chocolatey for dependency management

Configuration

Environment Variables

Set these environment variables for optimal performance:

# Enable shared Python environment (optional)
export USE_SHARED_ENV=true

# Set Python path (if needed)
export PYTHON_PATH=/usr/bin/python3

# Configure Deno permissions (optional)
export DENO_PERMISSIONS="--allow-all"

Config File

Create a reflow.toml configuration file:

[runtime]
default_engine = "deno"
enable_networking = true
enable_filesystem = true

[deno]
allow_all = false
allow_net = true
allow_read = true

[python]
use_docker = false
shared_environment = true

[performance]
thread_pool_size = 8
max_memory_mb = 1024

Next Steps

Now that Reflow is installed:

1. Learn the basics: Read Basic Concepts
2. Set up development: Follow Development Setup
3. Create your first workflow: Try First Workflow
4. Explore examples: Check out the Examples

Troubleshooting

Common Issues

Rust compilation errors:

# Update Rust to latest version
rustup update

Deno not found:

# Add Deno to PATH
export PATH="$HOME/.deno/bin:$PATH"

Python import errors:

# Install required Python packages
pip install numpy pandas  # or other dependencies

Permission denied errors:

# Fix file permissions
chmod +x reflow

For more troubleshooting, see the Troubleshooting Guide.