Architecture & Lifecycle

How NodeTool's streaming architecture enables real-time feedback, cancellation, and deployment portability.

Why This Architecture Matters

NodeTool’s architecture is designed around three core principles that directly impact your experience:

  1. Streaming-first execution – See results as they generate, not after everything completes. Cancel long-running jobs without waiting. Perfect for interactive debugging and user-facing applications.

  2. Unified runtime – The same workflow JSON runs in desktop app, headless worker, RunPod endpoint, or Cloud Run service. No platform-specific code. No rewrites when scaling.

  3. Pluggable execution strategies – Run nodes in threads (fast iteration), subprocesses (isolation), or Docker containers (deployment). Switch strategies without changing your workflow.

For developers: This design lets you prototype locally with instant feedback, then deploy to production infrastructure with confidence that behavior will be identical.

For teams: Build workflows collaboratively in the visual editor, then let DevOps deploy them as APIs—no translation layer needed.

Job Lifecycle (run, stream, reconnect, cancel)

sequenceDiagram participant Client participant API as API Server participant JEM as JobExecutionManager participant Runner as Execution Strategy participant Msg as Messaging/WS Client->>API: POST /api/workflows/{id}/run (stream=true) API->>JEM: Create job + enqueue JEM->>Runner: Start job (threaded/subprocess/docker) Runner->>Msg: Emit streaming events Msg-->>Client: token/output events Client-->>API: reconnect with thread/job id API-->>Msg: resume stream from checkpoint Client->>API: DELETE /api/workflows/{id}/run (cancel) API->>JEM: cancel job Runner-->>JEM: teardown and cleanup JEM-->>Msg: end event Msg-->>Client: completion / cancelled status

Notes

  • All endpoints and examples use http://127.0.0.1:7777 by default; update host/port when deploying.
  • Messaging emits both JSON and optional MessagePack; see chat-server for protocol details.
  • Execution strategies are detailed in execution-strategies.