# Fluksio

Fluksio is a node-based automation engine. You describe what should happen as a
graph of small pieces of logic, and it keeps that graph running — reacting to
what arrives, or executing once from parameters to a result.

Two very different jobs turn out to be the same shape, which is why the same
engine does both:

- **A house, a lab or a plant** produces values forever. A sensor publishes, a
  rule fires, a relay closes, a dashboard on the wall shows what happened. The
  flow never ends.
- **An experiment** produces a value once. Parameters go in, stages execute,
  and at some point it is *done* and has left behind metrics, artifacts and a
  record you can compare against last month's.

The first is a **live flow**, the second is a **run**. Both are the same nodes,
the same type checking, the same editor and the same API.

## What you actually get

- A **flow engine** that owns your graph, checks the types on every edge, and
  keeps running when a node fails rather than taking the rest down with it.
- A **canvas** that lays flows out for you and an editor for the Python inside
  each node — with the running values drawn on the wires while you work.
- **Dashboards** built next to the logic that feeds them, including ones you
  can hang on a wall tablet that has no keyboard.
- **Runs**: parameters, metrics, artifacts, sweeps, and a queryable history —
  without a second server and without paying a project bootstrap per execution.
- **Distributed workers**: a node marked `device: gpu` runs on the machine that
  has one, which dials out to the engine rather than needing to be reachable.
- An **HTTP API** that came first — everything the browser does, you can do from
  a script — plus an MCP endpoint for agents.

## Start here

The setup is genuinely different depending on what you are here for, so
[Getting started](getting-started/index.md) splits in two: one path installs a
Python package and gets out of your way, the other stands up a server you will
be running for years. Everything after that is shared.

If you would rather look before installing, the hosted demo at
[fluksio.com](https://fluksio.com) runs a real instance with a small-house panel
and a training pipeline on it.

## Where things are

| If you want to… | Read |
|---|---|
| Understand what a flow, a node and a message are | [Concepts](concepts/flows.md) |
| Drive Fluksio from the browser | [The interface](interface/index.md) |
| Drive it from Python, a shell or CI | [Code and the CLI](code/cli.md) |
| Look up a node type or a payload type | [Reference](reference/node-types.md) |

Fluksio is self-hosted by default. An instance runs offline, keeps its data
on its own disk, and never contacts anything unless you
[connect it to a portal](interface/portal.md) yourself.