# common-workflow-language/common-workflow-language

Repository for the CWL standards. Use https://cwl.discourse.group/ for support 😊

Repository: https://github.com/common-workflow-language/common-workflow-language
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/common-workflow-language
Homepage: https://www.commonwl.org
Language: Common Workflow Language
License: Apache-2.0
License Family: permissive
Topics: cwl, common-workflow-language, containers, workflows, science, workflow, commonwl, sciworkflows
Last push: 2026-08-15T20:12:33+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 66/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 97, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 4360, "days_push": 18, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1480, forks 193 (observed 2026-08-28T04:04:50.806085+00:00)

## What it is
The Common Workflow Language (CWL) is an open standard for describing command line tools and data analysis workflows in a portable, vendor-neutral way. This repository hosts the CWL v1.0.x specification and serves as the home for the CWL standards project.

## Use cases
- describe portable command line tool workflows
- run reproducible bioinformatics pipelines on HPC clusters
- share scientific data analysis workflows across platforms
- scale analysis workflows from laptop to cloud
- standardize multi-step data analysis pipelines
- make workflows portable across workflow engines

## When to choose
- you need vendor-neutral, portable workflow descriptions for data-intensive science
- you want reproducible pipelines that run on workstations, clusters, cloud, and HPC
- you work in bioinformatics, medical imaging, physics, or similar fields
- you want an open standard backed by a multi-vendor community

## When to avoid
- you need a workflow execution engine rather than a specification (use a CWL implementation like cwltool)
- your workflows are purely web-based or event-driven rather than command-line tool based
- you prefer a single-vendor workflow system with richer ecosystem features

## Facets
- artifact type: learning-resource
- maturity: stable
- function: workflow-automation, developer-tools, documentation
- domain: data-science, bioinformatics, developer-tools, cloud-computing
- platform: cross-platform, cloud, cli
- tags: workflow-language, open-standard, scientific-workflows, reproducibility, hpc, portable-pipelines, specification, automation, docker

## Member repositories
- common-workflow-language/common-workflow-language (main) score 66

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:04:50.806085+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T04:34:13.953699+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/common-workflow-language/common-workflow-language (fetched 2026-08-28T04:04:50.806085+00:00, sha 020aee769936)
  - homepage: https://www.commonwl.org (fetched 2026-08-29T11:41:04.023280+00:00, sha 565c455f9dd8)
  - site_page: https://www.commonwl.org/about (fetched 2026-08-29T11:41:04.032629+00:00, sha 2d8d43e6343b)
  - site_page: https://www.commonwl.org/features (fetched 2026-08-29T11:41:04.034656+00:00, sha b4588da59cc2)
  - site_page: https://www.commonwl.org/getting-started (fetched 2026-08-29T11:41:04.036400+00:00, sha b548ff081c2a)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.