# Node-RED

Low-code programming for event-driven applications

Repository: https://github.com/node-red/node-red
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/node-red
Homepage: http://nodered.org
Language: JavaScript
License: Apache-2.0
License Family: permissive
Topics: node-red, javascript, low-code, openjs-foundation, flow-based-programming, visual-programming
Last push: 2026-08-16T12:33:31+00:00
Link (homepage): http://nodered.org
Link (site_page): https://nodered.org/about
Link (site_page): https://nodered.org/docs
Link (site_page): https://nodered.org/docs/getting-started
Link (site_page): https://nodered.org/docs/platforms/docker

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 97/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 98, release rhythm 95, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 4745, "days_push": 17, "days_rel": 34, "gap_med": 14, "n_releases_24m": 30}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 23590, forks 3882 (observed 2026-08-28T04:11:35.112787+00:00)

## What it is
Node-RED is a browser-based, low-code, flow-based programming tool for wiring together event-driven applications, originally developed at IBM and now part of the OpenJS Foundation. Its lightweight runtime is built on Node.js and runs everywhere from Raspberry Pi at the network edge to the cloud, with a community library of over 5,000 palette nodes and shareable JSON flows.

## Use cases
- wire together IoT devices and APIs without writing much code
- build home automation flows on a Raspberry Pi
- collect, transform and visualize real-time data streams
- integrate MQTT sensors with dashboards and alerts
- automate industrial control and monitoring workflows
- prototype event-driven integrations between cloud services
- glue together webhooks, databases and messaging systems visually

## When to choose
- you want a visual, low-code editor for event-driven integration and automation
- you need to run lightweight flows on edge hardware like Raspberry Pi or BeagleBone
- you want a large ecosystem of prebuilt nodes (5,000+) and shareable flows
- your team includes non-developers who need to build or modify integrations
- you need JSON-exportable flows that are easy to version and share

## When to avoid
- you need complex, testable application logic better expressed in a general-purpose language
- you require strict type safety or heavy unit-test coverage of business logic
- your use case is a high-throughput, latency-critical system where a visual runtime adds overhead
- you want a fully code-first infrastructure-as-code approach rather than a browser-based editor

## Facets
- artifact type: application
- maturity: stable
- function: workflow-automation, web-framework, gui, middleware, iot, streaming, developer-tools
- domain: iot, developer-tools, web-development, self-hosted
- platform: cross-platform, self-hosted, windows, cloud
- tags: low-code, flow-based-programming, visual-programming, event-driven, mqtt, home-automation, edge-computing, raspberry-pi, openjs-foundation, integration, automation, data-engineering, nodejs, docker, web-server, linux, macos

## Member repositories
- node-red/node-red (main) score 97
- node-red/node-red-nodes (plugin) score 65

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:11:35.112787+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 2026-08-29T16:56:26.337143+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/node-red/node-red (fetched 2026-08-28T04:11:35.112787+00:00, sha 882ed222d8aa)
  - homepage: http://nodered.org (fetched 2026-08-29T07:54:58.447910+00:00, sha 3c685b6eed3f)
  - site_page: https://nodered.org/about (fetched 2026-08-29T07:54:58.457526+00:00, sha 10b6d6505cda)
  - site_page: https://nodered.org/docs (fetched 2026-08-29T07:54:58.459772+00:00, sha dd9cc7b20ebf)
  - site_page: https://nodered.org/docs/getting-started (fetched 2026-08-29T07:54:58.461491+00:00, sha 6e76e3383289)
  - site_page: https://nodered.org/docs/platforms/docker (fetched 2026-08-29T07:54:58.463129+00:00, sha 13d04ca15538)
  - site_page: https://nodered.org/docs/hardware/raspberrypi (fetched 2026-08-29T07:54:58.464724+00:00, sha 13d04ca15538)
  - site_page: https://nodered.org/docs/hardware/beagleboneblack (fetched 2026-08-29T07:54:58.466157+00:00, sha 13d04ca15538)
  - site_page: https://nodered.org/docs/hardware/arduino (fetched 2026-08-29T07:54:58.468132+00:00, sha 13d04ca15538)
  - site_page: https://nodered.org/docs/platforms/android (fetched 2026-08-29T07:54:58.470515+00:00, sha 13d04ca15538)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.