Node-RED

Node-RED is a flow-based, low-code programming tool originally developed by IBM's Emerging Technology Services team and now part of the OpenJS Foundation. It provides a browser-based editor for wiring together nodes into flows that run on a lightweight Node.js runtime. The project is open source under the Apache 2.0 license, and the project site lists version 5.0.8 as the latest release.

What It Is

Node-RED is a visual programming environment for event-driven applications. Users build flows in a browser-based editor by wiring together nodes from a palette, then deploy them to the runtime in a single click. Its stated goal is to let anyone build applications that collect, transform and visualize data, from home automation to industrial control systems.

How It Works

The runtime is built on Node.js and uses its event-driven, non-blocking model, so it can run at the edge on low-cost hardware such as a Raspberry Pi as well as in the cloud. JavaScript functions can be written inside the editor, and a built-in library saves reusable functions, templates and flows. Flows are stored as JSON, so they can be imported, exported and shared.

Extending and Sharing

The palette can be extended with community-contributed nodes. The project site says the community has built over 5,000 nodes and flows, available through the online Flow Library, which also hosts shared flows and node collections.

Setup Path

Node-RED can be installed globally with npm (npm install -g node-red), started with the node-red command, and opened in a browser at localhost:1880. Documentation also covers Docker, Raspberry Pi, BeagleBone Black, Arduino, Android, FlowFuse, AWS and Azure deployments.

Project Background

It began in 2013 as a side project by Nick O'Leary and Dave Conway-Jones at IBM, and was open-sourced in September 2013. It became a founding project of the JS Foundation in 2016, which later merged into the OpenJS Foundation. The site lists a Version 5.0 release blog post dated 09 Jun 2026.