Configure a release flow

Release flows consist of workflows that contain nodes that perform specific actions, such as triggering a build, backing up a database, or promoting a deployment.

To configure a release flow you need a pipeline with the services, jobs, and addons you want to manage with it. You can create a release flow for each stage of your pipeline. You can only manage resources that exist in the same pipeline stage as the release flow.

You can create a workflow using the visual editor or with the code editor. If you are familiar with Northflank templates or using the API to manage your Northflank resources, you may want to edit and manage your release flows as code. You can also create a release flow using the visual editor, and then view, copy, and edit the generated release flow code.

The documentation for each node contains an example of the release flow code, however some of these do not contain the full specification as there may be many possible configurations and optional fields.

You can also see examples for a simple release flow that deploys builds to deployment services, and a more complex example that performs a database migration before promoting deployments to the current stage.

You can use the visual editor by selecting visual when adding or editing a release flow.

The visual editor consists of an overview of the release flow, which you can navigate by clicking and dragging to move, and zooming in and out. There are controls in the bottom-right corner of the screen to zoom and centre the view.

You can click and drag the available types of workflow and node from the right side of the visual editor, and place them where you would like in the release flow. Nodes and workflows can be dropped into other workflows. If a workflow takes up the entire view of your editor, you can hold the spacebar while clicking and dragging to continue to navigate.

Nodes can be moved by clicking and dragging them to a new position, and the order the nodes will run in will be automatically updated.

Nodes can be configured by clicking on them to bring up a menu, which will also show a delete button to remove the node. Nodes can also be deleted using your keyboard's backspace or delete keys.