Nodes are the core building blocks of your Blok applications, encapsulating specific pieces of logic. The nanoctl CLI provides commands to help you create and manage these Nodes efficiently, primarily through the create node command.

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create node

This command is used to scaffold a new Node within your Blok project.

Purpose: To generate the boilerplate files for a new Node, including its definition (node.json) and implementation file (e.g., index.ts), placing them in the appropriate directory within your project (usually nodes/).

Usage:

# This command creates a new node and automatically generates a new directory for it.
npx nanoctl@latest create node

# Use this command to create a new node inside the current (empty) directory.
npx nanoctl@latest create node .

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1. Interactive Prompts & Options

You will be prompted to provide the following information:

  1. Node Name
    Enter a unique name for the node (e.g., fetch).

  2. Select Runtime
    Choose between:

    • TypeScript (recommended) (Default)
    • Python3 (Alpha version, MacOS & Linux only)
      (For this guide, select TypeScript.)

  3. Select Blok Type
    Choose between:

    • Module (For npm-published nodes – not needed for this guide)
    • Class (Default, for local nodes)

  4. Select Template
    Choose between:

    • Class (recommended) (Default)
    • UI - EJS - REACTJS - TailwindCSS (not required for this guide)

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2. Navigate to the New Node Directory:

Once the node is created, navigate to its directory:

cd src/nodes/fetch

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3. Update the Node Class Name

Open the index.ts file inside the node directory and update the class name to match your node name (Fetch in this example):

// Original class name
export default class Node extends NanoService {
     ...
}

// Updated class name
export default class Fetch extends NanoService {
     ...
}

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4. Register the Node in the Nodes.ts File

To make your node available in workflows, register it inside src/Nodes.ts:

import ApiCall from "@nanoservice-ts/api-call";
import IfElse from "@nanoservice-ts/if-else";
import type { NodeBase } from "@nanoservice-ts/shared";
import Fetch from "./nodes/fetch";

const nodes: {
     [key: string]: NodeBase;
} = {
     "@nanoservice-ts/api-call": new ApiCall(),
     "@nanoservice-ts/if-else": new IfElse(),
     "fetch": new Fetch()
};

export default nodes;

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5. Validate the Node

To verify that your new node has been registered correctly, run the following command from the root of your project:

npm run dev

If everything works as expected, the node is ready to be used in a workflow. Simply create a workflow and add your node to it.

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Summary

  • ✅ Created a custom node using the CLI.
  • ✅ Configured the node class name correctly.
  • ✅ Registered the node inside Nodes.ts.
  • ✅ Validated the project setup.

Your node is now ready to be used in workflows! 🎉