Hubs

A hub is a catalog of workflows, apps and plugins you can install with one click. A hub can be a website, or just a folder — on your computer or a shared drive — so a team can share its own workflows without publishing them anywhere.

Adding a hub

Settings → Hubs → Add Hub, then pick a type:

Type	Target	Catalog read from
Remote (URL)	https://hub.example.com	https://hub.example.com/hub.json
Remote (URL)	https://github.com/owner/repo	hub.json at the root of the repo's default branch
Local folder	/path/to/shared/hub-folder	/path/to/shared/hub-folder/hub.json

From the terminal:

tipeline hub add team local_folder /Volumes/shared/tipeline-hub
tipeline hub add public remote https://hub.example.com
tipeline hub add ours remote https://github.com/acme/tipeline-hub --token <token>
tipeline hub list

Turn a hub off without removing it with its switch in Settings → Hubs (or tipeline hub disable <id>). Removing a hub doesn't uninstall anything installed from it; Tipeline just stops checking it for updates.

A GitHub repo as a hub

Any GitHub repo holding the hub layout can be a hub: paste the repo's link as the target. Tipeline reads the files from raw.githubusercontent.com:

Target	Read from
https://github.com/owner/repo	the default branch
https://github.com/owner/repo/tree/v2	the v2 branch or tag
https://github.com/owner/repo/tree/main/hub	the hub folder of main

A branch name with a / in it needs the raw address instead, e.g. https://raw.githubusercontent.com/owner/repo/release/2.0.

GitHub caches raw files for a few minutes, so a push can take that long to show up.

For a walkthrough, from creating the repo to sharing a token with a team, see Example: a hub on GitHub.

Private hubs

A remote hub can have an access token: Tipeline sends it as Authorization: Bearer <token> with every request to the hub's own address. It's never sent to other sites a catalog links to.

• Private GitHub repo — a fine-grained personal access token with read access to the repo's Contents.
• Your own site — any token the site accepts as a Bearer token.

Add the token when you add the hub, or later with the pencil button on the hub in Settings → Hubs (or tipeline hub token <id> [token]; leave out the token to remove it). The token stays in Core: Desktop, the CLI and Tipeline Server only see that one is saved.

Installing

Open Hub in the sidebar to browse every enabled hub's catalog, and click Install.

• Workflows are installed like any other and keep a link to their hub.
• Apps install the workflows they use from the same hub too (or reuse them if they're already installed).
• Plugins are downloaded into ~/Tipeline/plugins, and Tipeline runs npm install in their folder. That runs code from the hub, so Tipeline asks first: only continue if you trust the hub. A new plugin starts turned off — turn it on in Plugins.

tipeline hub catalog <hubId>
tipeline hub install workflow <hubId> <itemIdentifier>
tipeline hub install app <hubId> <itemIdentifier>
tipeline hub install plugin <hubId> <itemIdentifier>

The assistant also searches your enabled hubs, and offers to install a workflow — and the plugin it needs — when that's what fits your request.

Updates

Tipeline checks every enabled hub once an hour. To check now, click Check now on the hub's card in Settings → Hubs, or run tipeline hub check [hubId].

Each check compares your installed version with the one the hub lists:

The hub lists	What happens
A newer patch or minor version	Installed automatically if Auto-update is on. If it's off, it's flagged for you to install.
A newer major version	Never installed on its own, even with Auto-update on. It waits for you to review it.
An older version	Never installed. It's flagged so you know the hub went backwards.

Tipeline also reads the version inside the downloaded file, because a hub can list one version and serve another. A file older than your copy, or with the same version as your copy, isn't installed. A file that turns out to be a major version waits for you, whatever the catalog said.

Workflows, apps and plugins all have an Auto-update switch and the same rules. A workflow's is on its Overview, a plugin's is on its page, and an app's is in its Edit dialog.

The Updates tab

Hub → Updates shows what needs you and what was installed recently. The sidebar shows a count of what you haven't seen, and a new entry shows a notification. From the CLI, run tipeline hub updates.

Review update shows what the new version changes before you install it:

• Workflows: inputs and outputs removed, changed or added, the steps that changed, any new access, and which apps, workflows and schedules use it.
• Apps: pages added and removed.
• Plugins: only the version numbers, because reading a plugin's package runs its code.

An update replaces your own edits to the item. You can go back to an earlier workflow from its Versions tab, but apps and plugins have no earlier versions to return to. If you go back with Auto-update on, the next check installs a newer patch or minor version again, so turn it off first.

If an update fails, your installed copy stays as it was, the item is marked with a sync error, and the reason appears in the Updates tab. Tipeline tries again on the next check.

If an item disappears from its hub's catalog, your copy keeps working as installed; it's just no longer checked for updates. If the hub can't be reached, Tipeline tries again on the next check.

Hubs and backups

A full backup doesn't include your hubs. Workflows and apps that came from a hub are restored as local copies.

Publishing to a hub

See Publishing to a Hub.