kpipeliner

A node-based pipeline manager. A pipeline is a graph of nodes; each node is a standalone Python program (its own subprocess, optionally its own venv/conda/pixi environment) with typed inputs and outputs declared in YAML. Build and run pipelines from the CLI (kpl), a visual web GUI, or hand them over to an LLM through MCP.

Highlights

• Graph = YAML. Connections are just strings (nodes.<name>.<output>) — no hidden edge list, easy to read, easy to script.
• Subprocess isolation. Every node runs on its own, with its own Python environment if it needs one; a crash in one node never takes down another.
• Caching by default. Node outputs are cached per run-UUID; re-running a pipeline only recomputes what actually changed.
• CLI + GUI + MCP. Script it, click through it in the browser, or connect an MCP client and let an LLM design/inspect/run it for you.
• Groups & reusable components. Bundle nodes in the GUI and export them as drag-and-drop components for other pipelines.

Install

kpipeliner is a normal Python package — installing it is the whole installation (dependencies, the prebuilt web GUI and the kpl command; no Node.js, no installer script). With uv:

uv tool install kpipeliner          # `kpl` ends up on your PATH
kpl --help

or into an environment of your own: uv pip install kpipeliner (or pip install kpipeliner).

Optional extras — nothing imports them unless you use the feature, so leaving them out is fine:

uv tool install "kpipeliner[mcp]"    # `kpl mcp` / `kpl gui --mcp` (LLM client access)
uv tool install "kpipeliner[kwui]"   # `kpl run --kwui` (a web UI per node)
uv tool install "kpipeliner[all]"    # both

Configuration lives in a config.yaml that ships with the package; the first run copies it to ~/.config/kpipeliner/config.yaml (or $KPL_HOME/config.yaml) so your edits survive upgrades. kpl config prints its location.

Developing kpipeliner itself: clone the repository and run uv pip install -e . (or uv sync --all-extras) — an editable install; the checkout's own config.yaml is used. To build the package: uv build (rebuild the GUI first with npm run build in kpipeline_gui/frontend if the frontend changed — the built dist/ is what ships).

Quick start

mkdir my_pipeline && cd my_pipeline
kpl init                 # creates graph_config.yaml, data/, cache/
kpl list                 # see available node types
kpl add <node_type>      # add a node instance
kpl tree                 # inspect the graph
kpl run                  # run it (or: kpl gui to do all of this visually)

Commands

Run any command with --help for its full option list.

Documentation

• User Guide — the full walkthrough: CLI and GUI workflows, groups, custom nodes, MCP, kwui mode, and the graph_config.yaml/node_config.yaml/config.yaml reference.
• kpipeliner.md — a self-contained agent guide for building pipelines/nodes (also installed as a Claude Code skill).
• Readme — version history / changelog.