Nextflow is a powerful and flexible open-source workflow management system that simplifies the development, execution, and scalability of data-driven computational pipelines. It is widely used in bioinformatics and related scientific fields to automate complex analyses, making it easier to manage and reproduce large-scale data analysis workflows.
Hello Nextflow is intended as a “getting started” course for students and early-career researchers who are completely new to Nextflow. The tutorial aims to equip participants with foundational knowledge and skills in three key areas: (1) understanding the logic of how data analysis workflows are constructed, (2) Nextflow language proficiency and (3) command-line interface (CLI) execution.
Through guided, goal-oriented exercises, participants will learn to:
- Use core components of the Nextflow language to construct simple multi-step workflows effectively.
- Launch Nextflow workflows locally, navigate output directories to access results, interpret log outputs for insights into workflow execution, and troubleshoot basic issues that may arise during workflow execution.
By the end of the tutorial, participants will be well-prepared for tackling the next steps in their journey to develop and apply reproducible workflows for their scientific computing needs. Additional study-at-home materials will be provided for them to continue learning and developing their skills further.
The training materials are open-source and freely available on the Nextflow training portal at https://training.nextflow.io/latest/hello_nextflow
About
This tutorial aims to teach foundational skills for building and running pipelines with Nextflow:
- Launch a Nextflow workflow locally
- Find and interpret outputs (results) and log files generated by Nextflow
- Troubleshoot common issues
- Utilize core Nextflow components sufficient to build a simple multi-step workflow
- Describe next-step concepts such as channels and operators
- Configure pipeline execution to run on a variety of common computing platforms including HPC and cloud
- Apply best practices for reproducibility, portability and code re-use that make pipelines FAIR, including code modularity and software containers
This tutorial is designed for learners who are completely new to Nextflow. Some familiarity with the command line, basic scripting concepts and common file formats is assumed. The exercises are all domain-agnostic, so no prior scientific knowledge is required.
Speakers
Geraldine Van der Auwera
Lead Developer Advocate at Seqera