Workflow Viewer (wf-viewer)

wf-viewer is a command-line tool designed to analyze and visualize workflow execution traces. It supports multiple workflow management systems and generates interactive Gantt charts and performance statistics.

Installation

You can install wf-viewer directly from the source directory:

git clone https://github.com/alpha-unito/wf-viewer.git
cd wf-viewer
pip install .

Quick Start

To generate a standard HTML Gantt chart from a StreamFlow JSON report:

wf-viewer -i streamflow.json -t report -w streamflow --show-stats

Command Line Interface

The wf-viewer utility uses the following structure: wf-viewer [style_config] [arguments]

Positional Arguments

• style_config: (Optional) Path to a YAML configuration file to define visual styles.

Inputs

• -i, --inputs <path>: Path to input trace files. This flag can be passed multiple times to aggregate multiple execution logs. (Required)
• -t, --input-type {report, log}: The format of the input file. (Required)
• -w, --wms {streamflow, cwltool, cwltoil}: The Workflow Management System that generated the logs. (Required)
• -c, --clusters-info <path>: Path to a YAML file with the information of the deployments. (Optional)

Style

• -m, --color-map <StepName:Color>: Explicitly map a step name to a specific color. Can be used multiple times.
• -p, --color-palette <str>: A Matplotlib colormap name for task differentiation.
• -g, --group-by {task, step, aggregate}: Defines the granularity of task grouping in the visualization.
• -l, --legend {true, false}: Explicitly enable or disable the legend.
• -x, --xlim <float>: Manually set the limit for the X-axis (time).

Outputs

• -n, --filename <str>: Base name for the output file (default: gantt).
• -o, --outdir <path>: Target directory for output files (defaults to current working directory).
• -f, --format {html, eps, pdf, png}: Output file format. Multiple formats can be specified (default: html).

Statistics & Logging

• --show-stats: Prints performance statistics directly to the standard output.
• --save-stats: Exports statistics data into a JSON file in the output directory.

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Workflow Support Matrix

Manager	Input Type	Description	Support status
StreamFlow	log / report	Full support for task timelines and dependency mapping.	stable
CWLTool	log	Standard CWL reference implementation logs.	WIP
CWLToil	log	Support for Toil-specific execution traces.	WIP