pipeline-nextflow-to-cwl

name	pipeline-nextflow-to-cwl
description	Direct path from a Nextflow pipeline to a CWL Workflow + CommandLineTool set — orchestrates the Foundry skills of the NEXTFLOW → CWL pipeline in order, in a per-run working directory.

pipeline-nextflow-to-cwl

Harness for the NEXTFLOW → CWL Foundry pipeline. Runs the constituent skills in order inside a single per-run working directory. Assembled from content/pipelines/nextflow-to-cwl/index.md (revision 2) — regenerate with foundry-build assemble-pipeline nextflow-to-cwl if the pipeline changes; do not hand-edit.

Most of this pipeline's Molds are not yet cast, so this harness is mostly manual checkpoints today; it still fixes the phase order, the per-run working directory, and the few real casts. It strengthens as the remaining Molds are cast.

When To Use

• Direct path from a Nextflow pipeline to a CWL Workflow + CommandLineTool set.

Bootstrap (install these CLIs first)

Install the harness CLIs every constituent skill invokes before driving the pipeline. Deduped across all phases; bioinformatics tools the constructed workflow installs are out of scope (the discovery phase pins those).

• foundry (foundry). npm install -g @galaxy-foundry/foundry. Ephemeral run: npx --package @galaxy-foundry/foundry foundry. Check: foundry --help. Docs: https://github.com/galaxyproject/foundry/blob/main/packages/foundry/README.md
• gxwf (gxwf). npm install -g '@galaxy-tool-util/cli@^1.8.1'. Ephemeral run: npx --yes --package @galaxy-tool-util/cli@1.8.1 gxwf. Check: gxwf --help | grep -q draft-validate. Docs: https://github.com/jmchilton/galaxy-tool-util-ts/tree/main/packages/cli
• planemo (planemo). uv tool install planemo==0.75.45 (or pip install planemo==0.75.45). Ephemeral run: uvx --from planemo==0.75.45 planemo. Check: planemo --version. Docs: https://planemo.readthedocs.io/

Run options

Optional flags, given as leading arguments. Strip any you recognize; treat the remaining positional argument as the run slug. Both default off and compose.

• --use-subagents — run each cast phase in its own subagent to keep this orchestrator's context small. For each phase whose skill is cast, spawn a subagent, tell it the run directory and to invoke the named skill with every default filename prefixed by ./<run-slug>/, and have it return a short report (artifacts written, assumptions, status) rather than its full transcript; carry only that report forward. A cast loop phase runs one subagent per iteration — each advances a single step and returns its done-signal, and you inspect that signal to decide whether to spawn the next iteration. Branch phases run their whole fallback chain in one subagent. MANUAL (un-cast) phases are never delegated — including MANUAL loop phases — so handle those yourself regardless of the per-iteration rule above.
• --checkpoint — commit after every phase so the run directory's git history is a per-step record (a data source for workflow-implementation visualizations). When set, git init ./<run-slug>/ during working-directory setup — this is a standalone per-run repo; do not add it to any surrounding repo you are working inside. Then after each phase's artifact is confirmed run git -C ./<run-slug>/ add -A && git -C ./<run-slug>/ commit -m "phase <n>: <skill>". Loop phases commit once per iteration (phase <n> step <k>: <skill>); for a MANUAL loop, commit once per by-hand step. With --use-subagents, the subagent does the work and returns; you make the commit.

Working directory (do this first)

Every constituent skill writes fixed filenames to its working directory. To keep one run's artifacts namespaced and avoid clobbering a prior run (foundry#282):

1. Pick a run slug — use the harness argument if given; else ask the user for a short project name up front (the directory must exist before phase 1 writes its first artifact, so don't wait for a source title); else default nextflow-to-cwl-run.
2. Create ./<run-slug>/ in the current directory. If it exists, suffix -2, -3, … . If invoked with --checkpoint, run git init ./<run-slug>/ now (see Run options).
3. Run every skill invocation below with ./<run-slug>/ as its working directory: prefix every default input and output filename with ./<run-slug>/ when you invoke the skill. The skills preserve their declared basenames and honor a harness-supplied directory; you supply the prefix on both reads and writes, so each phase finds the prior phase's output and nothing lands in the repo root.

Announce the chosen directory before starting.

Pipeline

Run these phases in order. After each, confirm the expected artifact exists in the run directory before advancing.

1. summarize-nextflow — invoke the summarize-nextflow skill. Read a Nextflow pipeline source tree (nf-core or ad-hoc DSL2) and emit a structured JSON summary for downstream translation Molds.
2. nextflow-summary-to-cwl-interface — MANUAL — nextflow-summary-to-cwl-interface is not yet cast. Map a Nextflow summary into a CWL Workflow interface design brief. Do this by hand and confirm before continuing.
3. nextflow-summary-to-cwl-data-flow — MANUAL — nextflow-summary-to-cwl-data-flow is not yet cast. Translate a Nextflow summary into a CWL data-flow design brief. Do this by hand and confirm before continuing.
4. summary-to-cwl-template — MANUAL — summary-to-cwl-template is not yet cast. CWL Workflow skeleton with per-step TODOs from source and design handoffs. Do this by hand and confirm before continuing.
5. summarize-cwl-tool (loop) — MANUAL — summarize-cwl-tool is not yet cast. Derive a CommandLineTool description (container, baseCommand, IO) for a CWL target. No shared endstate oracle yet; iterate over the tools enumerated in the CWL template, doing each by hand.
6. implement-cwl-tool-step (loop) — MANUAL — implement-cwl-tool-step is not yet cast. Convert an abstract step into a concrete CWL CommandLineTool + step. No shared endstate oracle yet; iterate over the tools enumerated in the CWL template, doing each by hand.
7. validate-cwl (loop) — MANUAL — validate-cwl is not yet cast. Run cwltool --validate / schema lint, classify failures, recommend fixes. No shared endstate oracle yet; iterate over the tools enumerated in the CWL template, doing each by hand.
8. nextflow-test-to-cwl-test-plan — MANUAL — nextflow-test-to-cwl-test-plan is not yet cast. Translate Nextflow test evidence into a CWL workflow test plan. Do this by hand and confirm before continuing.
9. implement-cwl-workflow-test — MANUAL — implement-cwl-workflow-test is not yet cast. Assemble CWL job file(s) and expected-output assertions. Do this by hand and confirm before continuing.
10. validate-cwl — MANUAL — validate-cwl is not yet cast. Run cwltool --validate / schema lint, classify failures, recommend fixes. Do this by hand and confirm before continuing.
11. run-workflow-test — invoke the run-workflow-test skill. Execute a workflow's tests via Planemo; emit structured pass/fail and outputs.
12. debug-cwl-workflow-output — MANUAL — debug-cwl-workflow-output is not yet cast. Triage failing CWL run outputs; classify failure modes; propose fixes. Do this by hand and confirm before continuing.

Done

Report the final artifacts in ./<run-slug>/ and any phases handled manually (marked MANUAL above).

Notes

• Do not re-implement any skill's internal logic here; this harness only sequences and routes.
• Carry unresolved assumptions forward as notes rather than inventing missing inputs.
• NF brings real test fixtures, so nextflow-test-to-cwl-test-plan replaces the test-data-resolution chain that paper-sourced pipelines need.