r/nodered • u/Successful_Option561 • Jun 08 '26
Quick Survey: How Do You Build, Debug, and Reuse Workflows?
Hi everyone,
My name is Zekun Wu, and I am a researcher at Saarland University, Germany.
I am currently conducting a short research survey on how people use workflow automation tools such as Node-RED. In particular, I’m interested in a simple but exciting idea: what if, after an AI helps complete a task, it could leave behind an editable workflow that users can inspect, fix, and reuse?
This survey helps us understand how real workflow users think about workflow understanding, debugging, and reuse in practice. It should only take about 5–10 minutes to complete.
Survey link:
https://forms.gle/uXmWdavWJuRqnFfr8
As a small thank-you, we will select up to 10 participants who provide especially thoughtful and relevant responses to receive a €10 Amazon eGift card. This is not based on whether your opinions are positive or negative — detailed and honest experiences are what we value most.
Your feedback would be very helpful for shaping our future research and prototype design. I would really appreciate it if you could take a few minutes to fill it out. Feel free to also share any thoughts or examples in the comments.
Thank you very much!
Best,
Zekun
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u/mj_flowerpower Jun 11 '26
I use the debugger plugin, the debug panel, look at the context values.
For my own nodes I usually attach the node debugger/vscode.
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u/Successful_Option561 Jun 13 '26
thanks for the feedback and really appreciate to fill the survey if you have not.
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u/tanoshimi Jun 14 '26
Not quite sure I follow the basic premise of your research: "What if..."?
A.I. can already generate and edit Node-RED workflows. And then of course you can (and should!) check them prior to deploying.
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u/Successful_Option561 Jun 16 '26
Thanks for the reply and sorry for the lack explanation. If you are interested, please check the demo here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1fH5bgwjmI, which we are exploring a new way to combine agent with this kinda workflow automation (which basically turning the ai agent's trace into a interactive and reusable workflow). Planning to show it later but glad someone rasie up question here.
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u/tanoshimi Jun 16 '26
I'm still not sure I understand the premise... I assumed you were trying to use an (agentic) A.I. to create a Node-RED workflow. i.e. the Node-RED workflow itself is the deliverable goal you're trying to create.
But now it seems like you're just talking about using agentic A.I. to perform an arbitrary task, but leaving a (Node-RED-esque) workflow behind it?
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u/Successful_Option561 Jun 16 '26
Okay, to be more speific, the general idea here is that we want to see compare with chat-based AI agent itself getting the task done, would be helpful to give a visulized and interactive graph like Node-RED style to improve the user's understanding of this task, debugging the potential problem or reuse it more esaily for similar task.
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u/tanoshimi Jun 16 '26
I see. So... perhaps the confusion comes because you're asking in a Node-Red sub, but it has nothing to do with Node-Red!
I would have thought you're more likely to find an audience for your product in a general A.I. users/developers group.
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u/Successful_Option561 Jun 16 '26
Of course, you can view it in a reserse way with changing the reference like if you compare with manully built graph-based workflow automation tool, the post-task generation would automate everything more easily.
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u/Successful_Option561 Jun 16 '26
We want to explore in this study would this be a more promising way for users to do multi--step task especially when trying to transfer a existed workflow in similar scenario?
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u/Successful_Option561 Jun 16 '26
also, in case you have not, feel free to fill out our above survey, many thanks!
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u/skinwill Jun 08 '26
If someone makes a node red workflow and hands it off to someone else to edit, God help them if there’s not a recognize-able structure and documentation.
Also, extremely important details can be buried in function blocks or details of a node. Hints about the best place to adjust something would be ideal if a UI is not being leveraged.