Flow-Like Alpha v0.0.4 — Excel Extraction, ML Nodes, Themes & Smoother Editing

Alpha v0.0.4 doubles down on real-world spreadsheets and practical ML. Extract clean tables from Excel in one step, automate sheets with a focused Excel toolkit, and train/predict with new Machine Learning nodes — all inside typed, composable flows.

Highlights

Machine Learning Nodes (Major) — Train K-Means, SVM Classifier, Linear Regression; Predict; Save/Load models — designed for tabular flows (PR #257).
Excel Table Extraction (XLSX) — Detects headers/regions and emits typed rows ready for downstream nodes. No preview; straight to data.
Excel Node Toolkit — Read/write cells, add/copy sheets, insert/remove rows & columns, list sheet names, and more (full list below).
Profiles & Themes — Per-profile app visibility and theme selection.
Desktop Auto-Updates — In-app updates via the Tauri updater (macOS/Windows/Linux).
Performance & Stability — Faster big graphs; better long-run reliability.
Default Logging = info — New flows start calmer (enable debug when needed).
Apple Login Fixed.
Docs Refresh — Clearer Getting Started and expanded node pages.

Excel, Done Right

Intelligent Excel Table Extraction

Drop in an .xlsx → get typed rows. The extractor finds well-formed tabular regions, detects headers, and handles empty margins and messy edges. Perfect for piping into database/vector/search nodes or straight into ML.

Node:

Try Extract Tables (Excel) — Detect and emit Array<Struct> records from a worksheet.

Excel Nodes in v0.0.4

A compact, consistent set that covers common spreadsheet automations:

Read Cell — A1 or (row, col) addressing; returns string/number/bool when possible
Write Cell — Write any typed value to a cell
Insert Row / Remove Row — Structural row edits
Insert Column / Remove Column — Structural column edits
New Worksheet — Create a new sheet
Copy Worksheet — Duplicate a worksheet (data + layout)
Get Sheet Names — Enumerate sheets for routing/UX
Buffered CSV Reader — Efficient CSV ingestion that fits the same table-first workflow

Pair with Local Database nodes (Full-Text / Vector / Hybrid Search) to blend spreadsheets, search, and embeddings.

Machine Learning

We are shipping a practical ML set tailored to typed, tabular workflows — efficient locally, easy to wire into production flows.

Included in v0.0.4

Training

K-Means (Train) — Unsupervised clustering for numeric features
SVM Classifier (Train) — Supervised classification
Linear Regression (Train) — Classic regression for continuous targets

Inference & Persistence

Predict (Model, Rows) — Run predictions over arrays of structs/vectors; emits typed outputs (class/label, score, or numeric)
Save Model / Load Model — Portable model checkpoints (JSON-backed) for repeatable deploys and A/Bs

Design Goals

Typed pins end-to-end (features, labels, predictions)
Composable with Database, Embeddings, and String/Math utilities
Local-first behavior that is predictable and debuggable

Example Flow (Sketch)

Read/Extract (Excel) → Feature Map (Types) → Train (SVM) → Save Model → Load Model → Predict → Upsert to DB / Export CSV

Builder Quality of Life

Default: info logging for new flows — keep noise low; switch to debug when investigating. If you still have old flows in debug, check if info is sufficient. Logging comes with a cost.

Themes, Profiles & App Visibility

Create profiles to separate personal/team work, pick which apps are visible per profile, and apply different themes or create your own.

Desktop Auto-Updates

This will be the last update you have to download manually. Flow-Like now supports in-app updates via the Tauri Updater (macOS/Windows/Linux).

Performance & Stability

Large Graphs: faster execution paths, fewer allocations, improved back-pressure in I/O
Long-Running Flows: better memory behavior and logging resilience

Fixes & Smaller Improvements

Apple Login stability fix
Default Logging now info for new flows
Docs Additions across Getting Started, Local Database search nodes, and utilities

Community

A big thank you to everyone who contributed issues, feedback, and ideas for this release! Special thanks to the r/selfhosted Reddit community for over 100 stars on Github and phenomenal feedback. We are taking that feedback seriously and have reworked our website.

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