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Cirro Custom Nextflow Pipelines Guide

A guide for creating and deploying Nextflow pipelines on Cirro.

For detailed Cirro documentation, see the Cirro Documentation.

How Cirro Pipelines Work

When you run a pipeline in Cirro, here's what happens:

1. User fills out web form (process-form.json)
           ↓
2. Form values mapped to parameters (process-input.json)
           ↓
3. Preprocess script runs (preprocess.py) [OPTIONAL]
   - Can modify parameters
   - Can create samplesheets
   - Has access to input dataset info
           ↓
4. Nextflow workflow executes (main.nf)
           ↓
5. Output files saved to new dataset

Repository Structure

Each Nextflow pipelines needs to be in its own dedicated directory and needs a .cirro/ folder with configuration files:

your-nf-pipeline/
├── main.nf                      # Your Nextflow pipeline
├── nextflow.config              # Nextflow configuration
└── .cirro/
    ├── process-form.json        # REQUIRED: Defines the web form UI
    ├── process-input.json       # REQUIRED: Maps form → Nextflow params
    ├── process-output.json      # OPTIONAL: For dashboard visualizations
    ├── process-compute.config   # OPTIONAL: Override Nextflow settings
    └── preprocess.py            # OPTIONAL: Pre-workflow Python logic

Configuration Files

1. process-form.json (REQUIRED)

Defines what the user sees in the web interface. Uses JSON Schema format. This file controls the UI form that users interact with when running your pipeline.

{
    "ui": {},
    "form": {
        "title": "My Pipeline",
        "type": "object",
        "properties": {
            "my_param": {
                "title": "Human Readable Name",
                "description": "Help text for user",
                "type": "integer",
                "default": 4
            }
        }
    }
}

For more information on form configuration, see the Cirro Custom Pipelines documentation.

2. process-input.json (REQUIRED)

Maps form values to Nextflow parameters. This is how user inputs get passed to your pipeline.

{
    "my_param": "$.dataset.params.my_param",
    "input_dir": "$.inputs[*].dataPath"
}

Key JSONPath expressions:

  • $.dataset.params.X → User form values
  • $.inputs[*].dataPath → S3 path(s) to input dataset(s)
  • $.dataset.dataPath → S3 path for output dataset

3. preprocess.py (OPTIONAL)

Runs BEFORE Nextflow execution. Use it to:

  • Create samplesheets dynamically
  • Modify parameters based on input data
  • Validate inputs
  • Generate configuration files
from cirro.helpers.preprocess_dataset import PreprocessDataset

ds = PreprocessDataset.from_running()

# Access dataset info:
ds.files        # DataFrame of files in input dataset
ds.samplesheet  # Sample metadata from samplesheet.csv (if present)
ds.params       # User form parameters
ds.dataset      # Full dataset object (includes S3 paths)

# Modify parameters:
ds.add_param("input_files", "/path/to/files")
ds.remove_param("unwanted_param")

# Write files (e.g., samplesheet for Nextflow):
df.to_csv("samplesheet.csv", index=False)

4. process-compute.config (OPTIONAL)

Override Nextflow settings for compute resources (memory, containers, etc.). This file is merged with your base nextflow.config.

params {
    my_container = "quay.io/biocontainers/tool:version"
}

process {
    withName: 'MY_PROCESS' {
        memory = '32 GB'
        cpus = 8
    }
}

5. process-output.json (OPTIONAL)

Defines dashboard visualizations for pipeline outputs. See the Cirro Custom Pipelines documentation for details on output visualization configuration.

Nextflow Pipeline Basics

Your main.nf file should follow standard Nextflow conventions:

#!/usr/bin/env nextflow
nextflow.enable.dsl=2

// Parameters come from process-input.json
params.input_dir = null   // S3 path to input dataset
params.threads = 4        // From user form

// A "process" is a single computational step
process MY_STEP {
    container 'quay.io/biocontainers/tool:version'
    cpus params.threads
    memory '16 GB'
    
    publishDir "results", mode: 'copy'  // Where outputs go
    
    input:
    path input_file
    
    output:
    path "*.output"
    
    script:
    """
    my_tool ${input_file}
    """
}

// The workflow connects processes
workflow {
    // Create a channel (stream of data)
    input_ch = Channel.fromPath("${params.input_dir}/**/*.input")
    
    // Run the process on each item
    MY_STEP(input_ch)
}

Key Nextflow Concepts

  1. Channels: Streams of data that flow through your pipeline
  2. Processes: Individual computational steps (each runs in its own container)
  3. publishDir: Where output files are saved (relative to the output dataset)
  4. Containers: Each process runs in a Docker container

For comprehensive Nextflow documentation, see Nextflow Documentation.

Finding Containers

Use BioContainers for pre-built bioinformatics tools: