VizFlow
Lightweight • Local-First • Powerful
Explore, transform, and visualize CSV/TSV data without leaving VS Code
🚀 Why VizFlow?
VizFlow brings data exploration and lightweight analytics directly into your editor. No need to switch contexts, open external tools, or worry about data leaving your machine.
- 📊 Immediate dataset profiling — understand your data at a glance
- 🔄 Visual, repeatable transforms — preview before applying changes
- 🗄️ RBQL-powered SQL-like querying — familiar syntax, instant results
- 📈 Interactive charts — bar, line, scatter, and pie visualizations
- 🎯 Local-first by default — your data stays on your machine
✨ Core Features
📋 Dataset Profiling
- Column types, null counts, distinct values, top values
- Quick stats (sum, avg, min, max, count) via the Dataset Summary Dashboard, or as a repeatable pipeline step with the Workflow Builder's Aggregate / Group By activities
🔍 Data Quality Helpers
- Find duplicates in your dataset
- List distinct values for any column
- Build queues of transformation rules
- Preview first rows before applying changes
- Apply & save with confidence
⚡ RBQL Query Console
- Write SQL-like queries using
a1, a2 or header names, with syntax-highlighted keywords as you type
- JOIN support across two files, right in the query editor
- Pre-defined query templates to get started fast (filter, sort, aggregate, join, and more)
- History tracking for reproducible analysis
- Progress indicators for long-running queries
📊 Interactive Charts
- Bar charts, line charts, scatter plots, pie charts
- Live mapping with instant updates
🔄 CSV Comparison
- Value-based set comparison across two files
💾 Exports
- CSV / JSON export
- DuckDB-compatible SQL with
{{INPUT_PATH}} / {{OUTPUT_PATH}} placeholders
🔗 Reusable Workflows
- Workflow parameters: declare inputs (name, label, type, required, default) that flow into any step config as
{{paramName}}
- Call Workflow: run another
.vizflow file as a sub-workflow, pass parameters, and receive its output dataset and variables back
- Circular-call detection and a max call-depth guard keep nested workflows safe
- Edit parameters and Call Workflow mappings with the built-in key/value editors (🧩)
⏰ Workflow Scheduler
- Schedule
.vizflow workflows on a cron schedule or as a one-time run at a future date/time
- Built-in variables (
{{timestamp}}, {{date}}, {{time}}, {{workflowName}}, …) and per-job parameters are injected into every scheduled run
- Optional timezone, watch folder (trigger on new files, with a filter like
*.csv), and webhook / email notifications
- Jobs persist in VS Code's global storage and auto-start with the extension, so schedules run even if the Scheduler panel is never opened
- Edit jobs in place, pause/resume/stop, and browse past runs from the panel
🗄️ External Data Sources
- Connect to MongoDB, MySQL, and PostgreSQL from the VizFlow: Data Sources panel
- Credentials (passwords / connection strings) are stored in your OS keychain via VS Code SecretStorage — workflows reference connections by friendly name and stay safe to commit to git
- Visual query builder: pick a collection/table, tick columns, add filters (equals / contains / greater than / between / …), sort, and preview rows before loading
- Advanced tab for raw SQL
WHERE clauses or Mongo filter JSON — all reads are strictly read-only
- "Add to Workflow Builder" generates a ready-to-run
readMongo / readSql activity that pipes the data into your pipeline
🏃 Quick Start
- Install VizFlow from the VS Code Marketplace
- Open a CSV/TSV file in the editor
- Press
Ctrl+Shift+P (Cmd+Shift+P on macOS)
- Run any
VizFlow: command, for example: VizFlow: Dataset Summary Dashboard
📝 Commands
| Category |
Command |
| Profiling & Quality |
Show Statistics, Find Duplicates, List Distinct Values |
| Transformation |
Transform Column (CLI), Transform Column (Visual) |
| Analysis |
Dataset Summary Dashboard, Interactive Charts |
| Comparison |
Compare CSV Files |
| RBQL |
Run RBQL Queries (with syntax highlighting, JOINs, and templates), Export Results |
| Workflow Builder |
Aggregations (Sum / Average / Min / Max / Count) and Group By, as pipeline activities |
| Scheduler |
Workflow Scheduler (add, run, pause/resume, stop, and view history for jobs, all in one panel) |
| Data Sources |
External Data Sources (MongoDB / MySQL / PostgreSQL) |
| About |
View Extension Author Info |
🧠 RBQL Notes
- Use positional references (
a1, a2, ...) or enable Has Header Row to use header names
- Export results to CSV, JSON, or DuckDB SQL scripts
- Placeholders like
{{INPUT_PATH}} / {{OUTPUT_PATH}} make scripts reproducible
🔒 Privacy & Offline
VizFlow runs locally by default — parsing, transforms, and queries are performed on your machine. Any cloud or AI features would be opt-in and clearly indicated.
📚 Documentation
- Workflow Builder Guide: docs/workflow-builder-guide.md — complete user guide with activity reference, real-world use cases, and troubleshooting
- Activity Catalog: docs/workflow-catalog.md — auto-generated reference for every activity type and config field
- Architecture & Implementation: ARCHITECTURE.md
- AI-assisted workflow authoring:
AI_CONTEXT.md, docs/workflow-catalog.md and docs/workflow-schema.json live in the GitHub repository (dev-facing; not shipped in the VSIX)
🔧 Installation
From VS Code Marketplace
Search VizFlow in the Extensions view and install.
From Source
git clone https://github.com/ESAditya1729/VizFlow.git
cd VizFlow
npm install
# Press F5 in VS Code to launch the Extension Development Host
🛠️ Development
Run these locally during development:
npm install # Install dependencies
npm run lint # Run linter
npm test # Run tests
🤝 Support & Links
📄 License
MIT — see LICENSE
Built with ❤️ by Aditya Mukherjee · IBM
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