Nodos documentation

Nodos is a highly extensible, node-graph based real-time computing and rendering engine. You build a graph in an editor; Nodos compiles that graph into scheduled execution paths and runs them across threads, the GPU, and — through its SDKs — other processes entirely.

Where to start

• Using Nodos

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  Install Nodos, build and run graphs, manage modules, run headless.

  Start here whoever you are — everything below assumes it.

  Your first graph · Install Nodos · nodos CLI

• Developing for Nodos

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  Write plugins and subsystems, add node types, integrate an external application, publish to the Nodos Store.

  Your first plugin · Plugin API · Node definition

Within each of those, pages are grouped by what you need from them — tutorials to learn, how-to guides to get something done, reference to look something up, and explanation to understand why Nodos behaves as it does.

What Nodos is for

Nodos targets real-time work where a graph is a better description of the problem than a program:

• Real-time rendering. Vulkan-backed texture pipelines, fragment and compute shader nodes. Shaders are compiled and bound to pins without writing any C++.
• Real-time AI. ONNX models run against live video through CUDA and TensorRT, with explicit texture-to-tensor conversion nodes.
• Broadcast and video I/O. DeckLink, WebRTC, display and audio nodes ship as installable modules.
• Distributed systems. External processes attach to a running graph over gRPC and appear as ordinary nodes, so an existing application can borrow the engine's I/O and GPU capabilities.

Getting started in one minute

Download one file and run it. It asks which bundle you want and where to put it, then installs Nodos there and offers to launch it.

Download for Windows

Other platforms: Linux x86_64 · Linux aarch64 · macOS. On those, mark the file executable first: chmod +x nodos.

Prefer a terminal, or want nodos on your PATH? That, the prerequisites, workspaces and the bundle list are all in Install Nodos.

Then follow Your first graph.

Which version these docs describe

Unless a page says otherwise, everything here describes Nodos 1.4 (plugin SDK 41.0, process SDK 21.0).

Bringing a plugin over from an earlier release? Manifest extensions, node definition discovery and the CMake workflow all changed; everything you have to do is in Migrate a plugin to 1.4.

Platform support

Platform	Status
Windows (x86_64)	Supported. Prebuilt bundles are published for every release.
Linux (x86_64 or aarch64)	Supported. Prebuilt bundles are published.
macOS (Apple silicon)	Supported. Engine and editor build against MoltenVK.

The GPU driver must support Vulkan 1.2. See Install Nodos for the full requirement list.

Getting help

Questions, bug reports and where to send them: Get help.

Nodos is free for personal and academic use, and commercially licensed per engine — see Licensing.