The editor¶

The Node-RED editor has four main areas:

• Header — the flow tabs (one per flow, "Flow 1" by default), a + to add a new flow, Deploy, and the hamburger menu.
• Left panel — Explorer / Palette — a stacked pair:
  • Explorer lists Flows, Subflows, and Global Configuration Nodes. Click a flow to switch the canvas to it.
  • Palette below it lists every available node type, grouped by category (common, function, network, sequence, parser, storage, and — on this gateway — modbus; see Modbus / PLC integration). Use filter nodes at the top to search by name.
• Canvas — the current flow. Drag nodes here from the palette and wire them together — see Building flows.

• Right sidebar — several tabs (icons along the bottom edge):

  • Info — details about the selected node or flow, and contextual tips.
  • Debug messages — output from any debug node in your flows, shown live as messages pass through them.
  • Project History — only relevant if you've set up a Project (see Getting started):

  

  • Configuration Nodes — shared configuration (connections, credentials) used across nodes, listed per-flow and for nodes shared across all flows:

  

  • Context Data — inspect variables stored in a node's, flow's, or the global context while debugging:

  

The hamburger menu¶

Click the ☰ icon (top right) for Projects, Edit/View/Arrange canvas commands, Import/Export, flow search, Configuration nodes, Manage palette (see Managing the palette), Settings (see User Settings), and keyboard shortcuts:

Deploy¶

Changes you make in the editor stay local to your browser session until you click Deploy. The dropdown next to it controls what gets deployed:

Deploy is greyed out until there's something unsaved to push — that's the quickest way to tell whether your edits have actually taken effect on the running gateway yet.