Configuration

Configuration file

When a pipeline script is launched, Nextflow looks for configuration files in multiple locations. Since each configuration file may contain conflicting settings, they are applied in the following order (from lowest to highest priority):

  1. Parameters defined in pipeline scripts (e.g. main.nf)

  2. The config file $HOME/.nextflow/config

  3. The config file nextflow.config in the project directory

  4. The config file nextflow.config in the launch directory

  5. Config file specified using the -c <config-file> option

  6. Parameters specified in a params file (-params-file option)

  7. Parameters specified on the command line (--something value)

When more than one of these options for specifying configurations are used, they are merged, so that the settings in the first override the same settings appearing in the second, and so on.

Tip

You can use the -C <config-file> option to use a single configuration file and ignore all other files.

Config syntax

A Nextflow configuration file is a simple text file containing a set of properties defined using the syntax:

name = value

Please note, string values need to be wrapped in quotation characters while numbers and boolean values (true, false) do not. Also note that values are typed. This means that, for example, 1 is different from '1' — the former is interpreted as the number one, while the latter is interpreted as a string value.

Config variables

Configuration properties can be used as variables in the configuration file by using the usual $propertyName or ${expression} syntax.

For example:

propertyOne = 'world'
anotherProp = "Hello $propertyOne"
customPath = "$PATH:/my/app/folder"

Please note, the usual rules for String interpolation are applied, thus a string containing a variable reference must be wrapped in double-quote chars instead of single-quote chars.

The same mechanism allows you to access environment variables defined in the hosting system. Any variable name not defined in the Nextflow configuration file(s) is interpreted to be a reference to an environment variable with that name. So, in the above example, the property customPath is defined as the current system PATH to which the string /my/app/folder is appended.

Config comments

Configuration files use the same conventions for comments used by the Groovy or Java programming languages. Thus, use // to comment a single line, or /* .. */ to comment a block on multiple lines.

Config include

A configuration file can include one or more configuration files using the keyword includeConfig. For example:

process.executor = 'sge'
process.queue = 'long'
process.memory = '10G'

includeConfig 'path/foo.config'

When a relative path is used, it is resolved against the actual location of the including file.

Config scopes

Configuration settings can be organized in different scopes by dot prefixing the property names with a scope identifier, or grouping the properties in the same scope using the curly brackets notation. For example:

alpha.x = 1
alpha.y = 'string value..'

beta {
     p = 2
     q = 'another string ..'
}

Scope apptainer

The apptainer scope controls how Apptainer containers are executed by Nextflow.

The following settings are available:

apptainer.autoMounts

When true Nextflow automatically mounts host paths in the executed container. It requires the user bind control feature to be enabled in your Apptainer installation (default: true).

apptainer.cacheDir

The directory where remote Apptainer images are stored. When using a computing cluster it must be a shared folder accessible to all compute nodes.

apptainer.enabled

Enable Apptainer execution (default: false).

apptainer.engineOptions

This attribute can be used to provide any option supported by the Apptainer engine i.e. apptainer [OPTIONS].

apptainer.envWhitelist

Comma separated list of environment variable names to be included in the container environment.

apptainer.noHttps

Pull the Apptainer image with http protocol (default: false).

apptainer.ociAutoPull

New in version 23.12.0-edge.

When enabled, OCI (and Docker) container images are pulled and converted to the SIF format by the Apptainer run command, instead of Nextflow (default: false).

Note

Leave ociAutoPull disabled if you are willing to build a Singularity/Apptainer native image with Wave (see the wave-singularity section).

apptainer.pullTimeout

The amount of time the Apptainer pull can last, exceeding which the process is terminated (default: 20 min).

apptainer.registry

The registry from where Docker images are pulled. It should be only used to specify a private registry server. It should NOT include the protocol prefix i.e. http://.

apptainer.runOptions

This attribute can be used to provide any extra command line options supported by apptainer exec.

Read the Apptainer page to learn more about how to use Apptainer containers with Nextflow.

Scope aws

The aws scope controls the interactions with AWS, including AWS Batch and S3. For example:

aws {
    accessKey = '<YOUR S3 ACCESS KEY>'
    secretKey = '<YOUR S3 SECRET KEY>'
    region = 'us-east-1'

    client {
        maxConnections = 20
        connectionTimeout = 10000
        uploadStorageClass = 'INTELLIGENT_TIERING'
        storageEncryption = 'AES256'
    }
    batch {
        cliPath = '/home/ec2-user/miniconda/bin/aws'
        maxTransferAttempts = 3
        delayBetweenAttempts = '5 sec'
    }
}

Tip

This scope can also be used to configure access to S3-compatible storage outside of AWS, such as Ceph and MinIO.

Read the AWS Cloud and AWS S3 storage pages for more information.

The following settings are available:

aws.accessKey

AWS account access key

aws.profile

New in version 22.12.0-edge.

AWS profile from ~/.aws/credentials

aws.region

AWS region (e.g. us-east-1)

aws.secretKey

AWS account secret key

aws.batch.cliPath

The path where the AWS command line tool is installed in the host AMI.

aws.batch.delayBetweenAttempts

Delay between download attempts from S3 (default: 10 sec).

aws.batch.executionRole

New in version 23.12.0-edge.

The AWS Batch Execution Role ARN that needs to be used to execute the Batch Job. This is mandatory when using AWS Fargate platform type. See AWS documentation for more details.

aws.batch.jobRole

The AWS Batch Job Role ARN that needs to be used to execute the Batch Job.

aws.batch.logsGroup

New in version 22.09.0-edge.

The name of the logs group used by Batch Jobs (default: /aws/batch).

aws.batch.maxParallelTransfers

Max parallel upload/download transfer operations per job (default: 4).

aws.batch.maxSpotAttempts

New in version 22.04.0.

Max number of execution attempts of a job interrupted by a EC2 spot reclaim event (default: 5)

aws.batch.maxTransferAttempts

Max number of downloads attempts from S3 (default: 1).

aws.batch.platformType

New in version 23.12.0-edge.

Allow specifying the compute platform type used by AWS Batch, that can be either ec2 or fargate. See AWS documentation to learn more about AWS Fargate platform type for AWS Batch.

aws.batch.retryMode

The retry mode configuration setting, to accommodate rate-limiting on AWS services (default: standard, other options: legacy, adaptive); this handling is delegated to AWS. To have Nextflow handle retries instead, use built-in.

aws.batch.schedulingPriority

New in version 23.01.0-edge.

The scheduling priority for all tasks when using fair-share scheduling for AWS Batch (default: 0)

aws.batch.shareIdentifier

New in version 22.09.0-edge.

The share identifier for all tasks when using fair-share scheduling for AWS Batch

aws.batch.volumes

One or more container mounts. Mounts can be specified as simple e.g. /some/path or canonical format e.g. /host/path:/mount/path[:ro|rw]. Multiple mounts can be specified separating them with a comma or using a list object.

aws.client.anonymous

Allow the access of public S3 buckets without the need to provide AWS credentials. Any service that does not accept unsigned requests will return a service access error.

aws.client.s3Acl

Allow the setting of predefined bucket permissions, also known as canned ACL. Permitted values are Private, PublicRead, PublicReadWrite, AuthenticatedRead, LogDeliveryWrite, BucketOwnerRead, BucketOwnerFullControl, and AwsExecRead. See Amazon docs for details.

aws.client.connectionTimeout

The amount of time to wait (in milliseconds) when initially establishing a connection before timing out.

aws.client.endpoint

The AWS S3 API entry point e.g. https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com. Note: the endpoint must include the protocol prefix e.g. https://.

aws.client.glacierAutoRetrieval

Deprecated since version 24.02.0-edge: Glacier auto-retrieval is no longer supported. Instead, consider using the AWS CLI to restore any Glacier objects before or at the beginning of your pipeline (i.e. in a Nextflow process).

Enable auto retrieval of S3 objects with a Glacier storage class (default: false).

aws.client.glacierExpirationDays

Deprecated since version 24.02.0-edge.

The time, in days, between when an object is restored to the bucket and when it expires (default: 7).

aws.client.glacierRetrievalTier

Deprecated since version 24.02.0-edge.

The retrieval tier to use when restoring objects from Glacier, one of [Expedited, Standard, Bulk].

aws.client.maxConnections

The maximum number of allowed open HTTP connections.

aws.client.maxErrorRetry

The maximum number of retry attempts for failed retryable requests.

aws.client.protocol

The protocol (i.e. HTTP or HTTPS) to use when connecting to AWS.

aws.client.proxyHost

The proxy host to connect through.

aws.client.proxyPort

The port on the proxy host to connect through.

aws.client.proxyUsername

The user name to use when connecting through a proxy.

aws.client.proxyPassword

The password to use when connecting through a proxy.

aws.client.requesterPays

New in version 24.05.0-edge.

Enable the requester pays feature for S3 buckets.

aws.client.s3PathStyleAccess

Enable the use of path-based access model that is used to specify the address of an object in S3-compatible storage systems.

aws.client.signerOverride

The name of the signature algorithm to use for signing requests made by the client.

aws.client.socketSendBufferSizeHint

The Size hint (in bytes) for the low level TCP send buffer.

aws.client.socketRecvBufferSizeHint

The Size hint (in bytes) for the low level TCP receive buffer.

aws.client.socketTimeout

The amount of time to wait (in milliseconds) for data to be transferred over an established, open connection before the connection is timed out.

aws.client.storageEncryption

The S3 server side encryption to be used when saving objects on S3, either AES256 or aws:kms values are allowed.

aws.client.storageKmsKeyId

New in version 22.05.0-edge.

The AWS KMS key Id to be used to encrypt files stored in the target S3 bucket.

aws.client.userAgent

The HTTP user agent header passed with all HTTP requests.

aws.client.uploadChunkSize

The size of a single part in a multipart upload (default: 100 MB).

aws.client.uploadMaxAttempts

The maximum number of upload attempts after which a multipart upload returns an error (default: 5).

aws.client.uploadMaxThreads

The maximum number of threads used for multipart upload.

aws.client.uploadRetrySleep

The time to wait after a failed upload attempt to retry the part upload (default: 500ms).

aws.client.uploadStorageClass

The S3 storage class applied to stored objects, one of [STANDARD, STANDARD_IA, ONEZONE_IA, INTELLIGENT_TIERING] (default: STANDARD).

Scope azure

The azure scope allows you to configure the interactions with Azure, including Azure Batch and Azure Blob Storage.

Read the Azure Cloud page for more information.

The following settings are available:

azure.activeDirectory.servicePrincipalId

The service principal client ID

azure.activeDirectory.servicePrincipalSecret

The service principal client secret

azure.activeDirectory.tenantId

The Azure tenant ID

azure.batch.accountName

The batch service account name.

azure.batch.accountKey

The batch service account key.

azure.batch.allowPoolCreation

Enable the automatic creation of batch pools specified in the Nextflow configuration file (default: false).

azure.batch.autoPoolMode

Enable the automatic creation of batch pools depending on the pipeline resources demand (default: true).

azure.batch.copyToolInstallMode

Specify where the azcopy tool used by Nextflow. When node is specified it’s copied once during the pool creation. When task is provider, it’s installed for each task execution. Finally when off is specified, the azcopy tool is not installed (default: node).

azure.batch.deleteJobsOnCompletion

Delete all jobs when the workflow completes (default: false).

Changed in version 23.08.0-edge: Default value was changed from true to false.

azure.batch.deletePoolsOnCompletion

Delete all compute node pools when the workflow completes (default: false).

azure.batch.deleteTasksOnCompletion

New in version 23.08.0-edge.

Delete each task when it completes (default: true).

Although this setting is enabled by default, failed tasks will not be deleted unless it is explicitly enabled. This way, the default behavior is that successful tasks are deleted while failed tasks are preserved for debugging purposes.

azure.batch.endpoint

The batch service endpoint e.g. https://nfbatch1.westeurope.batch.azure.com.

azure.batch.location

The name of the batch service region, e.g. westeurope or eastus2. This is not needed when the endpoint is specified.

azure.batch.terminateJobsOnCompletion

New in version 23.05.0-edge.

When the workflow completes, set all jobs to terminate on task completion. (default: true).

azure.batch.pools.<name>.autoScale

Enable autoscaling feature for the pool identified with <name>.

azure.batch.pools.<name>.fileShareRootPath

If mounting File Shares, this is the internal root mounting point. Must be /mnt/resource/batch/tasks/fsmounts for CentOS nodes or /mnt/batch/tasks/fsmounts for Ubuntu nodes (default is for CentOS).

azure.batch.pools.<name>.lowPriority

Enable the use of low-priority VMs (default: false).

azure.batch.pools.<name>.maxVmCount

Specify the max of virtual machine when using auto scale option.

azure.batch.pools.<name>.mountOptions

Specify the mount options for mounting the file shares (default: -o vers=3.0,dir_mode=0777,file_mode=0777,sec=ntlmssp).

azure.batch.pools.<name>.offer

Specify the offer type of the virtual machine type used by the pool identified with <name> (default: centos-container).

azure.batch.pools.<name>.privileged

Enable the task to run with elevated access. Ignored if runAs is set (default: false).

azure.batch.pools.<name>.publisher

Specify the publisher of virtual machine type used by the pool identified with <name> (default: microsoft-azure-batch).

azure.batch.pools.<name>.runAs

Specify the username under which the task is run. The user must already exist on each node of the pool.

azure.batch.pools.<name>.scaleFormula

Specify the scale formula for the pool identified with <name>. See Azure Batch scaling documentation for details.

azure.batch.pools.<name>.scaleInterval

Specify the interval at which to automatically adjust the Pool size according to the autoscale formula. The minimum and maximum value are 5 minutes and 168 hours respectively (default: 10 mins).

azure.batch.pools.<name>.schedulePolicy

Specify the scheduling policy for the pool identified with <name>. It can be either spread or pack (default: spread).

azure.batch.pools.<name>.sku

Specify the ID of the Compute Node agent SKU which the pool identified with <name> supports (default: batch.node.centos 8).

azure.batch.pools.<name>.startTask.script

New in version 24.03.0-edge.

Specify the startTask that is executed as the node joins the Azure Batch node pool.

azure.batch.pools.<name>.startTask.privileged

New in version 24.03.0-edge.

Enable the startTask to run with elevated access (default: false).

azure.batch.pools.<name>.virtualNetwork

New in version 23.03.0-edge.

Specify the subnet ID of a virtual network in which to create the pool.

azure.batch.pools.<name>.vmCount

Specify the number of virtual machines provisioned by the pool identified with <name>.

azure.batch.pools.<name>.vmType

Specify the virtual machine type used by the pool identified with <name>.

azure.managedIdentity.clientId

Specify the client ID for an Azure managed identity. See Managed identities for more details.

azure.managedIdentity.system

When true, use the system-assigned managed identity to authenticate Azure resources. See Managed identities for more details.

azure.managedIdentity.tenantId

The Azure tenant ID

azure.registry.server

Specify the container registry from which to pull the Docker images (default: docker.io).

azure.registry.userName

Specify the username to connect to a private container registry.

azure.registry.password

Specify the password to connect to a private container registry.

azure.retryPolicy.delay

Delay when retrying failed API requests (default: 500ms).

azure.retryPolicy.jitter

Jitter value when retrying failed API requests (default: 0.25).

azure.retryPolicy.maxAttempts

Max attempts when retrying failed API requests (default: 10).

azure.retryPolicy.maxDelay

Max delay when retrying failed API requests (default: 90s).

azure.storage.accountName

The blob storage account name

azure.storage.accountKey

The blob storage account key

azure.storage.sasToken

The blob storage shared access signature token. This can be provided as an alternative to the accountKey setting.

azure.storage.tokenDuration

The duration of the shared access signature token created by Nextflow when the sasToken option is not specified (default: 48h).

Scope charliecloud

The charliecloud scope controls how Charliecloud containers are executed by Nextflow. If charliecloud.writeFake is unset / false, charliecloud will create a copy of the container in the process working directory.

The following settings are available:

charliecloud.cacheDir

The directory where remote Charliecloud images are stored. When using a computing cluster it must be a shared folder accessible to all compute nodes.

charliecloud.enabled

Enable Charliecloud execution (default: false).

charliecloud.envWhitelist

Comma separated list of environment variable names to be included in the container environment.

charliecloud.pullTimeout

The amount of time the Charliecloud pull can last, exceeding which the process is terminated (default: 20 min).

charliecloud.runOptions

This attribute can be used to provide any extra command line options supported by the ch-run command.

charliecloud.temp

Mounts a path of your choice as the /tmp directory in the container. Use the special value auto to create a temporary directory each time a container is created.

charliecloud.registry

The registry from where images are pulled. It should be only used to specify a private registry server. It should NOT include the protocol prefix i.e. http://.

charliecloud.writeFake

Enable writeFake with charliecloud. This allows to run containers from storage in writeable mode, using overlayfs, see charliecloud documentation for details

charliecloud.useSquash

Create a temporary squashFS container image in the process work directory instead of a folder.

Read the Charliecloud page to learn more about how to use Charliecloud containers with Nextflow.

Scope conda

The conda scope controls the creation of a Conda environment by the Conda package manager.

The following settings are available:

conda.enabled

Enable Conda execution (default: false).

conda.cacheDir

Defines the path where Conda environments are stored. When using a compute cluster make sure to provide a shared file system path accessible from all compute nodes.

conda.createOptions

Defines any extra command line options supported by the conda create command. For details see the Conda documentation.

conda.createTimeout

Defines the amount of time the Conda environment creation can last. The creation process is terminated when the timeout is exceeded (default: 20 min).

conda.useMamba

Uses the mamba binary instead of conda to create the Conda environments. For details see the Mamba documentation.

conda.useMicromamba

New in version 22.05.0-edge.

uses the micromamba binary instead of conda to create the Conda environments. For details see the Micromamba documentation.

Read the Conda environments page to learn more about how to use Conda environments with Nextflow.

Scope dag

The dag scope controls the workflow diagram generated by Nextflow.

The following settings are available:

dag.enabled

When true enables the generation of the DAG file (default: false).

dag.depth

New in version 23.10.0.

Only supported by the HTML and Mermaid renderers.

Controls the maximum depth at which to render sub-workflows (default: no limit).

dag.direction

New in version 23.10.0.

Only supported by the HTML and Mermaid renderers.

Controls the direction of the DAG, can be 'LR' (left-to-right) or 'TB' (top-to-bottom) (default: 'TB').

dag.file

Graph file name (default: dag-<timestamp>.html).

dag.overwrite

When true overwrites any existing DAG file with the same name (default: false).

dag.verbose

New in version 23.10.0.

Only supported by the HTML and Mermaid renderers.

When false, channel names are omitted, operators are collapsed, and empty workflow inputs are removed (default: false).

Read the DAG visualisation page to learn more about the workflow graph that can be generated by Nextflow.

Scope docker

The docker scope controls how Docker containers are executed by Nextflow.

The following settings are available:

docker.enabled

Enable Docker execution (default: false).

docker.engineOptions

This attribute can be used to provide any option supported by the Docker engine i.e. docker [OPTIONS].

docker.envWhitelist

Comma separated list of environment variable names to be included in the container environment.

docker.fixOwnership

Fix ownership of files created by the docker container.

docker.legacy

Use command line options removed since Docker 1.10.0 (default: false).

docker.mountFlags

Add the specified flags to the volume mounts e.g. mountFlags = 'ro,Z'.

docker.registry

The registry from where Docker images are pulled. It should be only used to specify a private registry server. It should NOT include the protocol prefix i.e. http://.

docker.remove

Clean-up the container after the execution (default: true). See the Docker documentation for details.

docker.runOptions

This attribute can be used to provide any extra command line options supported by the docker run command. See the Docker documentation for details.

docker.sudo

Executes Docker run command as sudo (default: false).

docker.temp

Mounts a path of your choice as the /tmp directory in the container. Use the special value auto to create a temporary directory each time a container is created.

docker.tty

Allocates a pseudo-tty (default: false).

Read the Docker page to learn more about how to use Docker containers with Nextflow.

Scope env

The env scope allows the definition one or more variables that will be exported into the environment where workflow tasks are executed.

Simply prefix your variable names with the env scope or surround them by curly brackets, as shown below:

env.ALPHA = 'some value'
env.BETA = "$HOME/some/path"

env {
     DELTA = 'one more'
     GAMMA = "/my/path:$PATH"
}

Note

In the above example, variables like $HOME and $PATH are evaluated when the workflow is launched. If you want these variables to be evaluated during task execution, escape them with \$. This difference is important for variables like $PATH, which may be different in the workflow environment versus the task environment.

Warning

The env scope provides environment variables to tasks, not Nextflow itself. Nextflow environment variables such as NXF_VER should be set in the environment in which Nextflow is launched.

Scope executor

The executor scope controls various executor behaviors.

The following settings are available:

executor.account

New in version 24.04.0.

Used only by the SLURM, LSF, PBS/Torque and PBS Pro executors.

Allows specifying the project or organisation account that should be charged for running the pipeline jobs.

executor.cpus

The maximum number of CPUs made available by the underlying system. Used only by the local executor.

executor.dumpInterval

Determines how often to log the executor status (default: 5min).

executor.exitReadTimeout

Determines how long to wait before returning an error status when a process is terminated but the .exitcode file does not exist or is empty (default: 270 sec). Used only by grid executors.

executor.jobName

Determines the name of jobs submitted to the underlying cluster executor e.g. executor.jobName = { "$task.name - $task.hash" }. Make sure the resulting job name matches the validation constraints of the underlying batch scheduler. This setting is only support by the following executors: Bridge, Condor, Flux, HyperQueue, Lsf, Moab, Nqsii, Oar, Pbs, PbsPro, Sge, Slurm and Google Batch.

executor.killBatchSize

Determines the number of jobs that can be killed in a single command execution (default: 100).

executor.memory

The maximum amount of memory made available by the underlying system. Used only by the local executor.

executor.name

The name of the executor to be used (default: local).

executor.perCpuMemAllocation

New in version 23.07.0-edge.

Used only by the SLURM executor.

When true, specifies memory allocations for SLURM jobs as --mem-per-cpu <task.memory / task.cpus> instead of --mem <task.memory>.

executor.perJobMemLimit

Specifies Platform LSF per-job memory limit mode. See LSF.

executor.perTaskReserve

Specifies Platform LSF per-task memory reserve mode. See LSF.

executor.pollInterval

Determines how often to check for process termination. Default varies for each executor (see below).

executor.queueGlobalStatus

New in version 23.01.0-edge.

Determines how job status is retrieved. When false only the queue associated with the job execution is queried. When true the job status is queried globally i.e. irrespective of the submission queue (default: false).

executor.queueSize

The number of tasks the executor will handle in a parallel manner. A queue size of zero corresponds to no limit. Default varies for each executor (see below).

executor.queueStatInterval

Determines how often to fetch the queue status from the scheduler (default: 1min). Used only by grid executors.

executor.retry.delay

New in version 22.03.0-edge.

Delay when retrying failed job submissions (default: 500ms). Used only by grid executors.

executor.retry.jitter

New in version 22.03.0-edge.

Jitter value when retrying failed job submissions (default: 0.25). Used only by grid executors.

executor.retry.maxAttempt

New in version 22.03.0-edge.

Max attempts when retrying failed job submissions (default: 3). Used only by grid executors.

executor.retry.maxDelay

New in version 22.03.0-edge.

Max delay when retrying failed job submissions (default: 30s). Used only by grid executors.

executor.retry.reason

New in version 22.03.0-edge.

Regex pattern that when verified cause a failed submit operation to be re-tried (default: Socket timed out). Used only by grid executors.

executor.submitRateLimit

Determines the max rate of job submission per time unit, for example '10sec' (10 jobs per second) or '50/2min' (50 jobs every 2 minutes) (default: unlimited).

Some executor settings have different default values depending on the executor.

Executor

queueSize

pollInterval

AWS Batch

1000

10s

Azure Batch

1000

10s

Google Batch

1000

10s

Grid Executors

100

5s

Kubernetes

100

5s

Local

N/A

100ms

The executor settings can be defined as shown below:

executor {
    name = 'sge'
    queueSize = 200
    pollInterval = '30 sec'
}

When using two (or more) different executors in your pipeline, you can specify their settings separately by prefixing the executor name with the symbol $ and using it as special scope identifier. For example:

executor {
  $sge {
      queueSize = 100
      pollInterval = '30sec'
  }

  $local {
      cpus = 8
      memory = '32 GB'
  }
}

The above configuration example can be rewritten using the dot notation as shown below:

executor.$sge.queueSize = 100
executor.$sge.pollInterval = '30sec'
executor.$local.cpus = 8
executor.$local.memory = '32 GB'

Scope fusion

The fusion scope provides advanced configuration for the use of the Fusion file system.

The following settings are available:

fusion.enabled

Enable/disable the use of Fusion file system.

fusion.cacheSize

New in version 23.11.0-edge.

The maximum size of the local cache used by the Fusion client.

fusion.containerConfigUrl

The URL from where the container layer provisioning the Fusion client is downloaded.

fusion.exportStorageCredentials

New in version 23.05.0-edge: This option was previously named fusion.exportAwsAccessKeys.

When true the access credentials required by the underlying object storage are exported to the task execution environment.

fusion.logLevel

The level of logging emitted by the Fusion client.

fusion.logOutput

Where the logging output is written.

fusion.privileged

New in version 23.10.0.

Enables the use of privileged containers when using Fusion (default: true).

The use of Fusion without privileged containers is currently only supported for Kubernetes, and it requires the k8s-fuse-plugin (or similar FUSE device plugin) to be installed in the cluster.

fusion.tags

The pattern that determines how tags are applied to files created via the Fusion client (default: [.command.*|.exitcode|.fusion.*](nextflow.io/metadata=true),[*](nextflow.io/temporary=true)).

To disable tags set it to false.

Scope google

The google scope allows you to configure the interactions with Google Cloud, including Google Cloud Batch, Google Life Sciences, and Google Cloud Storage.

Read the Google Cloud page for more information.

Cloud Batch

The following settings are available for Google Cloud Batch:

google.enableRequesterPaysBuckets

When true uses the given Google Cloud project ID as the billing project for storage access. This is required when accessing data from requester pays enabled buckets. See Requester Pays on Google Cloud Storage documentation (default: false).

google.httpConnectTimeout

New in version 23.06.0-edge.

Defines the HTTP connection timeout for Cloud Storage API requests (default: '60s').

google.httpReadTimeout

New in version 23.06.0-edge.

Defines the HTTP read timeout for Cloud Storage API requests (default: '60s').

google.location

The Google Cloud location where jobs are executed (default: us-central1).

google.batch.maxSpotAttempts

New in version 23.11.0-edge.

Max number of execution attempts of a job interrupted by a Compute Engine spot reclaim event (default: 5).

google.project

The Google Cloud project ID to use for pipeline execution

google.batch.allowedLocations

New in version 22.12.0-edge.

Define the set of allowed locations for VMs to be provisioned. See Google documentation for details (default: no restriction).

google.batch.bootDiskSize

Set the size of the virtual machine boot disk, e.g 50.GB (default: none).

google.batch.cpuPlatform

Set the minimum CPU Platform, e.g. 'Intel Skylake'. See Specifying a minimum CPU Platform for VM instances (default: none).

google.batch.network

The URL of an existing network resource to which the VM will be attached.

You can specify the network as a full or partial URL. For example, the following are all valid URLs:

  • https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/{project}/global/networks/{network}

  • projects/{project}/global/networks/{network}

  • global/networks/{network}

google.batch.serviceAccountEmail

Define the Google service account email to use for the pipeline execution. If not specified, the default Compute Engine service account for the project will be used.

Note that the google.batch.serviceAccountEmail service account will only be used for spawned jobs, not for the Nextflow process itself. See the Google Cloud documentation for more information on credentials.

google.batch.spot

When true enables the usage of spot virtual machines or false otherwise (default: false).

google.batch.subnetwork

The URL of an existing subnetwork resource in the network to which the VM will be attached.

You can specify the subnetwork as a full or partial URL. For example, the following are all valid URLs:

  • https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/{project}/regions/{region}/subnetworks/{subnetwork}

  • projects/{project}/regions/{region}/subnetworks/{subnetwork}

  • regions/{region}/subnetworks/{subnetwork}

google.batch.usePrivateAddress

When true the VM will NOT be provided with a public IP address, and only contain an internal IP. If this option is enabled, the associated job can only load docker images from Google Container Registry, and the job executable cannot use external services other than Google APIs (default: false).

google.storage.maxAttempts

New in version 23.11.0-edge.

Max attempts when retrying failed API requests to Cloud Storage (default: 10).

google.storage.maxDelay

New in version 23.11.0-edge.

Max delay when retrying failed API requests to Cloud Storage (default: '90s').

google.storage.multiplier

New in version 23.11.0-edge.

Delay multiplier when retrying failed API requests to Cloud Storage (default: 2.0).

Cloud Life Sciences

The following settings are available for Cloud Life Sciences:

google.enableRequesterPaysBuckets

When true uses the given Google Cloud project ID as the billing project for storage access. This is required when accessing data from requester pays enabled buckets. See Requester Pays on Google Cloud Storage documentation (default: false).

google.httpConnectTimeout

New in version 23.06.0-edge.

Defines the HTTP connection timeout for Cloud Storage API requests (default: '60s').

google.httpReadTimeout

New in version 23.06.0-edge.

Defines the HTTP read timeout for Cloud Storage API requests (default: '60s').

google.location

The Google Cloud location where jobs are executed (default: us-central1).

google.project

The Google Cloud project ID to use for pipeline execution

google.region

The Google Cloud region where jobs are executed. Multiple regions can be provided as a comma-separated list. Cannot be used with the google.zone option. See the Google Cloud documentation for a list of available regions and zones.

google.zone

The Google Cloud zone where jobs are executed. Multiple zones can be provided as a comma-separated list. Cannot be used with the google.region option. See the Google Cloud documentation for a list of available regions and zones.

google.batch.allowedLocations

New in version 22.12.0-edge.

Define the set of allowed locations for VMs to be provisioned. See Google documentation for details (default: no restriction).

google.batch.bootDiskSize

Set the size of the virtual machine boot disk, e.g 50.GB (default: none).

google.batch.cpuPlatform

Set the minimum CPU Platform, e.g. 'Intel Skylake'. See Specifying a minimum CPU Platform for VM instances (default: none).

google.batch.installGpuDrivers

New in version 23.08.0-edge.

When true automatically installs the appropriate GPU drivers to the VM when a GPU is requested (default: false). Only needed when using an instance template.

google.batch.network

Set network name to attach the VM’s network interface to. The value will be prefixed with global/networks/ unless it contains a /, in which case it is assumed to be a fully specified network resource URL. If unspecified, the global default network is used.

google.batch.serviceAccountEmail

Define the Google service account email to use for the pipeline execution. If not specified, the default Compute Engine service account for the project will be used.

google.batch.spot

When true enables the usage of spot virtual machines or false otherwise (default: false).

google.batch.subnetwork

Define the name of the subnetwork to attach the instance to must be specified here, when the specified network is configured for custom subnet creation. The value is prefixed with regions/subnetworks/ unless it contains a /, in which case it is assumed to be a fully specified subnetwork resource URL.

google.batch.usePrivateAddress

When true the VM will NOT be provided with a public IP address, and only contain an internal IP. If this option is enabled, the associated job can only load docker images from Google Container Registry, and the job executable cannot use external services other than Google APIs (default: false).

google.lifeSciences.bootDiskSize

Set the size of the virtual machine boot disk e.g 50.GB (default: none).

google.lifeSciences.copyImage

The container image run to copy input and output files. It must include the gsutil tool (default: google/cloud-sdk:alpine).

google.lifeSciences.cpuPlatform

Set the minimum CPU Platform e.g. 'Intel Skylake'. See Specifying a minimum CPU Platform for VM instances (default: none).

google.lifeSciences.debug

When true copies the /google debug directory in that task bucket directory (default: false).

google.lifeSciences.keepAliveOnFailure

New in version 21.06.0-edge.

When true and a task complete with an unexpected exit status the associated compute node is kept up for 1 hour. This options implies sshDaemon=true (default: false).

google.lifeSciences.network

New in version 21.03.0-edge.

Set network name to attach the VM’s network interface to. The value will be prefixed with global/networks/ unless it contains a /, in which case it is assumed to be a fully specified network resource URL. If unspecified, the global default network is used.

google.lifeSciences.preemptible

When true enables the usage of preemptible virtual machines or false otherwise (default: true).

google.lifeSciences.serviceAccountEmail

New in version 20.05.0-edge.

Define the Google service account email to use for the pipeline execution. If not specified, the default Compute Engine service account for the project will be used.

google.lifeSciences.subnetwork

New in version 21.03.0-edge.

Define the name of the subnetwork to attach the instance to must be specified here, when the specified network is configured for custom subnet creation. The value is prefixed with regions/subnetworks/ unless it contains a /, in which case it is assumed to be a fully specified subnetwork resource URL.

google.lifeSciences.sshDaemon

When true runs SSH daemon in the VM carrying out the job to which it’s possible to connect for debugging purposes (default: false).

google.lifeSciences.sshImage

The container image used to run the SSH daemon (default: gcr.io/cloud-genomics-pipelines/tools).

google.lifeSciences.usePrivateAddress

New in version 20.03.0-edge.

When true the VM will NOT be provided with a public IP address, and only contain an internal IP. If this option is enabled, the associated job can only load docker images from Google Container Registry, and the job executable cannot use external services other than Google APIs (default: false).

google.storage.delayBetweenAttempts

New in version 21.06.0-edge.

Delay between download attempts from Google Storage (default 10 sec).

google.storage.downloadMaxComponents

New in version 21.06.0-edge.

Defines the value for the option GSUtil:sliced_object_download_max_components used by gsutil for transfer input and output data (default: 8).

google.storage.maxParallelTransfers

New in version 21.06.0-edge.

Max parallel upload/download transfer operations per job (default: 4).

google.storage.maxTransferAttempts

New in version 21.06.0-edge.

Max number of downloads attempts from Google Storage (default: 1).

google.storage.parallelThreadCount

New in version 21.06.0-edge.

Defines the value for the option GSUtil:parallel_thread_count used by gsutil for transfer input and output data (default: 1).

Scope k8s

The k8s scope controls the deployment and execution of workflow applications in a Kubernetes cluster.

The following settings are available:

k8s.autoMountHostPaths

Automatically mounts host paths into the task pods (default: false). Only intended for development purposes when using a single node.

k8s.computeResourceType

New in version 22.05.0-edge.

Define whether use Kubernetes Pod or Job resource type to carry out Nextflow tasks (default: Pod).

k8s.context

Defines the Kubernetes configuration context name to use.

k8s.cpuLimits

New in version 24.04.0.

When true, set both the pod CPUs request and limit to the value specified by the cpus directive, otherwise set only the request (default: false).

This setting is useful when a K8s cluster requires a CPU limit to be defined through a LimitRange.

k8s.debug.yaml

When true, saves the pod spec for each task to .command.yaml in the task directory (default: false).

k8s.fetchNodeName

New in version 22.05.0-edge.

If you trace the hostname, activate this option (default: false).

k8s.fuseDevicePlugin

New in version 24.01.0-edge.

The FUSE device plugin to be used when enabling Fusion in unprivileged mode (default: ['nextflow.io/fuse': 1]).

k8s.httpConnectTimeout

New in version 22.10.0.

Defines the Kubernetes client request HTTP connection timeout e.g. '60s'.

k8s.httpReadTimeout

New in version 22.10.0.

Defines the Kubernetes client request HTTP connection read timeout e.g. '60s'.

k8s.launchDir

Defines the path where the workflow is launched and the user data is stored. This must be a path in a shared K8s persistent volume (default: <volume-claim-mount-path>/<user-name>).

k8s.maxErrorRetry

New in version 22.09.6-edge.

Defines the Kubernetes API max request retries (default: 4).

k8s.namespace

Defines the Kubernetes namespace to use (default: default).

k8s.pod

Allows the definition of one or more pod configuration options such as environment variables, config maps, secrets, etc. It allows the same settings as the pod process directive.

When using the kuberun command, this setting also applies to the submitter pod.

k8s.projectDir

Defines the path where Nextflow projects are downloaded. This must be a path in a shared K8s persistent volume (default: <volume-claim-mount-path>/projects).

k8s.pullPolicy

Defines the strategy to be used to pull the container image e.g. pullPolicy: 'Always'.

k8s.runAsUser

Defines the user ID to be used to run the containers. Shortcut for the securityContext option.

k8s.securityContext

Defines the security context for all pods.

k8s.serviceAccount

Defines the Kubernetes service account name to use.

k8s.storageClaimName

The name of the persistent volume claim where store workflow result data.

k8s.storageMountPath

The path location used to mount the persistent volume claim (default: /workspace).

k8s.storageSubPath

The path in the persistent volume to be mounted (default: /).

k8s.workDir

Defines the path where the workflow temporary data is stored. This must be a path in a shared K8s persistent volume (default: <user-dir>/work).

See the Kubernetes page for more details.

Scope mail

The mail scope controls the mail server used to send email notifications.

The following settings are available:

mail.debug

When true enables Java Mail logging for debugging purpose.

mail.from

Default email sender address.

mail.smtp.host

Host name of the mail server.

mail.smtp.port

Port number of the mail server.

mail.smtp.user

User name to connect to the mail server.

mail.smtp.password

User password to connect to the mail server.

mail.smtp.proxy.host

Host name of an HTTP web proxy server that will be used for connections to the mail server.

mail.smtp.proxy.port

Port number for the HTTP web proxy server.

mail.smtp.*

Any SMTP configuration property supported by the Java Mail API, which Nextflow uses to send emails. See the table of available properties here.

For example, the following snippet shows how to configure Nextflow to send emails through the AWS Simple Email Service:

mail {
    smtp.host = 'email-smtp.us-east-1.amazonaws.com'
    smtp.port = 587
    smtp.user = '<Your AWS SES access key>'
    smtp.password = '<Your AWS SES secret key>'
    smtp.auth = true
    smtp.starttls.enable = true
    smtp.starttls.required = true
}

Note

Some versions of Java (e.g. Java 11 Corretto) do not default to TLS v1.2, and as a result may have issues with 3rd party integrations that enforce TLS v1.2 (e.g. Azure Active Directory OIDC). This problem can be addressed by setting the following config option:

mail {
    smtp.ssl.protocols = 'TLSv1.2'
}

Scope manifest

The manifest scope allows you to define some meta-data information needed when publishing or running your pipeline.

The following settings are available:

manifest.author

Project author name (use a comma to separate multiple names).

manifest.defaultBranch

Git repository default branch (default: master).

manifest.description

Free text describing the workflow project.

manifest.doi

Project related publication DOI identifier.

manifest.homePage

Project home page URL.

manifest.mainScript

Project main script (default: main.nf).

manifest.name

Project short name.

manifest.nextflowVersion

Minimum required Nextflow version.

This setting may be useful to ensure that a specific version is used:

manifest.nextflowVersion = '1.2.3'        // exact match
manifest.nextflowVersion = '1.2+'         // 1.2 or later (excluding 2 and later)
manifest.nextflowVersion = '>=1.2'        // 1.2 or later
manifest.nextflowVersion = '>=1.2, <=1.5' // any version in the 1.2 .. 1.5 range
manifest.nextflowVersion = '!>=1.2'       // with ! prefix, stop execution if current version does not match required version.
manifest.recurseSubmodules

Pull submodules recursively from the Git repository.

manifest.version

Project version number.

The above options can also be specified in a manifest block, for example:

manifest {
    homePage = 'http://foo.com'
    description = 'Pipeline does this and that'
    mainScript = 'foo.nf'
    version = '1.0.0'
}

Read the Pipeline sharing page to learn how to publish your pipeline to GitHub, BitBucket or GitLab.

Scope nextflow

The nextflow scope provides configuration options for the Nextflow runtime.

nextflow.publish.retryPolicy.delay

New in version 24.03.0-edge.

Delay when retrying a failed publish operation (default: 350ms).

nextflow.publish.retryPolicy.jitter

New in version 24.03.0-edge.

Jitter value when retrying a failed publish operation (default: 0.25).

nextflow.publish.retryPolicy.maxAttempt

New in version 24.03.0-edge.

Max attempts when retrying a failed publish operation (default: 5).

nextflow.publish.retryPolicy.maxDelay

New in version 24.03.0-edge.

Max delay when retrying a failed publish operation (default: 90s).

Scope notification

The notification scope allows you to define the automatic sending of a notification email message when the workflow execution terminates.

notification.attributes

A map object modelling the variables that can be used in the template file.

notification.enabled

Enables the sending of a notification message when the workflow execution completes.

notification.from

Sender address for the notification email message.

notification.template

Path of a template file which provides the content of the notification message.

notification.to

Recipient address for the notification email. Multiple addresses can be specified separating them with a comma.

The notification message is sent my using the STMP server defined in the configuration mail scope.

If no mail configuration is provided, it tries to send the notification message by using the external mail command eventually provided by the underlying system (e.g. sendmail or mail).

Scope params

The params scope allows you to define parameters that will be accessible in the pipeline script. Simply prefix the parameter names with the params scope or surround them by curly brackets, as shown below:

params.custom_param = 123
params.another_param = 'string value .. '

params {
    alpha_1 = true
    beta_2 = 'another string ..'
}

Scope podman

The podman scope controls how Podman containers are executed by Nextflow.

The following settings are available:

podman.enabled

Enable Podman execution (default: false).

podman.engineOptions

This attribute can be used to provide any option supported by the Podman engine i.e. podman [OPTIONS].

podman.envWhitelist

Comma separated list of environment variable names to be included in the container environment.

podman.mountFlags

Add the specified flags to the volume mounts e.g. mountFlags = 'ro,Z'.

podman.registry

The registry from where container images are pulled. It should be only used to specify a private registry server. It should NOT include the protocol prefix i.e. http://.

podman.remove

Clean-up the container after the execution (default: true).

podman.runOptions

This attribute can be used to provide any extra command line options supported by the podman run command.

podman.temp

Mounts a path of your choice as the /tmp directory in the container. Use the special value auto to create a temporary directory each time a container is created.

Read the Podman page to learn more about how to use Podman containers with Nextflow.

Scope process

The process scope allows you to specify default directives for processes in your pipeline.

For example:

process {
    executor = 'sge'
    queue = 'long'
    clusterOptions = '-pe smp 10 -l virtual_free=64G,h_rt=30:00:00'
}

By using this configuration, all processes in your pipeline will be executed through the SGE cluster, with the specified settings.

Process selectors

The withLabel selectors allow the configuration of all processes annotated with a label directive as shown below:

process {
    withLabel: big_mem {
        cpus = 16
        memory = 64.GB
        queue = 'long'
    }
}

The above configuration example assigns 16 cpus, 64 Gb of memory and the long queue to all processes annotated with the big_mem label.

In the same manner, the withName selector allows the configuration of a specific process in your pipeline by its name. For example:

process {
    withName: hello {
        cpus = 4
        memory = 8.GB
        queue = 'short'
    }
}

The withName selector applies both to processes defined with the same name and processes included under the same alias. For example, withName: hello will apply to any process originally defined as hello, as well as any process included under the alias hello.

Furthermore, selectors for the alias of an included process take priority over selectors for the original name of the process. For example, given a process defined as foo and included as bar, the selectors withName: foo and withName: bar will both be applied to the process, with the second selector taking priority over the first.

Tip

Label and process names do not need to be enclosed with quotes, provided the name does not include special characters (-, !, etc) and is not a keyword or a built-in type identifier. When in doubt, you can enclose the label name or process name with single or double quotes.

Selector expressions

Both label and process name selectors allow the use of a regular expression in order to apply the same configuration to all processes matching the specified pattern condition. For example:

process {
    withLabel: 'foo|bar' {
        cpus = 2
        memory = 4.GB
    }
}

The above configuration snippet sets 2 cpus and 4 GB of memory to the processes annotated with a label foo and bar.

A process selector can be negated prefixing it with the special character !. For example:

process {
    withLabel: 'foo' { cpus = 2 }
    withLabel: '!foo' { cpus = 4 }
    withName: '!align.*' { queue = 'long' }
}

The above configuration snippet sets 2 cpus for the processes annotated with the foo label and 4 cpus to all processes not annotated with that label. Finally it sets the use of long queue to all process whose name does not start with align.

Selector priority

Process configuration settings are applied to a process in the following order (from lowest to highest priority):

  1. Process configuration settings (without a selector)

  2. Process directives in the process definition

  3. withLabel selectors matching any of the process labels

  4. withName selectors matching the process name

  5. withName selectors matching the process included alias

  6. withName selectors matching the process fully qualified name

For example:

process {
    cpus = 4
    withLabel: foo { cpus = 8 }
    withName: bar { cpus = 16 }
    withName: 'baz:bar' { cpus = 32 }
}

With the above configuration:

  • All processes will use 4 cpus (unless otherwise specified in their process definition).

  • Processes annotated with the foo label will use 8 cpus.

  • Any process named bar (or imported as bar) will use 16 cpus.

  • Any process named bar (or imported as bar) invoked by a workflow named baz with use 32 cpus.

Scope report

The report scope allows you to configure the workflow Execution report.

The following settings are available:

report.enabled

If true it create the workflow execution report.

report.file

The path of the created execution report file (default: report-<timestamp>.html).

report.overwrite

When true overwrites any existing report file with the same name.

Scope sarus

The sarus scope controls how Sarus containers are executed by Nextflow.

The following settings are available:

sarus.enabled

Enable Sarus execution (default: false).

sarus.envWhitelist

Comma separated list of environment variable names to be included in the container environment.

sarus.runOptions

This attribute can be used to provide any extra command line options supported by the sarus run command. For details see the Sarus user guide.

sarus.tty

Allocates a pseudo-tty (default: false).

Read the Sarus page to learn more about how to use Sarus containers with Nextflow.

Scope shifter

The shifter scope controls how Shifter containers are executed by Nextflow.

The following settings are available:

shifter.enabled

Enable Shifter execution (default: false).

Read the Shifter page to learn more about how to use Shifter containers with Nextflow.

Scope singularity

The singularity scope controls how Singularity containers are executed by Nextflow.

The following settings are available:

singularity.autoMounts

When true Nextflow automatically mounts host paths in the executed container. It requires the user bind control feature to be enabled in your Singularity installation (default: true).

Changed in version 23.09.0-edge: Default value was changed from false to true.

singularity.cacheDir

The directory where remote Singularity images are stored. When using a computing cluster it must be a shared folder accessible to all compute nodes.

singularity.enabled

Enable Singularity execution (default: false).

singularity.engineOptions

This attribute can be used to provide any option supported by the Singularity engine i.e. singularity [OPTIONS].

singularity.envWhitelist

Comma separated list of environment variable names to be included in the container environment.

singularity.noHttps

Pull the Singularity image with http protocol (default: false).

singularity.ociAutoPull

New in version 23.12.0-edge.

When enabled, OCI (and Docker) container images are pull and converted to a SIF image file format implicitly by the Singularity run command, instead of Nextflow. Requires Singularity 3.11 or later (default: false).

Note

Leave ociAutoPull disabled if willing to build a Singularity native image with Wave (see the wave-singularity section).

singularity.ociMode

New in version 23.12.0-edge.

Enable OCI-mode, that allows running native OCI compliant container image with Singularity using crun or runc as low-level runtime. Note: it requires Singularity 4 or later. See --oci flag in the Singularity documentation for more details and requirements (default: false).

Note

Leave ociMode disabled if you are willing to build a Singularity native image with Wave (see the wave-singularity section).

singularity.pullTimeout

The amount of time the Singularity pull can last, exceeding which the process is terminated (default: 20 min).

singularity.registry

New in version 22.12.0-edge.

The registry from where Docker images are pulled. It should be only used to specify a private registry server. It should NOT include the protocol prefix i.e. http://.

singularity.runOptions

This attribute can be used to provide any extra command line options supported by singularity exec.

Read the Singularity page to learn more about how to use Singularity containers with Nextflow.

Scope spack

The spack scope controls the creation of a Spack environment by the Spack package manager.

The following settings are available:

spack.cacheDir

Defines the path where Spack environments are stored. When using a compute cluster make sure to provide a shared file system path accessible from all compute nodes.

spack.checksum

Enables checksum verification for source tarballs (default: true). Only disable when requesting a package version not yet encoded in the corresponding Spack recipe.

spack.createTimeout

Defines the amount of time the Spack environment creation can last. The creation process is terminated when the timeout is exceeded (default: 60 min).

spack.parallelBuilds

Sets number of parallel package builds (Spack default: coincides with number of available CPU cores).

Nextflow does not allow for fine-grained configuration of the Spack package manager. Instead, this has to be performed directly on the host Spack installation. For more information see the Spack documentation.

Scope timeline

The timeline scope controls the execution timeline report generated by Nextflow.

The following settings are available:

timeline.enabled

When true enables the generation of the timeline report file (default: false).

timeline.file

Timeline file name (default: timeline-<timestamp>.html).

timeline.overwrite

When true overwrites any existing timeline file with the same name.

Scope tower

The tower scope controls the settings for the Seqera Platform (formerly Tower Cloud).

The following settings are available:

tower.accessToken

The unique access token specific to your account on an instance of Seqera Platform.

Your accessToken can be obtained from your Seqera Platform instance in the Tokens page.

tower.enabled

When true Nextflow sends the workflow tracing and execution metrics to Seqera Platform (default: false).

tower.endpoint

The endpoint of your Seqera Platform instance (default: https://api.cloud.seqera.io).

tower.workspaceId

The ID of the Seqera Platform workspace where the run should be added (default: the launching user personal workspace).

The workspace ID can also be specified using the environment variable TOWER_WORKSPACE_ID (config file has priority over the environment variable).

Scope trace

The trace scope controls the layout of the execution trace file generated by Nextflow.

The following settings are available:

trace.enabled

When true turns on the generation of the execution trace report file (default: false).

trace.fields

Comma separated list of fields to be included in the report. The available fields are listed at this page.

trace.file

Trace file name (default: trace-<timestamp>.txt).

trace.overwrite

When true overwrites any existing trace file with the same name.

trace.raw

When true turns on raw number report generation i.e. date and time are reported as milliseconds and memory as number of bytes.

trace.sep

Character used to separate values in each row (default: \t).

The above options can also be specified in a trace block, for example:

trace {
    enabled = true
    file = 'pipeline_trace.txt'
    fields = 'task_id,name,status,exit,realtime,%cpu,rss'
}

Read the Trace report page to learn more about the execution report that can be generated by Nextflow.

Scope wave

The wave scope provides advanced configuration for the use of Wave containers.

The following settings are available:

wave.enabled

Enable/disable the use of Wave containers.

wave.build.repository

The container repository where images built by Wave are uploaded (note: the corresponding credentials must be provided in your Seqera Platform account).

wave.build.cacheRepository

The container repository used to cache image layers built by the Wave service (note: the corresponding credentials must be provided in your Seqera Platform account).

wave.build.conda.basePackages

One or more Conda packages to be always added in the resulting container (default: conda-forge::procps-ng).

wave.build.conda.commands

One or more commands to be added to the Dockerfile used to build a Conda based image.

wave.build.conda.mambaImage

The Mamba container image is used to build Conda based container. This is expected to be micromamba-docker image.

wave.build.spack.basePackages

New in version 22.06.0-edge.

One or more Spack packages to be always added in the resulting container.

wave.build.spack.commands

New in version 22.06.0-edge.

One or more commands to be added to the Dockerfile used to build a Spack based image.

wave.endpoint

The Wave service endpoint (default: https://wave.seqera.io).

wave.freeze

New in version 23.07.0-edge.

Enables Wave container freezing. Wave will provision a non-ephemeral container image that will be pushed to a container repository of your choice. It requires the use of the wave.build.repository setting.

It is also recommended to specify a custom cache repository using wave.build.cacheRepository.

Note

The container repository authentication must be managed by the underlying infrastructure.

wave.httpClient.connectTime

New in version 22.06.0-edge.

Sets the connection timeout duration for the HTTP client connecting to the Wave service (default: 30s).

wave.retryPolicy.delay

New in version 22.06.0-edge.

The initial delay when a failing HTTP request is retried (default: 150ms).

wave.retryPolicy.jitter

New in version 22.06.0-edge.

The jitter factor used to randomly vary retry delays (default: 0.25).

wave.retryPolicy.maxAttempts

New in version 22.06.0-edge.

The max number of attempts a failing HTTP request is retried (default: 5).

wave.retryPolicy.maxDelay

New in version 22.06.0-edge.

The max delay when a failing HTTP request is retried (default: 90 seconds).

wave.strategy

The strategy to be used when resolving ambiguous Wave container requirements (default: 'container,dockerfile,conda,spack').

Scope workflow

The workflow scope provides workflow execution options.

workflow.failOnIgnore

New in version 24.05.0-edge.

When true, the pipeline will exit with a non-zero exit code if any failed tasks are ignored using the ignore error strategy.

Miscellaneous

There are additional variables that can be defined within a configuration file that do not have a dedicated scope.

cleanup

If true, on a successful completion of a run all files in work directory are automatically deleted.

Warning

The use of the cleanup option will prevent the use of the resume feature on subsequent executions of that pipeline run. Also, be aware that deleting all scratch files can take a lot of time, especially when using a shared file system or remote cloud storage.

dumpHashes

If true, dump task hash keys in the log file, for debugging purposes. Equivalent to the -dump-hashes option of the run command.

resume

If true, enable the use of previously cached task executions. Equivalent to the -resume option of the run command.

workDir

Defines the pipeline work directory. Equivalent to the -work-dir option of the run command.

Config profiles

Configuration files can contain the definition of one or more profiles. A profile is a set of configuration attributes that can be selected during pipeline execution by using the -profile command line option.

Configuration profiles are defined by using the special scope profiles, which group the attributes that belong to the same profile using a common prefix. For example:

profiles {

    standard {
        process.executor = 'local'
    }

    cluster {
        process.executor = 'sge'
        process.queue = 'long'
        process.memory = '10GB'
    }

    cloud {
        process.executor = 'cirrus'
        process.container = 'cbcrg/imagex'
        docker.enabled = true
    }

}

This configuration defines three different profiles: standard, cluster, and cloud, that each set different process configuration strategies depending on the target runtime platform. The standard profile is used by default when no profile is specified.

Tip

Multiple configuration profiles can be specified by separating the profile names with a comma, for example:

nextflow run <your script> -profile standard,cloud

Danger

When using the profiles feature in your config file, do NOT set attributes in the same scope both inside and outside a profiles context. For example:

process.cpus = 1

profiles {
  foo {
    process.memory = '2 GB'
  }

  bar {
    process.memory = '4 GB'
  }
}

In the above example, the process.cpus attribute is not correctly applied because the process scope is also used in the foo and bar profiles.

Environment variables

The following environment variables control the configuration of the Nextflow runtime and the underlying Java virtual machine.

NXF_ANSI_LOG

Enables/disables ANSI console output (default true when ANSI terminal is detected).

NXF_ANSI_SUMMARY

Enables/disables ANSI completion summary: true\|false (default: print summary if execution last more than 1 minute).

NXF_ASSETS

Defines the directory where downloaded pipeline repositories are stored (default: $NXF_HOME/assets)

NXF_CACHE_DIR

New in version 24.02.0-edge.

Defines the base cache directory when using the default cache store (default: "$launchDir/.nextflow").

NXF_CHARLIECLOUD_CACHEDIR

Directory where remote Charliecloud images are stored. When using a computing cluster it must be a shared folder accessible from all compute nodes.

NXF_CLASSPATH

Allows the extension of the Java runtime classpath with extra JAR files or class folders.

NXF_CLOUDCACHE_PATH

New in version 23.07.0-edge.

Defines the base cache path when using the cloud cache store.

NXF_CLOUD_DRIVER

Defines the default cloud driver to be used if not specified in the config file or as command line option, either aws or google.

NXF_CONDA_CACHEDIR

Directory where Conda environments are stored. When using a computing cluster it must be a shared folder accessible from all compute nodes.

NXF_CONDA_ENABLED

New in version 22.08.0-edge.

Enable the use of Conda recipes defined by using the conda directive. (default: false).

NXF_DEFAULT_DSL

New in version 22.03.0-edge.

Defines the DSL version that should be used in not specified otherwise in the script of config file (default: 2)

NXF_DISABLE_CHECK_LATEST

New in version 23.09.0-edge.

Nextflow automatically checks for a newer version of itself unless this option is enabled (default: false).

NXF_DISABLE_JOBS_CANCELLATION

New in version 21.12.0-edge.

Disables the cancellation of child jobs on workflow execution termination.

NXF_DISABLE_PARAMS_TYPE_DETECTION

New in version 23.07.0-edge.

Disables the automatic type detection of command line parameters.

NXF_DISABLE_WAVE_SERVICE

New in version 23.08.0-edge.

Disables the requirement for Wave service when enabling the Fusion file system.

NXF_ENABLE_AWS_SES

New in version 23.06.0-edge.

Enable to use of AWS SES native API for sending emails in place of legacy SMTP settings (default: false)

NXF_ENABLE_FS_SYNC

New in version 23.10.0.

When enabled the job script will execute Linux sync command on job completion. This may be useful to synchronize the job state over shared file systems (default: false)

NXF_ENABLE_SECRETS

New in version 21.09.0-edge.

Enable Nextflow secrets features (default: true)

NXF_ENABLE_STRICT

New in version 22.05.0-edge.

Enable Nextflow strict execution mode (default: false)

NXF_ENABLE_VIRTUAL_THREADS

New in version 23.05.0-edge.

Changed in version 23.10.0: Enabled by default when using Java 21 or later.

Enable the use of virtual threads in the Nextflow runtime (default: false)

NXF_EXECUTOR

Defines the default process executor, e.g. sge

NXF_FILE_ROOT

New in version 23.05.0-edge.

The file storage path against which relative file paths are resolved.

For example, with NXF_FILE_ROOT=/some/root/path, the use of file('foo') will be resolved to the absolute path /some/root/path/foo. A remote root path can be specified using the usual protocol prefix, e.g. NXF_FILE_ROOT=s3://my-bucket/data. Files defined using an absolute path are not affected by this setting.

NXF_HOME

Nextflow home directory (default: $HOME/.nextflow).

NXF_JAVA_HOME

Defines the path location of the Java VM installation used to run Nextflow. This variable overrides the JAVA_HOME variable if defined.

NXF_JVM_ARGS

New in version 21.12.1-edge.

Allows the setting Java VM options. This is similar to NXF_OPTS however it’s only applied the JVM running Nextflow and not to any java pre-launching commands.

NXF_LOG_FILE

The filename of the Nextflow log (default: .nextflow.log)

NXF_OFFLINE

When true prevents Nextflow from automatically downloading and updating remote project repositories (default: false).

Changed in version 23.09.0-edge: This option also disables the automatic version check (see NXF_DISABLE_CHECK_LATEST).

Changed in version 23.11.0-edge: This option also prevents plugins from being downloaded. Plugin versions must be specified in offline mode, or else Nextflow will fail.

NXF_OPTS

Provides extra options for the Java and Nextflow runtime. It must be a blank separated list of -Dkey[=value] properties.

NXF_ORG

Default organization prefix when looking for a hosted repository (default: nextflow-io).

NXF_PARAMS_FILE

New in version 20.10.0.

Defines the path location of the pipeline parameters file .

NXF_PID_FILE

Name of the file where the process PID is saved when Nextflow is launched in background.

NXF_PLUGINS_DEFAULT

Whether to use the default plugins when no plugins are specified in the Nextflow configuration (default: true).

NXF_PLUGINS_DIR

The path where the plugin archives are loaded and stored (default: $NXF_HOME/plugins).

NXF_PLUGINS_TEST_REPOSITORY

New in version 23.04.0.

Defines a custom plugin registry or plugin release URL for testing plugins outside of the main registry. See Testing plugins for more information.

NXF_SCM_FILE

New in version 20.10.0.

Defines the path location of the SCM config file .

NXF_SINGULARITY_CACHEDIR

Directory where remote Singularity images are stored. When using a computing cluster it must be a shared folder accessible from all compute nodes.

NXF_SINGULARITY_LIBRARYDIR

New in version 21.09.0-edge.

Directory where remote Singularity images are retrieved. It should be a directory accessible to all compute nodes.

NXF_SPACK_CACHEDIR

Directory where Spack environments are stored. When using a computing cluster it must be a shared folder accessible from all compute nodes.

NXF_SPACK_ENABLED

New in version 23.02.0-edge.

Enable the use of Spack recipes defined by using the spack directive. (default: false).

NXF_TEMP

Directory where temporary files are stored

NXF_TRACE

Enable trace level logging for the specified packages. Equivalent to the -trace command-line option.

NXF_VER

Defines which version of Nextflow to use.

NXF_WORK

Directory where working files are stored (usually your scratch directory)

NXF_WRAPPER_STAGE_FILE_THRESHOLD

New in version 23.05.0-edge.

Defines the minimum size of the .command.run staging script for it to be written to a separate .command.stage file (default: '1 MB').

This setting is useful for executors that impose a size limit on job scripts.

JAVA_HOME

Defines the path location of the Java VM installation used to run Nextflow.

JAVA_CMD

Defines the path location of the Java binary command used to launch Nextflow.

HTTP_PROXY

Defines the HTTP proxy server.

New in version 21.06.0-edge: Proxy authentication is supported by providing the credentials in the proxy URL, e.g. http://user:password@proxy-host.com:port.

HTTPS_PROXY

Defines the HTTPS proxy server.

New in version 21.06.0-edge: Proxy authentication is supported by providing the credentials in the proxy URL, e.g. https://user:password@proxy-host.com:port.

FTP_PROXY

New in version 21.06.0-edge.

Defines the FTP proxy server. Proxy authentication is supported by providing the credentials in the proxy URL, e.g. ftp://user:password@proxy-host.com:port.

NO_PROXY

Defines one or more host names that should not use the proxy server. Separate multiple names using a comma character.

Feature flags

Some features can be enabled using the nextflow.enable and nextflow.preview flags. These flags can be specified in the pipeline script or the configuration file, and they are generally used to introduce experimental or other opt-in features.

nextflow.enable.configProcessNamesValidation

When true, prints a warning for every withName: process selector that doesn’t match a process in the pipeline (default: true).

nextflow.enable.dsl

Defines the DSL version to use (1 or 2).

New in version 22.03.0-edge: DSL2 is the default DSL version.

New in version 22.12.0-edge: DSL1 is no longer supported.

nextflow.enable.moduleBinaries

When true, enables the use of modules with binary scripts. See Module binaries for more information.

nextflow.enable.strict

New in version 22.05.0-edge.

When true, the pipeline is executed in “strict” mode, which introduces the following rules:

  • When reading a params file, Nextflow will fail if a dynamic param value references an undefined variable

  • When merging params from a config file with params from the command line, Nextflow will fail if a param is specified from both sources but with different types

  • When using the join operator, the failOnDuplicate option is true regardless of any user setting

  • When using the join operator, the failOnMismatch option is true (unless remainder is also true) regardless of any user setting

  • When using the publishDir process directive, the failOnError option is true regardless of any user setting

  • In a process definition, Nextflow will fail if an input or output tuple has only one element

  • In a process definition, Nextflow will fail if an output emit name is not a valid identifier (i.e. it should match the pattern /[A-Za-z_][A-Za-z0-9_]*/)

  • During a process execution, Nextflow will fail if a received input tuple does not have the same number of elements as was declared

  • During a process execution, Nextflow will fail if the storeDir directive is used with non-file outputs

  • Nextflow will fail if a pipeline param is referenced before it is defined

  • Nextflow will fail if multiple functions and/or processes with the same name are defined in a module script

nextflow.preview.output

New in version 24.04.0.

Experimental: may change in a future release.

When true, enables the use of the workflow output definition.

nextflow.preview.recursion

New in version 21.11.0-edge.

Experimental: may change in a future release.

When true, enables process and workflow recursion. See this GitHub discussion for more information.

nextflow.preview.topic

New in version 23.11.0-edge.

Experimental: may change in a future release.

When true, enables topic channels feature.