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Version: 0.18.0

AskUI Runner

The AskUI Runner is a self-hosted component that downloads your workflows from AskUI Studio and runs them on the device it is hosted at. Internally it uses the AskUI SDK which connects to the AskUI Controller.

If you want to execute your workflows defined in AskUI Studio in your own environment instead of with AskUI hosted runners, this page will help you to set it up.

Architecture drawing how the AskUI Runner fits into AskUI Studio, AskUI SDK and AskUI Controller. The AskUI Runner fetches Workflows from AskUI Studio and uploads the results back to it. The Runner uses the AskUI SDK which passes the instructions from the workflow steps to the AskUI Controller.

Windows​

Requirements​

AskUI-StartRunner Command​

The AskUI-StartRunner command starts the AskUI Runner. This function accepts the following parameters:

  • Token: Specifies the AskUI token to be used for the runner. If not specified, the token from the AskUI settings is used.
  • WorkspaceId: Specifies the AskUI workspace ID to be used for the runner. If not specified, the workspace ID from the AskUI settings is used.
  • Port: Port of the web socket port server to connect via the runner-protocol. (Default: 6769)
  • WebSocketHost: Host of the web socket server to connect via the runner-protocol. (Default: 127.0.0.1)
  • ForceProjectTemplateUpdate: Specifies whether to force the update of the project template. This is helpful for debugging.
  • LogLevel: Specifies the AskUI Runner log level. Available values are: 'INFO', 'DEBUG', 'WARNING', 'ERROR', 'CRITICAL'. The default is 'INFO'.
  • Tags: Specifies the tags to be set in the AskUI runner configuration.

Linux and macOS​

For Linux and macOS we do not provide an Installer yet. Thus you have to install the AskUI Runner from source (GitHub-Repository).

Requirements​

  • Python 3.10 or higher
  • Node.js 16 or higher

Installation​

We recommend using a virtual environment for Python. Make sure python --version returns 3.10 or higher:

python -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate

We have not yet published the AskUI Runner to PyPI. For now, you can install it directly from GitHub:

pip install git+https://github.com/askui/askui-runner.git

Currently, the standard logging output of the AskUI runner is minimal - we are soon going to change that. But you should see the runner starting the running of workflows as soon as you schedule some runs through the AskUI Studio.

Usage​

Create a configuration file (.y{a}ml or .json) in a directory of your choosing. The configuration file should contain at least some credentials and the command with which you start the runner without the configuration file flag:

credentials:
  workspace_id: <workspace id> # replace with your workspace id
  access_token: <access token> # replace with your access token
runner:
  exec: python -m askui_runner # update if your command is different
  tags: [<tag 1>, <tag 2>, ..] # replace with your own runner tags

See Generating up-to-date Configuration Schema

Start the runner using

python -m askui_runner -c <path to your configuration file, e.g., askui-runner.config.yaml>

Start AskUI Controller​

If you want to run your workflows on the same system as the runner you need to start an AskUI Controller that listens on port 6769. Please download the one for your operating system and start it:

info

macOS After installation to Applications remove the quarantine flag with the following command run from a terminal: xattr -d com.apple.quarantine /Applications/askui-ui-controller.app

Execute Workflows on a Remote System: Change AskUI Controller URL​

You can change the AskUI Controller-URL so the runner can talk to a AskUI Controller that runs on a remote machine or on a different port:

...
runner:
  ...
  controller:
    host: "127.0.0.1"
    port: 7000

Running a workflow​

Go back to AskUI Studio and access the workflow you intend to execute. Head over to the Run tab located in the right sidebar and choose New Run. In the pop-up window that appears next, select Self-hosted and input one or more of the tags you previously included in the runner configuration file.

Generating up-to-date Configuration Schema​

Requirements:

  • PDM 2.8 or higher for contributing and creating the JSON schema of the configuration

Find out about all configuration options by taking a look at the JSON schema of the configuration. You can generate an up-to-date JSON schema by cloning this repository and running the following commands.

## Install and initialize pdm
pip install pdm
pdm install

pdm run python -m scripts.generate_config_schema_json