Viash: A meta-framework for building reusable workflow modules

Abstract

Most bioinformatics workflows consist of software components that are tightly coupled to the logic of the workflow itself. This limits reusability of the individual components in the workflow or introduces maintenance overhead when they need to be reimplemented in multiple workflows. We introduce Viash, a tool for speeding up development of robust workflows through “code-first” prototyping, separation of concerns and code generation of modular workflow components. By decoupling the component functionality from the workflow logic, component functionality becomes fully workflow-agnostic, and conversely the resulting workflows are agnostic towards specific component requirements. This separation of concerns improves reusability of components and facilitates multidisciplinary and pan-organisational collaborations. It has been applied in a variety of projects, from proof-of-concept workflows to supporting an international data science competition. Viash is available as an open-source project at github.com/viash-io/viash and documentation is available at viash.io