DEV3 Cogvane – Self-Hosted Workflow Automation with Visual Flow Editor, Safe HTTP Requests & Encrypted Vault (Next.js)

Cogvane is a workflow automation platform that you host yourself, built by DEV3 Technologies on Next.js 16, React 19, TypeScript, Tailwind 4 and MongoDB, with a separate Node worker that executes runs. Each customer gets a workspace. In a workspace people draw flows on a canvas: a trigger, then action, transform, condition, loop and wait nodes. They publish a version, and the worker runs it with retries, limits and a full history. You, the operator, sell plans to workspaces and watch the whole platform from an operator panel. The demo shows fictional workspaces such as an outdoor-gear retailer, a dental group and a design studio.

No live demo: 98 grouped screenshots and two video tours show the marketing site, the canvas, runs, the vault, hosted forms, settings and the operator panel. Install it with the demo data to try every role on your own server. This product is a web application: there are no mobile apps.

For people who build flows

• A visual flow editor on a dotted canvas with a searchable palette of 37 nodes, an inspector with params, retry and error tabs, undo and redo, auto-layout, a minimap and live validation. Flows are saved with optimistic concurrency and an edit lock so two people do not overwrite each other.
• Triggers: a webhook (methods, header, HMAC or signed-URL authentication, idempotency keys, an answer from the last node), a schedule (cron or every N minutes, in the flow's time zone, with catch-up), a hosted form with 12 field types, and manual or API starts.
• Nodes: HTTP request, send email (to an outbox until you set up SMTP), respond to webhook, store data, wait, sub-flow, If, Switch, Merge, Loop, filter, sort, aggregate, split, map, date, text and JSON helpers, CSV parse and build, and five simulated app nodes that show how a connector is wired.
• A sandboxed formula language: a fixed list of 50 functions, usable as transforms, with autocomplete and a live preview in the editor. It is not JavaScript and there is no code node, so a flow cannot run arbitrary code on your server.
• Test runs that use the draft, show every step and its JSON, and never send real email; versions with a diff and one-click rollback; import and export as JSON with credentials by name only; and 24 templates.

Runs, retries and history

• Every run keeps its steps, durations, inputs and outputs (previews are redacted). Retry a run, retry from the failed step, or cancel it. Waits, retry delays and sub-flow polling are stored jobs, so they survive a restart.
• A retry policy per node (fixed or exponential backoff, honouring Retry-After), error routes, a flow-level error flow and outgoing webhooks for run.failed, run.succeeded and flow.published.
• A dashboard with runs today, success rate, operations used, failing flows, a Run Ribbon (one tick per run for the busiest flows over 24 hours), queue depth and failures by node.

Safe by design

• SafeFetch: every outbound request resolves the host once, refuses private, loopback, link-local, carrier-grade NAT, reserved and cloud-metadata addresses, pins the checked address for the connection, re-checks every redirect, ignores proxy variables and caps body size and time. The operator can allow private targets, and a workspace can add allow-list rules, but metadata addresses can never be allowed.
• Vault: credentials are encrypted with AES-256-GCM, bound to workspace, credential and version, shown by name only, and redacted from previews, logs and errors. Key rotation is a command.
• Tenant isolation is enforced in the data layer: every query is scoped to a workspace, and a test fails the build if one is not.
• Plans meter runs and operations with no overshoot even under a parallel burst.

For you, the operator

• An operator panel with revenue and plan mix, runs per day, worker health and heartbeats, workspaces with usage meters and suspend, a platform audit log, network policy, plans, the email outbox and read-only support access.
• Plans, simulated checkout, invoices and a scoped REST API with OpenAPI documentation.
• An installer wizard, demo data and a cogvane:check command that reconciles usage, leases, graph hashes and the vault.

What you get

The complete Next.js source with the shared DEV3 core vendored, a worker, scripts for scheduled jobs, Documentation/index.html (install, pm2 and systemd units, limits, API, formula reference), START-HERE.txt and LICENSE.txt. Support is included for 6 months.

Good to know

• Connectors are generic in version 1.0: an HTTP request node, webhook and form triggers, and an email node that writes to the outbox. There is no marketplace of third-party apps; build them as HTTP nodes. The five app nodes are simulated and only talk to a built-in mock host.
• The demo makes no real third-party calls. In demo mode only the in-process mock host is reachable. In production, real requests go to public addresses only; private networks, loopback addresses and cloud metadata are blocked, and an operator allow-list exists for intranet targets. Ports 80, 443, 8080 and 8443 unless a rule adds more.
• Expressions are a sandboxed formula language with a fixed 50-function list, not JavaScript. There is no code node and no AI node in this release.
• A separate worker process must keep running (pm2 or systemd; units are in the documentation). Per-run caps: 200 node executions (100 on Starter), 25 loop iterations per loop node, 500 looped items in total, 5 MB of data (1 MB on Starter), 10 minutes of wall time (2 on Starter, 5 on Team) and waits of up to 30 days. Caps can be lowered, not raised beyond these hard limits.
• Branches run one after another inside a run, and execution is at-least-once per node after a worker crash.
• Email goes to the outbox until you configure SMTP. Payments are simulated by default; run your own sandbox payments first.
• MongoDB 6 or newer (a single node works, a replica set is recommended). No Redis. It is sized for thousands of runs per hour per worker, not for a high-throughput event bus.
• Back up your vault key (COGVANE_VAULT_KEY, or never change APP_SECRET if the key is derived from it): credentials cannot be recovered without it.
• Rate limits for hooks and forms are kept per server process. The shortest schedule interval is 15 minutes on Starter, 5 on Team and 1 on Business. Step and payload history is kept 7, 30 or 90 days by plan; run summaries 365 days.
• Name: Cogvane is a working name checked by a web search only, not a trademark clearance.
• No hosted demo. All workspaces, people and data in the screenshots are fictional.

Quality checks

Cogvane 1.0.0 passed the seven checks of the DEV3 Next.js suite on the final code: type-checking and linting (0 errors), 585 app tests and 49 core tests (including 96 expression attack vectors and real-socket tests of the address guard), a production build of 77 routes with 206.2 KB of gzipped first-load JavaScript and CSS on the home page, seeding of the empty and demo datasets, a headless-browser pass over 56 routes and 16 happy paths with a real worker process (including 20 parallel webhooks with one idempotency key, two parallel publishes, a double retry and cancel against finish, all over HTTP), an install test from the packaged zip and a secret scan. Lighthouse on the home page, mobile: performance 95, accessibility 100.