CLI Reference

The moldo command is installed alongside the Python package and gives you two capabilities: compiling exported flow JSON to Python source code and starting the backend API server.

Compile a flow to Python

Take a .json file exported from mflow-editor and turn it into a runnable Python script.

Positional form - print to stdout

moldo myprogram.json

Flag form - same result

moldo -c myprogram.json

Write to a file with -o

moldo -c myprogram.json -o myprogram.py
python myprogram.py

Both -c and the positional form accept the same file. Use whichever feels more natural.

How export works

Inside mflow-editor, use File > Export (or the export button in the toolbar). This saves a .json file that captures the full flow graph. Pass that file directly to moldo.

The CLI reads the flowObject section of the exported JSON, walks the node graph using an iterative depth-first search, and emits equivalent Python code.

What gets generated

Flow node type	Generated Python
Declaration	`variable = default_value`
Input	`variable = int(input("prompt"))`
Output	`print("message")` or `print(f"message {var}")`
Loop	`for _loop_i in range(N):`
Decision	`if condition:` / `elif condition:`
Community block	`import module` + `result = module.function(args)`

Example

Given this flow: declare x = 0, prompt the user for x, print "You entered {x}".

moldo prompt-demo.json

Output:

x = 0
x = int(input("Enter a number"))
print(f"You entered {x}")

Debug output

compile_flow always prints the incoming JSON and the generated Python to stdout so you can verify both sides:

=== INPUT JSON ===
{ ... }

=== GENERATED PYTHON ===
x = 0
...

When you use -o to write to a file, the debug output still appears in the terminal and the clean Python is written to the file.

Start the API server

moldo --serve

Optional flags:

Flag	Default	Description
`--host`	`127.0.0.1`	Address to bind to
`--port`	`8000`	Port to listen on
`--reload`	off	Auto-restart on source changes

moldo --serve --port 8001 --reload

Using the Python API directly

If you want to call compile_flow from your own script instead of the CLI, see the Runtime API page.