sekvenco

Sekvenco is an open-source framework designed for building, validating, and executing sequence-based workflows. It emphasizes the orderly processing of sequential data and tasks that must be performed in a defined order. The project aims to provide a declarative approach to pipeline design, enabling reproducible and auditable computation across diverse domains such as bioinformatics, data engineering, and media processing. The name combines elements from 'sekvens' (sequence) and 'enco' (encoding).

The core of Sekvenco is a runtime engine and a domain-specific language (DSL) that lets users define pipelines as graphs of sequential steps. Components are modular and discoverable through a plugin system; steps can be implemented in multiple languages and wrapped as tasks. It supports streaming and batch processing, lazy evaluation, parallel execution, and robust error handling with automatic retry and checkpointing. It provides data provenance, versioned pipelines, and contract-based typing to enforce interfaces between steps.

Sekvenco originated as an open-source project in the late 2010s, developed by a consortium of researchers and engineers seeking reproducibility and portability in workflow design. Governance follows an open-model with community maintainers, annual roadmaps, and a lightweight PR-based release process. It integrates with containers (Docker) and orchestration systems (Kubernetes) to run pipelines in cloud or on-premises environments.

Use cases include large-scale genomics pipelines, ETL tasks for data lakes, and media processing workflows that require strict sequencing and reproducibility. The ecosystem includes components such as Sekvenco Studio, an optional graphical editor, and a marketplace of ready-to-run steps. Adoption remains modest relative to older workflow systems, but it is growing in academia and industry.

Criticism centers on the learning curve, limited adoption compared to entrenched tools, and concerns about interoperability with other workflow standards.