Demo Profile¶

The default ThingsFlow chart installs a minimal platform: control plane, native NATS data plane, ThingsBoard UI compatibility console, and storage. It does not create sample devices or run telemetry generators.

Use the demo profile when you want the ThingsBoard-compatible UI to show populated classic dashboards immediately.

Local demo (compose)¶

The same demo dataset and simulator run on the local compose stack. From the repository root:

THINGSFLOW_LOAD_DEMO=true docker compose -f docker/docker-compose-nats.yml --profile demo up -d

THINGSFLOW_LOAD_DEMO=true mirrors flowCore.loadDemo: the dataset seed is flow-core-side and idempotent — setting the flag on any boot seeds it, and it self-heals partial seeds. A fresh install is not required: recreating only flow-core with the flag on an already-running stack seeds the same dataset:

THINGSFLOW_LOAD_DEMO=true docker compose -f docker/docker-compose-nats.yml up -d flow-core

--profile demo adds the demo-simulator service, which logs in as the tenant and publishes MQTT telemetry for all 18 seeded devices every few seconds.

Open the UI at http://localhost:3001 and log in as tenant@thingsboard.org / tenant, or as the seeded customer user customer@thingsboard.org / customer. Within roughly 30–60 seconds of the simulator starting, Thermostats, SCADA Process Demo, and Smart Building Office Demo show live data (thermostat temperature/humidity/HVAC state, pump/valve/tank process values, office IAQ and occupancy). Firmware and Software are OTA management dashboards — they list devices and firmware/software update state rather than streaming telemetry.

Note that the compose stack is ephemeral: Postgres has no named volume, so docker compose -f docker/docker-compose-nats.yml down discards all platform state. The next boot with the flag reseeds from scratch.

To stop the demo stack:

docker compose -f docker/docker-compose-nats.yml --profile demo down

What It Enables¶

k8s/helm/thingsflow/values-demo.yaml sets:

flowCore:
  loadDemo: true

demoSimulator:
  enabled: true

flowCore.loadDemo seeds the default tenant with the demo customer, demo asset, classic demo devices, credentials, relations, OTA examples, and demo dashboard dependencies.

demoSimulator.enabled runs a small MQTT simulator that publishes telemetry for the seeded devices through RMQTT and NATS. Flow Core still remains the control plane; telemetry flows through the independent data plane.

Install¶

helm upgrade --install thingsflow k8s/helm/thingsflow \
  -n thingsflow --create-namespace \
  -f k8s/helm/thingsflow/values-demo.yaml

For a private pilot cluster, put registry mirrors, hosts, TLS, and load balancer settings in a separate private values file and pass it after the public demo file:

helm upgrade --install thingsflow k8s/helm/thingsflow \
  -n thingsflow --create-namespace \
  -f k8s/helm/thingsflow/values-demo.yaml \
  -f path/to/private-cluster-values.yaml

Expected UI Demos¶

The UI should list and load these dashboards with live data:

Thermostats
SCADA Process Demo
Smart Building Office Demo
Firmware
Software

The demo profile seeds 18 devices and the Demo Building asset. Device telemetry is produced continuously by the simulator and materialized into GreptimeDB plus NATS KV latest/twin hot state for dashboard compatibility.

Verify¶

Run:

tools/verify-demo-profile.sh thingsflow

If your Helm release name is not thingsflow, set RELEASE:

RELEASE=my-release tools/verify-demo-profile.sh my-namespace

The verifier checks:

demo dashboards exist;
18 demo devices exist;
Demo Building exists;
18 relations from Demo Building exist;
every demo device has latest telemetry keys;
demo-simulator is running.

Notes¶

The demo profile is for evaluation, demos, and pilot validation. Production installs should decide explicitly whether seeded data and a simulator are appropriate.