Install Composer Studio

Composer Studio runs from source. You install its Python backend into a Python environment and build its web editor with npm. You also need a running PDK server; starting the server is covered by the server’s own documentation.

Important

Install Composer Studio on the same computer as the Flexiv PDK server. Its backend reads and writes workcell files directly in the server’s PDK Release Folder, so it cannot work with a server on another computer. See Environment Compatibility.

Note

The flexivpdk version must match the PDK server version. Replace <version> below with the version of the PDK release you are running.

Get the source

git clone https://github.com/flexivrobotics/flexiv_composer_studio.git
cd flexiv_composer_studio

Paths on the rest of this page are relative to this folder.

Install Node.js

The editor needs Node.js 20.19+ or 22.12+ (Environment Compatibility). Ubuntu’s own nodejs package is older than this on both 22.04 and 24.04, so install the current LTS release with nvm:

curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.39.7/install.sh | bash
source ~/.bashrc
nvm install --lts
node --version

Install the Python packages

Composer Studio’s backend needs the flexivpdk package, installed as the Flexiv PDK manual describes (Install for Python), and its own packages.

Create and activate a virtual environment:

python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate

Install flexivpdk and its dependencies from PyPI:
```
pip install "flexivpdk==<version>"
```
Use the version of your Flexiv PDK release, such as 1.0.0.
Install the backend packages: the web server (FastAPI, Uvicorn and others) and flexivrdk, pinned in app/backend/requirements.txt:
```
pip install -r app/backend/requirements.txt
```

Install the editor packages

cd app/frontend
npm install

Do this once after cloning and again after each update. run_app.sh builds the editor but does not install its packages.

Check the installation

With the virtual environment active:

python -c "import flexiv.pdk, flexivrdk; print('flexiv.pdk and flexivrdk OK')"
pdk-scene --help

pdk-scene is the PDK’s command-line tool. It is installed with flexivpdk and is useful alongside Composer Studio, for example to check what the server holds.

Next, start Composer Studio: Launch Composer Studio.