# Brittle flows or is it the visual paradigm?

**URL:** <https://discourse.nodered.org/t/brittle-flows-or-is-it-the-visual-paradigm/100911>\
**Category:** Core Development\
**Created:** [5 May 2026 10:01 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/brittle-flows-or-is-it-the-visual-paradigm/100911 "2026-05-05T10:01:05Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 17

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**Author:** ![Steve-Mcl](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/steve-mcl/32/4826_2.png) [@Steve-Mcl](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/Steve-Mcl)\
**Post date:** [5 May 2026 19:43 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/brittle-flows-or-is-it-the-visual-paradigm/100911/17 "2026-05-05T19:43:16Z")

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> [@gregorius](#):
>
> Steve talked about his flow being less brittle by having this added possibility inside the function node. The [example he gave](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/node-red-5-0-0-beta-6-available/100878/58) was this image:
> 
> ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/uploads/nodered/original/3X/2/2/224172c14a18a2a1e315d084de4ab8c52cf66b1b.png)
> 
> That made me think: I don't see that as particularly "brittle" or confusing, in fact, it seems to me to be a normal "complex" flow in NR. The core comparison are the two groups on the left side (see below).

I _think_ you are missing one important aspect of this.

The demo flow i supplied works with the `node.linkcall` (the `/ai1` flow) - it does not work with visual flows (the `/ai2 flow` is an an outline only)

The brittle part is how I solved `/ai2` flow.

> [@tada Node-RED 5.0.0 Beta 6 available](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/node-red-5-0-0-beta-6-available/100878/58):
>
> Note again for clarity, I have solved this already (running on Node-RED v4 without `node.linkcall`) but it is a drag, its brittle, opaque, hard to follow & is my own implementation - so I am genuinely interested to see how others would approach this in a visual/wired way

If you were to load import the flow, you would see there is there is a working Agent on `/ai1` (sans the AI/LLM - its just a langgraph with random tool choices). As I stated several times, in this instance (and others I have encountered), I had to do non-visual hacks (don't wanna give too many clues how I did it) to make things work due to the state machine that is imposed by the npm package (I have no choice here). That (amongst many requests to support reusable logic) was what led me to raise the whole topic and write support in core.

I really am truly interested to see how someone (other than myself) would solve this (the `/ai2` flow) using standard wiring and without context hopping

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