Extract text from Nextflow scripts (NF)
To convert NF scripts to another format, you need Nextflow or other Developer software.
To convert other file formats to the "Workflow Script" file type, you need software like Nextflow or a similar tool.
A .nf file is a data analysis pipeline script used by the Nextflow workflow system. These files are written in a Domain Specific Language (DSL) based on Groovy, allowing researchers and bioinformaticians to create scalable, reproducible scientific workflows. To execute a .nf file, you need a POSIX-compatible system (Linux or macOS) with Java and the Nextflow runtime installed.
Because these scripts are highly specialized, non-developers often struggle to read or interact with them. They are completely useless without the proper runtime environment and require specific technical knowledge to edit. Users frequently need to convert or extract the contents of .nf files for documentation, code review, or auditing purposes. The most pragmatic conversion targets are plain text formats like TXT, MD (Markdown), or SH (Shell Script). Attempting to convert a .nf file into alternative workflow languages, such as CWL (Common Workflow Language) or WDL, is practically impossible using automated tools due to differing architectural paradigms.
Because .nf is fundamentally a complex orchestration script, only the original Nextflow engine can actually run the data. Standard online converters fail because they try to process it as a generic document. Just drag and drop your file into convert.guru to identify the format, view the internal code, and convert it when possible. If our analysis detects a supported text encoding, viewing the pipeline logic or converting it to a readable text format is fast and simple.
Convert.Guru analyzes your NF file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
Users also converted NF1, NFF, KS, GMS, GSE, F and MF files.
If you want to convert NF file to F, MF, CSV, JSON, XML, YAML, YML, TOML, INI, CFG, CONF or DAT, you can use Nextflow or similar software from the "Data Analysis Pipeline Script" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert DBF, XML, SQLITE, XLSX, SQL, TSV, ACCDB, YAML, MDB, CSV, ODS or JSON files to NF, try Nextflow or another comparable tool in the "Data Analysis Pipeline Script" category.
The history of Convert.Guru began over 25 years ago in California with Tom Simondi’s file-format database. A former contributor to Space Shuttle development and a software pioneer of the 1980s, Simondi established a trusted resource for file type analysis that was even referenced by Microsoft Windows XP. Today, we use modern technology to process and convert thousands of file formats while continually improving our NF converter.