New Developer Toolkit Packages: fw-gear and fw-curation
Overview
Flywheel is introducing two new Python packages designed to simplify and streamline development workflows for the Flywheel platform:
- fw-gear: A modern toolkit for developing Flywheel gears with standardized interfaces and improved developer experience
- fw-curation: A library for performing bulk curation operations across the Flywheel hierarchy with built-in support for parallel processing
These packages represent the next generation of Flywheel's developer tools, offering more intuitive APIs, better documentation, and enhanced functionality.
fw-gear: Modern Gear Development
The fw-gear package is the successor to flywheel-gear-toolkit and provides a streamlined framework for creating Flywheel gears.
Key Features:
- Simplified context management for accessing gear inputs, outputs, and configuration
- Standardized interfaces that reduce boilerplate code
- Better integration with the Flywheel SDK
- Modern Python package structure with optional dependencies
- Comprehensive documentation and examples
Requirements: Python 3.8 or higher
Getting Started:
Learn More: fw-gear Documentation
fw-curation: Efficient Data Curation
The fw-curation package simplifies bulk curation tasks on the Flywheel hierarchy, providing tools for data managers and developers who need to perform operations across multiple projects, subjects, sessions, and acquisitions.
Key Features:
- Configurable hierarchy traversal with the Walker module
- Built-in multiprocessing support for handling large-scale operations
- Extensible curator classes for custom curation logic
- Integrated reporting to track progress and results
- Reduced boilerplate for common curation patterns
Requirements: Python 3.10 or higher
Getting Started:
Learn More: fw-curation Documentation
Migration from flywheel-gear-toolkit and flywheel-gear-toolkit support
If you are currently using flywheel-gear-toolkit, we recommend migrating to fw-gear for new gear development. The new package offers improved APIs and better documentation. See the fw-gear documentation for migration guidance.
Flywheel will continue to support flywheel-gear-toolkit until Dec 31, 2026, but no new features will be added. We encourage developers to transition to fw-gear to take advantage of the latest improvements.