Sequence Console

Sequence® is a collection of applications and connectors that automate e-discovery and forensic workflows using the Sequence Configuration Language (SCL).

Sequence Console provides functionality to run SCL and explore the available connectors from the command-line.

Sequence includes:

• Core which is:
  • An interpreter for the Sequence Configuration Language
  • A collection of application-independent steps that:
    • Control flow, e.g. If, ForEach, While
    • Manipulate strings, e.g. Append, Concatenate, ChangeCase
    • Enforce data standards and convert between various formats through the use of Schemas
    • Create and manipulate entities (structured data)
• Connectors that interact with various applications, e.g SQL, PowerShell, Nuix, StructuredData
  • Included with Sequence Console is a connector manager
  • For a full list of available connectors
    • Please see the Connector Registry
    • Or check out the steps documentation

Download

https://sequence.sh/download

Quick Start

1. Download the latest release here
2. Unzip the file and open a shell (cmd, pwsh, powershell) of your choice in that directory
3. Run sequence run scl "Print 'Hello world'"
4. That's it, now for something a bit more useful:
   • Quick Start
   • Connector Examples

Try SCL and Core in your browser

https://sequence.sh/playground

Running SCL

To run a Sequence from a file:

PS > ./sequence run ./Examples/core-sequence.scl

From the command line:

PS > ./sequence run scl "- <version> = GetApplicationVersion `n- Print <version>"

Help

To display the available commands and parameters when running Sequence, use the --help or -h argument:

PS > ./sequence --help

To see a list of all the Steps available, use the steps command:

PS > ./sequence steps

# To filter by name or connector, pass a regular expression as the first argument
PS > ./sequence steps file

Sequence Configuration Language

Workflows in Sequence are defined using a custom configuration language. SCL is designed to be powerful yet easy to pick-up and use. A quick introduction to the language and its features can be found in the documentation.

Here is SCL to remove duplicate rows from a CSV file:

- FileRead 'C:\temp\data.csv'
| FromCSV
| ArrayDistinct <entity>
| ToCSV
| FileWrite 'C:\temp\data-NoDuplicates.csv'

Steps and Sequences

A step is a unit of work in an application such as creating a case, ingesting data, searching or exporting data.

A sequence is a series of steps that are executed in order. Sequence allows for data and configuration to be passed between steps.

Connectors

Sequence uses a connector system to extend functionality to various applications.

By default, Sequence comes with the FileSystem and StructuredData connectors. All the available connectors can be seen in the Connector Registry.

To manage connectors, use the connector command:

PS > ./sequence connector

# To list the connectors currently installed, use list
PS > ./sequence connector list

# To list all the connectors available in the registry, use find
PS > ./sequence connector find

# To install a connector, use add
PS > ./sequence connector add Sequence.Connectors.Sql

# It's also possible to use a search string to add or update connectors
PS > ./sequence connector add Sql

# To update a connector, use update
PS > ./sequence connector update Sequence.Connectors.Sql

Injecting Variables

You can inject variables from the CLI into SCL.

PS > ./sequence run scl "log <a> + <b>" --variable "<a> = 1" -v "<b> = 2"

VSCode Plugin

To make SCL easier to use, a Visual Studio Code SCL plugin is available that supports syntax highlighting, code completion for steps and parameters, and error diagnostics.

Search for SCL or reductech in the VS Code extensions window to install.

Documentation

Documentation is available at https://sequence.sh

For details on how to setup various logging targets, including JSON and Elastic, see the logging section of the documentation.

Settings

Settings can be controlled in the appsettings.json file.

Setting	Type	Description
LogAnalytics	bool	If true, information about steps used and step durations will be logged.
PerformanceMonitoring	object	Controls performance monitoring. Only available on Windows. See below for more information
nlog	object	Controls logging settings. See documentation for more information.

Performance Monitoring

Performance Monitoring is controlled by the PerformanceMonitoring configuration section. It is only available when running on Windows.

It has the following properties:

Setting	Type	Description
Enable	bool	Whether performance monitoring is enabled.
MeasurementIntervalMs	int	How frequently the performance is measured.
LoggingIntervalMs	int	How frequently the performance is logged.
Categories	object	Performance categories to log. Information about performance categories can be found here.
MeasureAllCategories	bool	Whether all performance categories should be logged.

The following is an example of the PerformanceMonitoring section:

  "PerformanceMonitoring": {
    "Enable": true,
    "MeasurementIntervalMs": 100,
    "LoggingIntervalMs": 10000,
    "MeasureAllCategories": false,

    "Categories": {
      "Process": [
        "% Processor Time",
        "Working Set"
      ]
    }
  },

OS Compatibility

Sequence is compatible with any OS supported by .NET 6.

However, we're currently only targeting the win10-x64 runtime for our releases.

For other OSes, please build from source.