Hi Alan-
Great suggestion and we have a few related ideas in the works. Very soon (a few releases) there will be a new API endpoint in Tulip to allow you to send data to Tulip Machines. This can then be used from Node-RED or any other programming language. After that we will have specific Tulip nodes that make this even easier. Data coming through this endpoint will be available as Machine Attributes and can be used to drive machine state or trigger events from within Apps.
Currently, you can use Connectors to trigger Node-RED flows. If your NR flow has ‘HTTP In’ as a node, you can then create a Connector Function in Tulip to kick things off from an App. To enable this, use the EdgeMC as the ‘Connector Host (Running On)’ when setting up the Connector. We don’t have immediate plans for creating a Tulip Node here, but will certainly consider it!
Are these options in line with what you are thinking?