Protos Docs¶
Protos is Aris Machina's AI-native R&D workspace for designing and industrializing complex physical systems. It connects first-principles models, experiments, and institutional knowledge into a single, traceable environment — from concept through manufacturing handoff.
On This Page¶
Getting Started¶
The Co-engineer can help throughout your workflow. It can create schemas, populate data documents, build canvases, and search the Knowledge Library — all from a chat. Use it as much or as little as you like alongside the features directly.
- Sign in at protos.arismachina.com with your Aris Machina account.
- Create or open a Project.
- Upload your reference material to the Knowledge Library — the Co-engineer draws on this for every task.
- Open the Co-engineer and describe your project. It will set up schemas, create data documents, and guide you through the workflow.
- Review and refine what it creates in the Data Studio and Schemas pages.
- Build or run simulations in Simulation Studio.
- Register external models in the Model Library if you have your own simulation code.
Project Overview¶
A Project is your central workspace in Protos. It brings together all artifacts related to a design or R&D campaign — designs, test data, simulations, models, and decisions — in a single, connected canvas.
Key Concepts¶
| Concept | Description |
|---|---|
| Canvas | A graph of connected blocks (parameters, inputs, calculations, models, visualizations). Data flows through the chain automatically. |
| Traceability | Field values created by the Co-engineer link back to the Knowledge Library source they came from. |
| PSPP | The reasoning framework underlying Protos: Process → Structure → Property → Performance. |
Creating a Project¶
- Click New Project from the dashboard.
- Name it:
Domain / Product / Campaign - Example:
Battery / Anode / Q2 Optimization - Example:
Thermal / Cell Pack / Thermal Runaway Study - Add a description: goal, scope, key constraints.
- Invite collaborators and set their access level.
Navigating the Canvas¶
| Action | How |
|---|---|
| Zoom in/out | Scroll or pinch — inspect blocks or see the full picture |
| Open a block | Click it to view its properties, inputs, and results |
| Filter | Filter bar: parameter, input, calculation, model, or visualization |
| Search | Search across all blocks by name |
Features at a Glance¶
Data Studio¶
Your workbench for managing and comparing design data before running a simulation. Pick a schema, select which data documents to activate, and the canvas picks them up automatically. Includes side-by-side comparison, inline editing, and charting across document variants.
Schemas¶
Define the structure of your engineering data. Instead of disconnected spreadsheets, schemas give every artifact a consistent, queryable shape — reusable across all projects and connectable to external tools.
What you can schema: designs, test data, model parameterizations, operating conditions, and data extracted from external files via the Co-engineer.
Simulation Studio¶
Build and run calculation canvases — connect your data to models and calculations, and see results update automatically. Supports Python calculations, external models, parameter sweeps, and in-canvas visualization.
Model Library¶
A registry of all computational models in your workspace — physics models, ML models, kinetic models, and custom scripts. Register once, reuse across any project, with full version history.
Knowledge Library¶
Protos's institutional memory. Every decision, data point, and reference is captured and linked to the design artifacts that used it — so nothing is lost between projects or team members.
What lives here: academic papers, internal reports, decisions and rationale, experimental results, AI-surfaced connections.
Co-engineer¶
An AI assistant available across all features. It accelerates work by structuring data, configuring simulations, and surfacing connections that would otherwise take hours to find manually — always with traceable sources.
Collaboration & Sharing¶
Share canvases with teammates (view-only for non-owners) or publish them as interactive snapshots for external stakeholders — no Protos account required.
→ Collaboration & Sharing guide
Integrations¶
| System | What Protos does |
|---|---|
| SharePoint / OneDrive | Browse and import files into the Co-engineer for data extraction |
| GitHub | Register computational models (Python, scripts) from a repo into the Model Library |
Note: GitHub is for model registration only — not for importing data into schemas. See Model Library for details.
Glossary Quick Reference¶
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Canvas | The visual graph workspace connecting all project nodes |
| Design freeze | The point at which a validated design is locked for handoff — achieved in Protos by publishing a canvas snapshot |
| Node | A block on the canvas — parameter, input, calculation, model, or visualization |
| PSPP | Process → Structure → Property → Performance |
| Schema | A defined structure for a type of engineering data |
| Sweep | A batch simulation run across a parameter space |
| TRL | Technology Readiness Level — Protos is optimized for TRL 0–3 |
| Trace | The ability to follow any value back to its original source |
Maintained by Aris Machina