Glossary
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Definitions for terms used throughout the Protos platform and this wiki. Terms are listed alphabetically.
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Canvas | The visual graph workspace in a Protos project, where all nodes are connected and displayed. See Home → Project Overview. |
| Co-Engineer | The AI assistant embedded across all Protos features — authors schemas and data documents, surfaces knowledge, and recommends model configurations. Always traces its sources. See Co-Engineer. |
| Community | A group of people you share with in Protos, together with its members and team structure. Resources stay owned by whoever created them; sharing into a community is what gives its members access. You can belong to several at once. See Collaboration & Sharing. |
| Design freeze | A concept in the PSPP framework referring to the point at which a validated design is locked for manufacturing handoff. In Protos, this is achieved by publishing a canvas snapshot. |
| Design space | The range of possible parameter combinations for a design, explored via sweeps in Simulation Studio. |
| DOE (Design of Experiments) | Choosing which experiments to run so a limited budget of runs buys the most information. In Protos it is a loop: each round's results decide the next round's experiments. See Design of Experiments. |
| KPI | In a DOE loop, a field the loop is chasing. It tries to move the KPI toward a target, taken from the requirement document or stated when the loop is set up. |
| Lever | In a DOE loop, a field the loop may vary. It chooses values for each lever within a range, taken from the schema or set on the loop, and the range can be widened later. |
| Node | A block on the canvas. Node types are: parameter, data input, calculation, model, and visualization. They are connected by arrows that define the data flow. |
| PSPP | Process → Structure → Property → Performance. The reasoning framework underlying Protos — used to trace how manufacturing choices propagate through to physical outcomes. |
| Ref node | A schema field type (shown as "Ref" in the editor) that links one schema entry to another, creating relational structure across engineering data. See Schemas → Using Reference Fields. |
| Round | One batch of experiments in a DOE loop — recommended together, run together, and used together to plan the next batch. |
| Schema | A defined structure for a type of engineering data in Protos (e.g. a test result schema, a design parameter schema). See Schemas. |
| Sweep | A single run that varies one or more parameters across a range and returns an output surface. See Simulation Studio → Sweep. |
| TRL | Technology Readiness Level. Protos is optimized for TRL 0–3 — the early R&D phase where first-principles reasoning and traceability are most critical. |
| Trace | The ability to follow any value in Protos back through its chain of sources to the original reference, experiment, or decision. See Knowledge Library → Traceability. |
| Version | A snapshot of a schema, canvas, model, data document, or knowledge document at a point in time. See Versioning. |
See Also
- Simulation Studio — where Canvas, Node, Sweep, and Design space are used in practice
- Schemas — where Schema and Ref node are explained in depth
- Data Studio — where data documents and the canvas connection are shown
- Design of Experiments — where KPI, Lever, and Round are used in practice