GMEOW Procedures Module

• IRI: https://blackcatinformatics.ca/gmeow/slices/procedures
• Tier: extension
• Group: extensions

What This Slice Covers

This slice owns 72 terms and contributes 38 mapping or projection rows. Use it when its terms match the native fact you want to preserve; use the linkage tables to see how those facts leave GMEOW for consumer vocabularies.

Dependencies

• gmeow:slices/events
• gmeow:slices/kernel

Consumers

• The universal process/procedure/plan generalization for workflows and recipes.

Local Map

Examples

Data Pipeline

• Source: slices/extensions/procedures/examples/data-pipeline.ttl
• GMEOW terms: gmeow:ControlFlow, gmeow:DataFlow, gmeow:Dataset, gmeow:Execution, gmeow:Procedure, gmeow:ProcedureStep, gmeow:SoftwareAgent, gmeow:dataFlowEntity, gmeow:dataFlowSource, gmeow:dataFlowTarget

# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2026 Blackcat Informatics® Inc. <paudley@blackcatinformatics.ca>
# SPDX-License-Identifier: CC-BY-4.0
#
# Worked example: a procedure separates CONTROL flow from DATA flow . A
# gmeow:Procedure has gmeow:ProcedureSteps; gmeow:ControlFlow edges say in what
# ORDER steps run, while gmeow:DataFlow edges say WHICH DATA moves between them —
# two distinct graphs over the same steps, because "runs after" and "depends on
# the output of" are different relations. A gmeow:Execution is one concrete RUN of
# the procedure, with an gmeow:executionStatus and its participant. The same model
# covers a recipe, a lab protocol, a CI build, and an agent flow (procedureType).
@prefix gmeow: <https://blackcatinformatics.ca/gmeow/> .
@prefix ex:    <https://blackcatinformatics.ca/gmeow/examples/procedures/> .
@prefix rdfs:  <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#> .

# --- The procedure and its three steps.
ex:pipeline a gmeow:Procedure ;
    rdfs:label             "Nightly events ETL"@en ;
    gmeow:procedureType    gmeow:procedureTypeDataPipeline ;
    gmeow:hasProcedureStep ex:extract , ex:transform , ex:load .

ex:extract   a gmeow:ProcedureStep ; rdfs:label "Extract"@en ;   gmeow:procedureStepType gmeow:stepTypeStart .
ex:transform a gmeow:ProcedureStep ; rdfs:label "Transform"@en ; gmeow:procedureStepType gmeow:stepTypeAtomic .
ex:load      a gmeow:ProcedureStep ; rdfs:label "Load"@en ;      gmeow:procedureStepType gmeow:stepTypeEnd .

# --- CONTROL flow: extract → transform → load (the order).
ex:c1 a gmeow:ControlFlow ; gmeow:flowSource ex:extract   ; gmeow:flowTarget ex:transform .
ex:c2 a gmeow:ControlFlow ; gmeow:flowSource ex:transform ; gmeow:flowTarget ex:load .

# --- DATA flow: the raw dataset moves from extract into transform (a dependency,
#     not just an ordering).
ex:d1 a gmeow:DataFlow ;
    gmeow:dataFlowSource ex:extract ;
    gmeow:dataFlowTarget ex:transform ;
    gmeow:dataFlowEntity ex:rawEvents .

ex:rawEvents a gmeow:Dataset ; gmeow:title "Raw event log"@en .

# --- One concrete run of the procedure, succeeded.
ex:run a gmeow:Execution ;
    gmeow:executesProcedure   ex:pipeline ;
    gmeow:executionStatus     gmeow:executionStatusSucceeded ;
    gmeow:executionParticipant ex:scheduler .

ex:scheduler a gmeow:SoftwareAgent ; gmeow:name "Airflow scheduler"@en .

Terms

Classes

Properties

Individuals

Linkages

• Rows: 38
• Projection profiles: schema-org
• External vocabularies: bpmn, obi, opmw, pplan, prov, rdf, ro_crate, schema

Guide

Procedures — alignment & projection reference

The alignment and projection companion to the procedures module (ontology/modules/procedures.ttl). Everything here is authored once in mapping-dsl/ and generated by gmeow compile-mappings (Principle 4); nothing in mappings/, projections/, or queries/projections/ is hand-edited.

The plan ⟂ execution de-conflation

GMEOW models occurrences richly — gmeow:Event, gmeow:Participation, gmeow:Activity, the Allen interval relations — but until now it had no prescriptive layer. This slice introduces the plan ⟂ execution split:

One recipe, many prepared meals; one protocol, many runs; one pipeline spec, many ingestions. The plan side stays in the OWL 2 DL TBox as structure; the execution side reuses the existing event + participation machinery.

Terms

gmeow:Procedure · gmeow:ProcedureStep

A Procedure is a prescriptive specification — a template, recipe, protocol, blueprint, or workflow definition — an InformationObject, the plan side of the de-conflation. A ProcedureStep is an atomic step within it, carrying inputs, outputs, and parameters, and may itself reference a subprocess via stepEnactsProcedure.

gmeow:Execution · gmeow:executesProcedure · gmeow:executesStep · gmeow:executionParticipant

An Execution (⊑ Event) is the occurrence that enacts a procedure or step, reusing the event/participation machinery. executesProcedure and executesStep link it to the plan it realises; executionParticipant is the flat 80%-case agent/tool shortcut, promoted to a Participation when role or evidence matters.

gmeow:ControlFlow · gmeow:flowSource · gmeow:flowTarget · gmeow:flowGuard · gmeow:flowOrder

A reified relator sequencing, branching, or looping between two ProcedureSteps. flowSource/flowTarget are its functional endpoints; flowGuard records the guard BranchConditionType (evaluated solver-side); flowOrder is an optional explicit ordering index.

gmeow:DataFlow · gmeow:dataFlowSource · gmeow:dataFlowTarget · gmeow:dataFlowEntity

A reified relator carrying a data entity from one step's output to another step's input — functional source and target endpoints, with a non-functional dataFlowEntity naming what flows.

gmeow:ProcedureType · gmeow:procedureType · gmeow:StepType · gmeow:procedureStepType · gmeow:BranchConditionType · gmeow:ExecutionStatus · gmeow:executionStatus

The open value vocabularies (Principle 9): procedure kind (recipe, lab protocol, data pipeline, agent flow, CI build, business process, research plan, ingestion), step kind (atomic, start, end, branch, subprocess, parallel), branch-guard condition (if, switch, loop, parallel), and execution status (pending, running, succeeded, failed, cancelled, skipped) — values pointed at by the matching properties, never subclasses.

gmeow:hasProcedureStep · gmeow:procedureStepOf · gmeow:subProcedureOf · gmeow:hasSubProcedure · gmeow:stepEnactsProcedure

Procedure composition: hasProcedureStep/procedureStepOf is step mereology (specialising hasPart/partOf); subProcedureOf/hasSubProcedure is the transitive subprocess spine; stepEnactsProcedure links a subprocess step to the Procedure defining its internals.

gmeow:stepInput · gmeow:stepOutput · gmeow:stepParameter

The step's resources: an Input consumed, an Output produced, and a Parameter that governs behaviour without being consumed — all owl:Thing-ranged and non-functional.

gmeow:inquiryPriority · gmeow:inquiryTheme · gmeow:inquirySource · gmeow:inquiryStatus · gmeow:resolvedByArtifact

The research-inquiry profile extensions on a Procedure of type researchPlan: a 1–10 inquiryPriority, a thematic inquiryTheme, the prompting inquirySource, the inquiryStatus (an ExecutionStatus value), and the resolvedByArtifact that closes the inquiry.

SSSOM alignments (mapping-dsl/equivalences/procedures.ttl)

All by reference (Principle 5) — GMEOW never imports an external axiom. Compiled to mappings/gmeow-procedures.sssom.tsv (26 rows).

Standards bridged

• P-Plan (pplan:) — the closest peer model: Plan, Step, Activity, Input, Output, Variable, precededBy.
• PROV-O (prov:) — Plan, Activity, used, wasGeneratedBy.
• schema.org (schema:) — HowTo, HowToStep, HowToTool, HowToSupply, Recipe, Action.
• OPMW (opmw:) — WorkflowTemplate, WorkflowExecution, WorkflowTemplateProcess.
• OBI (obi:) — protocol (OBI:0000272), planned process (OBI:0000011).
• BPMN (bpmn:) — conceptual alignment to gateway, sequenceFlow, dataAssociation.
• RO-Crate Workflow-Run — CreateAction for reproducibility.

Projections (mapping-dsl/projections/schema-org-procedures.ttl)

Compiled into projections/schema-org.edoal.ttl and queries/projections/schema-org.rq (the procedure branch is emitted alongside all other schema-org projections).

Seed profiles

Two worked-example profiles demonstrate the generalisation:

Ingestion-process profile

Supersedes the "source-packet bundle" idea. A Procedure of type ingestion with six sequential steps connected by ControlFlow relators:

1. raw root acquisition
2. file copy / staging
3. OCR / text extraction
4. derived claims / events generation
5. unresolved leads identification
6. privacy posture assessment

Research-inquiry profile

Supersedes the flat research-queue. A Procedure of type researchPlan with profile-specific properties:

• inquiryPriority — 1–10 scale
• inquiryTheme — thematic area (open vocab)
• inquirySource — the source that prompted the inquiry
• inquiryStatus — pending / running / succeeded / failed / …
• resolvedByArtifact — the artifact that resolves the inquiry

Solver-side concerns (Principle 12)

The OWL 2 DL core holds structure only. The following are computed, not asserted:

• Branch guard evaluation — the flowGuard records the condition type; the actual truth evaluation (expression, variable bindings) is solver-side.
• Data-type compatibility — a DataFlow whose source-step output type mismatches the consumer-step input type produces a warning in the SHACL / solver layer, not an OWL inconsistency.
• Step scheduling / ordering — flowOrder provides an explicit index when needed; the default ordering is the ControlFlow graph structure plus Allen relations at the Execution level.