Process Schema

The process schema stores all process definitions and their parameter specifications. It is one of the three default Xspatula framework schemas. Every operation the framework can execute — including the operations used to insert records into the process schema itself — must be registered here before it can be called from a process file.

Process files — edit before running

Three process files create and seed the process schema:

File	Purpose
process/processes_v10_sql.json	Creates the 8 process tables
process/root_process_records_v10_sql.json	Inserts the root process group definitions
process/processes_records_v10_sql.json	Inserts the bootstrap processes needed to register all other processes

You must edit processes_records_v10_sql.json to have a creator that exists in the database; if not the script will report an error and stop. Typically, the user defined in the Default community records

Tables

The process schema defines 8 tables that together fully describe every operation the framework can run:

Table	Purpose
root_process	Groups related processes into families (e.g. manage_table_data)
process	Each executable operation, linked to a root_process and a Python function
process_parameter	All parameters expected by a specific process
process_parameter_set_value	Enumerated allowed values for a text parameter
process_parameter_minmax	Minimum and maximum allowed values for a numeric parameter
process_parameter_schema_table	The target schema.table that a parameter writes to
process_parameter_permission	Whether a parameter value can be updated or deleted after insertion
process_parameter_default	Default parameter values drawn automatically from another table

Bootstrap processes

processes_records_v10_sql.json inserts the minimal set of processes needed to register all other processes. Without these bootstrap records, no subsequent process file that tries to register a new process can execute — the framework would find no matching process definition for add_process.

As outlined above you must edit the creator for all process records to be inserted, but otherwise these bootstrap records are fixed and should not be edited.

AI4SH processes

After the community and process schemas are seeded, the setup processes stage registers all AI4SH-specific processes (for managing campaigns, samples, observations, etc.) into the process schema. This is done via the separate setup_processes.ipynb notebook.

For the full technical description of the process schema tables and how process files reference them, see the core framework documentation.