Protégé vs Strixonomy decision matrix¶
Use this page to decide when Strixonomy fits, when to keep Protégé, and when to run both. It reflects v0.27.0 (latest tagged) — see What ships today. A first-week migration guide ships today; extended round-trip playbooks are planned for v1.0.
Non-goals today (v0.27.0)
- WebProtégé-style collaboration — out of scope until post-1.0
- Byte-identical Protégé OWL/XML / RDF/XML layout — Strixonomy re-serializes for semantic fidelity (ADR-0021); write-back itself ships in v0.21
- Curated plugin marketplace / production owlmake — Plugin SDK 1.0 freezes the wire contract today; marketplace hardening is product 1.0 — Plugin policy
- Language SDKs (Python/TypeScript ontology clients) — embed via Rust
strixonomy, CLI, or LSP instead - Certified HermiT-identical results — OntoLogos DL is not certified HermiT-identical; dual-tool check critical audits
Quick decision¶
| Your situation | Recommendation |
|---|---|
| VS Code + Turtle-primary ontologies | Adopt Strixonomy (pilot IDE + CI) |
| CI lint/consistency gates without desktop Protégé | Adopt Strixonomy CLI (strixonomy validate / classify / realize / dl-query) |
Protégé .owl / .owx corpora that need light inspector edits | Adopt Strixonomy for core write-back; keep Protégé when you need byte-identical XML layout, full axiom catalog, or Protégé-only plugins — OWL/XML write-back |
| Full OWL 2 DL axiom catalog on every format | Split workflow — Strixonomy for browse/query/CI/classification + supported authoring; keep Protégé for uncovered axiom types until v1.0 |
| OBO release pipelines with in-editor OBO write-back | Adopt Strixonomy (inspector since v0.13; patch engine since v0.12) for OBO inspector + strixonomy patch; validate with ROBOT in CI |
| SWRL rule editing in IDE | Adopt Strixonomy (Rule Browser/Editor since v0.23); keep Protégé if you need full SWTab ecosystem plugins |
| Manchester class-expression queries (DL Query–style) | Adopt Strixonomy Query Workbench DL mode / strixonomy dl-query — DL Query honesty (not full Protégé DL Query tab parity) |
| Enterprise requires vendor SLA / SOC 2 | Defer or run limited CI pilot — Production readiness |
| Air-gapped VS Code + internal artifact mirror | Pilot — Enterprise deployment |
Capability comparison (v0.27.0 tagged)¶
| Capability | Protégé | Strixonomy v0.27 | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| OWL 2 DL classification | Yes | Yes (dl / auto via OntoLogos 1.x) | Not certified HermiT-identical — Reasoner guide |
| Realization / instance checking | Yes | Yes | CLI realize / check-instance; Reasoner panel (shipped v0.23) |
| SWRL authoring | SWRLTab | Rule Browser / Editor | DLSafe; validate via LSP (shipped v0.23) |
| Turtle authoring | Manual / plugins | Native write-back | Strixonomy inspector + patches |
| OBO authoring | Native | Native write-back | Patch engine since v0.12; Entity Inspector since v0.13 |
| RDF/XML in-place editing | Yes | Yes (semantic re-serialize) | Not byte-identical to Protégé — OWL/XML write-back |
| OWL/XML in-place editing | Yes | Yes (semantic re-serialize) | Core ops; Manchester/refactor limited |
| Manchester axiom editing | Full | OWL 2 Manchester on Turtle (v0.22) | Richest on Turtle; XML core ops — SHIPPED Manchester scope |
| Disjoint classes | Yes | Yes (v0.9) | Via Manchester / patch JSON |
| Property chain editing | Yes | Yes (v0.12) | Inspector + patch JSON |
| OBO format | Native | Index + write-back | Patch engine since v0.12; Entity Inspector since v0.13 |
| ROBOT integration | Common | CLI wrapper | Java + robot required |
| SQL/SPARQL over repo | Plugins / external | Built-in workbench + CLI | |
| DL Query tab | Native | Query Workbench DL mode + CLI dl-query + LSP | Manchester class expressions; see DL Query honesty |
| Semantic diff in pull requests | Weak default | Strong default | Shipped v0.10 |
| Workspace refactoring | Limited | Rename, migrate, move, extract, merge, replace | Rename/merge/replace multi-format; move/extract Turtle-first |
| CI automation | External scripts | strixonomy validate / classify / realize / dl-query | Documented exit codes |
| Local-first / no telemetry | Desktop app | Yes | No cloud upload by default |
| Commercial support | Ecosystem / third parties | None — community OSS |
Adoption paths¶
Path A — CI only (lowest risk)¶
- Pin
strixonomy-cli0.27.0 in Linux CI - Gate merges with
strixonomy validate - Optional:
strixonomy classify --profile elwhen ontology is EL;strixonomy dl-queryfor class-expression checks - Keep Protégé on engineer desktops unchanged
Docs: CI integration · Production evidence protocol
Path B — Split workflow (recommended pilot)¶
- Author
.ttl(or editable XML with caveats) in Strixonomy; validate in CI - Use Protégé for Protégé-specific plugins, byte-identical XML layout, or axiom types not yet covered in SHIPPED / known limitations
- Standardize on Turtle for shared authoring when you need byte-stable diffs or refactor apply
- Run 4–8 week pilot — Production readiness
Docs: Protégé coexistence · OWL/XML write-back
Path C — Protégé replacement (not supported today)¶
Do not plan org-wide Protégé retirement on pre-1.0 alone. Re-evaluate at v1.0 against What ships today and known limitations.
When Strixonomy is a poor fit¶
- Needs HermiT-/Protégé-grade DL explanation UX or a full axiom editor for every OWL construct as the sole gate — Strixonomy ships DL classification and DL Query Workbench mode for CI/IDE, but is not a drop-in Protégé replacement for all axiom authoring
- Primary artifacts require byte-identical Protégé XML (Strixonomy re-serializes)
- Workspaces exceed workspace limits without split-repo strategy
- Legal cannot accept LGPL (
horned-owl) for desktop distribution — LGPL compliance - Procurement requires SOC 2, HIPAA BAA, or vendor SLA