# Patternal

> Patternal is a structural modelling environment for complex systems. It models relationships, feedback loops, dependencies, boundaries and data flows that traditional process modelling tools struggle to represent.

## What Patternal is

Patternal is a web-based modelling tool for representing the structure and behaviour of complex systems. Instead of describing a system as a sequence of steps, Patternal describes it as a network of meaningful relations between activities, rules, data, decisions and boundaries.

## Why it exists

Traditional process modelling tools (BPMN, flowcharts, swimlanes) describe sequential workflows well but often fail to represent circularity, recursive relationships, feedback loops and emergent system behaviour. Patternal was designed to make these structures visible and analysable.

## What Patternal is not

Patternal is not a BPMN replacement.

It is not a workflow engine.

It is not a process automation platform.

It is not a diagramming tool.

Patternal is a structural modelling language for representing complex systems whose behaviour cannot be understood through sequential process descriptions alone.

## Core modelling concepts

- Meaning is relational: an activity, system or information object has no meaning in isolation. Meaning emerges from the relations it participates in.
- Flow-centric and relation-centric, not activity-centric.
- Incomplete but meaningful models are first-class. Unknowns are surfaced, not hidden behind defaults.
- Two modes: Flow (lightweight modelling) and Analysis (reveals analytical depth on the same model).

## Node types

- Activity — the central flow object. Has `executionMode` (manual / machine / unknown) and `isDecisionPoint` (boolean). There is no separate Decision node.
- Rule — a governing object with an effect (governing, procedural, guiding, semantic, unknown). Rules can govern nodes or edges and declare required data.
- Storage / Data store — represents data held; where required data becomes available.
- System Boundary — a bounded execution, responsibility or interpretation context (team, role, department, IT system, external provider, regulator).
- Start / End — model-level anchors carrying trigger, source, termination condition and outcome state.
- Process Step — high-level business phase (chevron) used for grouping.

## Edge types

Edges carry three independent fields: `edgeType` (semantic relation), `flowStatus` (maturity / validity / quality of the flow) and a free-text `userLabel`.

Semantic edge types include: `triggers`, `depends_on`, `requires`, `blocks`, `replaces`, `uses_data_from`, `creates`, `updates`, `informs`, `approves`, `owns`.

Flow status values: `undefined`, `initiated`, `processed`, `incorrect`, `complete`, `approved`. A returning flow is modelled as a reverse edge, not as a status.

## What Patternal produces

Structural models that make hidden relationships visible and enable both human and AI-assisted analysis: correction loops, fragmented information, interpretation dependencies, re-entry structures, cross-boundary coordination and implicit control points.

## Ecosystem

- Emergenistik provides the observational perspective — how to look at complex systems.
- Patternal provides structural modelling — how to represent them.
- The Abstractor provides structural analysis — how to reason about them.

Patternal models systems. The Abstractor analyses systems. Together they support observation of complex systems without prescribing solutions.

## Relationship to the ecosystem

Emergenistik asks how complex systems can be observed.

Patternal asks how those observations can be represented.

The Abstractor asks what those observations reveal.

Together they form three complementary perspectives on the same system.

## Where AI should start reading

- [About Patternal](/about): what it is, why it was created, what it models, what it produces, how it differs from traditional process modelling, and its relationship to Emergenistik and The Abstractor.
- [Homepage](/): short introduction and entry points into the tool.

## Optional

- [Emergenistik](https://www.emergenistik.se): the observational perspective behind Patternal.