> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.bowerlabs.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Protocols become a first-class artifact

> A dedicated artifact type for documented lab procedures, separate from notes, with its own library and a knowledge-graph relationship to the experiments that run it.

**Shipped 2026-03-15 · Workspace**

Notes describe what you did. **Protocols** describe how you do it.
They're different things, and Bower now treats them differently.

## What's new

* **Protocol artifact type** — a dedicated artifact alongside notes and
  attachments. Protocols use the same rich text editor as notes, but
  live in their own protocol library so you can browse your standard
  operating procedures without filtering them out of your experiment
  history.
* **First-class URLs and routing** — protocols have their own detail
  page, their own breadcrumbs, and their own sharing model.
* **Knowledge graph relationships** — protocols connect to the
  collections that use them and the notes that ran them, with
  bidirectional links Bird can follow when answering questions.
* **Foundations for provenance** — the protocol relationship type is
  the first piece of a richer ontology we're building inside the
  knowledge graph.

## Why this matters

A protocol is the institutional knowledge of your lab. It outlives
individual experiments, individual researchers, sometimes individual
projects. Treating protocols as just-another-note buried that
distinction; treating them as a first-class type makes them findable,
shareable, and — when you ask Bird about an experiment — automatically
linked to the procedure it followed.

## Methods vs. protocols

A *method* is a published, high-level scientific technique (e.g.
LA-ICP-MS). A *protocol* is the detailed, operational guide your
specific lab uses to perform that method. Bower's protocol artifact is
the second of these — an operational artifact, not a literature
artifact.

## Related docs

* [Protocols](/organisation/protocols)
* [Linked entities](/organisation/linked-entities)