# A Domain Language for Specifying Controlled Methods **Daniel Ari Friedman** (2026) · *Zenodo* [![DOI](https://zenodo.org/badge/DOI/10.5281/zenodo.21086548.svg)](https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21086548) --- ## Abstract This paper describes a small, tested domain language for specifying controlled methods — the methods-paper exemplar of the Research Project Template (https://github.com/docxology/template). Unlike a results paper, this manuscript's subject is the methodology itself: a controlled vocabulary, a unit system with dimensional safety, four staged validation gates, and a deterministic compiler, implemented in projects/templates/template_methods_paper/src/methods_dsl/ and described section by section in . The domain language's vocabulary is informed by BPL (Biology Programming Language, ), an upstream reference that encodes laboratory protocols as programs with biology-native types, staged validation, and deterministic compilation; this exemplar generalizes BPL's intent vocabulary and pipeline shape from wet-lab protocols to any controlled procedure. A Method is a name, a set of typed parameters and resources, and an ordered, dependent set of steps — constructed directly as frozen Python dataclasses (src/methods_dsl/model.py) rather than parsed from new text syntax. Every Quantity carries a unit that resolves to one of 18 controlled units across six dimensions, and every step names one of 9 controlled-vocabulary intents (src/methods_dsl/vocabulary.py), executable on one of 3 backends. 4 staged gates — structural, semantic, plan, and target — validate a method before compile_method (src/methods_dsl/compiler.py) deterministically schedules it with Kahn's algorithm and hashes the canonical plan with SHA-256. We demonstrate the language on 2 worked example methods spanning both domains BPL's design targets and the domains it generalizes to: a manual wet-lab preparation (PBSPreparation, 5 steps, target human, plan hash 313b9b17de98) and an automated instrument-calibration procedure (SensorCalibrationSweep, 4 steps, target automated, plan hash d89cced19be6). Live re-compilation determinism check: Yes. Across both methods, 8 of 8 staged-gate evaluations pass. A demonstration provenance hash-chain (src/methods_dsl/trust.py) of length 3 verifies as Yes. Contributions are methodological and architectural. On the methods side, we show that a controlled vocabulary expressed as typed dataclasses — not a parsed grammar — is sufficient to reproduce BPL's core safety properties (dimensional safety, staged validation, deterministic compilation) at a scope appropriate for a template exemplar. On the architecture side, the DSL is covered above the 90% project gate by a zero-mock test suite, generates 13 artifacts (1 figures, 6 data files, 6 reports) per pipeline run, and injects reproducibility metadata (configuration hash 23b5981d45bdc598, build timestamp 2026-06-30T23:02:10Z) into . Keywords: methods paper, domain-specific language, controlled methods, deterministic compilation, staged validation, dimensional analysis --- Associated artifacts GitHub release: v1.0.0 (https://github.com/docxology/template_methods_paper/releases/tag/v1.0.0) DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21086548 Zenodo: https://zenodo.org/records/21086548 PDF SHA-256: ecd8519fc2a9a674bd8a4cf89f96122af76529c913e32bf880a7c842da08771a ## Keywords methods paper · domain-specific language · controlled methods · deterministic compilation · staged validation · dimensional analysis ## Publication Details | Field | Value | |------|-------| | **DOI** | [10.5281/zenodo.21086548](https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21086548) | | **Published** | 2026 | | **Version** | 1.0.0 | | **Zenodo record** | https://zenodo.org/records/21086548 | | **GitHub release** | https://github.com/docxology/template_methods_paper/releases/tag/v1.0.0 | | **Source repository** | https://github.com/docxology/template_methods_paper | ## Files - `Friedman_2026_Domain_ecd8519f.pdf` - Zenodo PDF ## Citation > Friedman, D. A. (2026). *A Domain Language for Specifying Controlled Methods*. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21086548 ## Related - Zenodo record: https://zenodo.org/records/21086548 - GitHub release: https://github.com/docxology/template_methods_paper/releases/tag/v1.0.0 - Source repository: https://github.com/docxology/template_methods_paper - [Full Bibliography](../../pages/BIBLIOGRAPHY.md) · [All Papers](../README.md)