Instro architecture

What is Instro?

Instro is a Python library for talking to test instrumentation through one typed API. Power supplies, multimeters, electronic loads, DAQs, oscilloscopes, and PLCs are all driven with the same construct, configure, and measure pattern, with vendor differences pushed down into drivers.

A unified API across that many instrument families only works if the abstraction is right, which makes the layering the interesting part. What does the hardware abstraction layer actually require of a driver? How are instrument categories kept separate from the buses they talk over? Where does a vendor-specific package plug in without touching the core?

The map on this page is JigsawML's read of the Instro repository. It groups the library into the eight areas below, showing how the abstraction layer sits above the instrument categories and the bus protocols beneath them.

Key components in the Instro architecture

JigsawML identified and labelled these components automatically by analysing the Instro repository. Open the interactive map to expand any of them and read the underlying code.

• HAL Lib

  The hardware abstraction layer every instrument driver implements against.

• Power Load

  Support for power supplies and electronic loads.

• Measurement Categories

  Instrument families that measure — multimeters, oscilloscopes, and similar.

• DAQ Category

  Data-acquisition devices and the channel handling they require.

• Bus Industrial

  Transports such as SCPI over TCP, serial buses, and PLC protocols.

• Extension Packages

  Optional vendor driver packages installed alongside the core library.

• Documentation Examples

  The documentation site sources and runnable example scripts.

• External Services

  Instrument endpoints and the Nominal platform data can be published to.

How this map was generated

JigsawML ingested the public repository, resolved its dependencies, and grouped the code into architectural components using AI agents and a knowledge graph. Nothing here was drawn by hand. The same process runs against private repositories and cloud accounts, and re-runs on every commit so the map never goes stale.

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