Drools
A forward-chaining and backward-chaining inference-based rule engine with DMN and CEP support. Ideal for building expert systems and automating business decisions.
Drools is a business rules management system (BRMS) and an open-source rule engine that provides a forward-chaining and backward-chaining inference-based rule engine, a DMN decision engine, and a complex event processing (CEP) engine.
Key Features
- Rule Engine: Supports forward-chaining and backward-chaining inference for building expert systems that emulate human decision-making.
- DMN Engine: Full runtime support for Decision Model and Notation (DMN) models at Conformance Level 3, compliant with OMG standards.
- CEP Engine: Enables reasoning over streams of events with temporal operators, sliding time/length windows, and event expiration.
- DRL Language: Write rules using the Drools Rule Language (DRL) for precise business logic implementation.
- Integration: Part of the Apache KIE ecosystem, integrating with OptaPlanner, jBPM, Kogito, and SonataFlow for comprehensive business automation.
- Extensible: Modular architecture allows for custom extensions and integrations with other systems.
- Open Source: Licensed under the Apache License 2.0, fostering community collaboration and transparency.
Tech / Self-Hosting
Drools is part of the Apache KIE project and is designed for self-hosting. It can be deployed on any Java-compatible environment, including on-premises servers, cloud platforms, or containerized environments. The project provides comprehensive documentation, examples, and community support for easy setup and maintenance.