Engine Capability Matrix¶

The orchestration adapters expose a broad quality surface, but not every engine supports every operation equally. This page helps operators choose the right engine for check, profile, learn, batch, stream, drift, and anomaly workflows.

Who This Is For¶

teams deciding whether to stay on Truthound or route to another engine
operators writing compatibility runbooks
contributors extending engine support

When To Use It¶

Use this page before changing engine selection in production or when a preflight report says an operation is not supported.

Prerequisites¶

understanding of Engine Resolution and Selection
a known target operation

Capability View¶

Capability	Truthound	Pandera	Great Expectations
check	primary first-party path	strong dataframe-oriented fit	supported through the GE adapter
profile	first-party path	limited compared with Truthound profiling semantics	adapter-dependent
learn	first-party path	not the primary Pandera workflow	not the primary GE workflow
stream check	first-party path in this repo	not the default choice	not the default choice
drift	first-party path in this repo	limited	limited
anomaly	first-party path in this repo	limited	limited
batch helpers	first-party path in this repo	available through shared batch helpers where supported	available where adapter semantics permit

What The Matrix Means¶

Truthound is the canonical engine for the full first-party feature line.
Pandera is the best fit when dataframe schema enforcement is the main need.
Great Expectations is the best fit when a team is intentionally carrying an expectations-style validation model into the orchestration layer.
The shared runtime can still offer orchestration conveniences even when the engine surface is narrower.

Production Pattern¶

Prefer Truthound unless a narrower engine fits the problem materially better.
Use run_preflight(...) to confirm capability instead of assuming parity.
Document the engine choice per host because the same team may use different engines in different orchestration systems.

Failure Modes And Troubleshooting¶

Symptom	Likely Cause	Read Next
preflight says operation unsupported	selected engine lacks capability	Selection Guide
same rule works in one engine but not another	rule vocabulary or behavior differs	Truthound Engine, Pandera, Great Expectations