We show that, when the actions of a Mazurkiewicz trace are considered not merely as atomic but as transformations from a specified type of inputs to a specified type of outputs, we obtain a novel notion of presentation for effectful categories (also known as generalized Freyd categories), a well-known algebraic structure in the semantics of side-effecting computation. Like the usual representation of traces as graphs, our notion of presentation gives rise to a graphical representation of morphisms in effectful categories. We use our presentations to give a construction of the commuting tensor product of free effectful categories, capturing the combination of systems in which the actions of each must commute with one another, while still permitting exchange of resources.

We identify the algebraic structure of the material histories generated by concurrent processes. Specifically, we extend existing categorical theories of resource convertibility to capture concurrent interaction. Our formalism admits an intuitive graphical presentation via string diagrams for proarrow equipments. We also consider certain induced categories of resource transducers, which are of independent interest due to their unusual structure.

We provide a Lawvere-style definition for partial theories, extending the classical notion of equational theory by allowing partially defined operations. As in the classical case, our definition is syntactic: we use an appropriate class of string diagrams as terms. This allows for equational reasoning about the class of models defined by a partial theory. We demonstrate the expressivity of such equational theories by considering a number of examples, including partial combinatory algebras and cartesian closed categories. Moreover, despite the increase in expressivity of the syntax we retain a well-behaved notion of semantics: we show that our categories of models are precisely locally finitely presentable categories, and that free models exist.