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CLI Reference

Binary: ontologos (from ontologos-cli crate).

v1.0.0: Ten subcommands; classify routes by --profile (default auto). Use check_consistency semantics via consistent (JSON includes complete). Profile status: Profile stability matrix.

Install

ontologos-cli is not published to crates.io (publish = false). Build from a repository clone or install from git.

Build from clone

git clone https://github.com/eddiethedean/ontologos.git
cd ontologos
cargo build -p ontologos-cli --release
./target/release/ontologos --help

Install from git

Requires Rust 1.88+:

cargo install --git https://github.com/eddiethedean/ontologos ontologos-cli
ontologos --help

Global options

Flag Values Default Description
--profile auto, el, rl, rdfs, alc, dl, dl-preview, swrl auto Engine profile (see per-command notes)
--format text, json text Output format
--incremental flag off Incremental session (classify, materialize only; no-op elsewhere)
--budget-secs seconds unlimited Wall-clock budget for DL consistency/classify paths

Exit codes: 0 success, 1 any error (parse, incomplete consistency, inconsistent ontology, etc.). No differentiated exit codes in v1.0.

parse_meta: When the parser emitted warnings or skipped axioms, JSON output may include parse_meta (warnings, mapped_axiom_count, skipped_axiom_count, logical_axiom_count). Omitted when clean.

Subcommands

Command Honors --profile Honors --incremental Description
profile <file> No No Detect OWL profile (EL/RL/QL/DL)
classify <file> Yes Yes Profile-routed classification / saturation
materialize <file> No (always RDFS) Yes Explicit RDFS TBox materialization
explain <file> Yes No Proof graph JSON/text
query <file> Yes No OWL QL conjunctive query (requires taxonomy outcome)
instances <file> No No ABox individuals after RL materialization
consistent <file> Yes No Consistency check (check_consistency semantics)
entail <file> Yes No Entailment for SubClassOf / ClassAssertion / ObjectPropertyAssertion
subproperties <file> Yes No Sub-object-properties of a named property
property-values <file> Yes No Object property values for an individual

profile <file>

Detects the OWL 2 profile and hybrid module layout.

JSON:

{
  "detected": "RL",
  "diagnostics": [],
  "hybrid_modules": 1
}

classify <file>

--profile Engine Output
el ontologos-el Taxonomy (subsumptions, equivalences, unsatisfiable)
rl ontologos-rl Materialization report
rdfs ontologos-rl (rdfs module) Materialization report
auto detect → EL, RL, or DL Taxonomy or materialization report
dl-preview ontologos-dl (gated) Taxonomy + preview warning on stderr
dl ontologos-dl Taxonomy (stable on v1.1.4)
alc ontologos-alc Taxonomy (preview)
swrl ontologos-swrl DLSafe rules + DL consistency (stable on v1.1.4)

Profile status: Profile stability matrix.

EL / DL / ALC taxonomy JSON:

{
  "status": "classified",
  "subsumption_count": 84,
  "subsumptions": [["http://...", "http://..."]],
  "equivalences": [],
  "unsatisfiable": []
}

RL / RDFS JSON:

{
  "status": "classified",
  "initial_axiom_count": 57,
  "final_axiom_count": 62,
  "inferred_axioms": 5,
  "inferred_by_rule": {},
  "clash_count": 0
}

materialize <file>

Always runs RDFS materialization (--profile ignored). JSON shape matches RL/RDFS classify with "status": "materialized".

explain <file>

Proof graph after profile-routed classification. See Explain API.

JSON: node_count, nodes (each with rule, premises, optional conclusion fields), optional parse_meta.

query <file> --query <cq>

Runs classify with --profile, then answers an OWL QL conjunctive query (e.g. Type(?x, http://ex.org/A)). Requires a taxonomy classification outcome (EL/DL/ALC/auto-EL).

JSON:

{
  "answers": 2,
  "results": [
    {
      "bindings": [
        { "variable": "x", "iri": "http://ex.org/ind1" }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

instances <file>

RL-backed ABox materialization: consistency flag, inference count, sameAs cluster count.

JSON:

{
  "consistent": true,
  "rl_inferences": 12,
  "same_as_clusters": 0
}

Text mode lists individuals, types, and sameAs clusters.

consistent <file>

Production consistency API. When complete is false, stderr warns and consistent must not be treated as proof.

JSON:

{
  "consistent": true,
  "complete": true
}

entail <file>

Exactly one entailment form:

Flags Check
--sub, --sup SubClassOf
--individual, --class ClassAssertion
--subject, --property, --object ObjectPropertyAssertion

JSON:

{
  "entailed": true,
  "SubClassOf": { "sub": "http://...", "sup": "http://..." }
}

(ClassAssertion / ObjectPropertyAssertion variants use the same flattened untagged shape.)

subproperties <file> --property <iri> [--direct]

JSON:

{
  "property": "http://ex.org/hasPart",
  "direct": false,
  "subproperties": ["http://ex.org/partOf"]
}

property-values <file> --subject <iri> --property <iri>

Uses ABox RL lookup (get_object_property_values); the global --profile flag does not affect this command.

JSON:

{
  "subject": "http://ex.org/alice",
  "property": "http://ex.org/hasChild",
  "values": ["http://ex.org/bob"]
}

Examples

ontologos profile benchmarks/data/family.owl
ontologos classify --profile el benchmarks/data/pizza.owl
ontologos classify --profile rl benchmarks/data/family.owl
ontologos classify --profile auto ontology.owl
ontologos classify --profile dl-preview benchmarks/data/family.owl
ontologos --format json consistent --profile dl ontology.owl
ontologos --format json query --profile el pizza.owl --query 'Type(?x, http://www.co-ode.org/ontologies/pizza/pizza.owl#VegetarianPizza)'
ontologos entail --profile el pizza.owl --sub http://... --sup http://...
ontologos subproperties --profile el ontology.owl --property http://ex.org/hasPart
ontologos property-values family.owl --subject http://... --property http://...
ontologos instances family.owl
ontologos materialize ontology.owl
ontologos --format json explain --profile el benchmarks/data/pizza.owl
ontologos classify --incremental --profile el ontology.owl

--incremental

Single-shot CLI mode: loads the ontology, runs one incremental pass, and exits. Library and Python workflows can hold session state across multiple classify() calls after in-memory edits. See Incremental reasoning.

Migration from v0.4

v0.4 classify always ran RDFS. See v0.4.x → v0.5.0.