semantica/docs/reference/explorer.md

title, description, icon

title	description	icon
Explorer	Interactive FastAPI dashboard for knowledge graph exploration and the Ontology Hub.	map

semantica.explorer is a browser-based dashboard for exploring knowledge graphs, managing ontologies, and running visual analyses — no code required after launch.

What You Get

• Graph Explorer — interactive node/edge search, filtering, path highlighting, and neighborhood views
• Ontology Hub (v0.5.0) — browse class hierarchies, infer types, run SHACL validation, align ontologies
• Distance Intelligence (v0.5.0) — semantic similarity search, ego-mode neighborhood views, distance heatmaps
• REST API — 15+ endpoints for graph data, path finding, embeddings, and semantic search
• CLI launcher — semantica-explorer command for quick local startup

Installation

pip install "semantica[explorer]"

Requires uvicorn and fastapi. Included automatically with pip install semantica[all].

Launch

# Start the explorer on a saved graph
semantica-explorer --graph my_graph.json

# Custom host and port
semantica-explorer --graph my_graph.json --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8080

# Skip auto-opening the browser
semantica-explorer --graph my_graph.json --no-browser

from semantica.context import ContextGraph

graph = ContextGraph(advanced_analytics=True)
# ... build or load your graph ...
graph.save_to_file("my_graph.json")

import subprocess
subprocess.run(["semantica-explorer", "--graph", "my_graph.json", "--port", "8000"])

# Run directly as a Python module
import subprocess
subprocess.run(["python", "-m", "semantica.explorer", "--graph", "my_graph.json"])

CLI Reference

Flag	Default	Description
--graph, -g	(required)	Path to a ContextGraph JSON file
--port, -p	8000	Port to bind the server
--host	127.0.0.1	Host to bind the server
--no-browser	false	Skip auto-opening the browser

Features

Graph Explorer

Core dashboard for navigating knowledge graphs:

• Indexed search — find any node by label or type; 0.004ms on 118k-node graphs (v0.5.0)
• Bidirectional path finding — trace paths between any two nodes
• Neighbor expansion — click any node to expand its connections
• Filter by entity type — focus on Person, Organization, Event, or any custom type
• Edge label display — relationship types shown on all edges
• Graph declutter — workspace layout controls for dense graphs

Ontology Hub (v0.5.0)

Full ontology lifecycle management in the browser:

• Visual ontology editor — drag-and-drop class and property authoring
• SHACL Studio — create, validate, and test SHACL shapes with live feedback
• Alignment authoring — author ontology alignments across schemas
• Health dashboard — graph quality metrics, validation status, coverage reports
• Version control — snapshot, diff, and restore ontology versions

Distance Intelligence (v0.5.0)

Semantic neighborhood analysis centered on any node:

• N×N distance matrices — pairwise semantic distances across a set of nodes
• Ego-mode visualization — focus on a single node's semantic neighborhood
• Distance band classification — nodes grouped as near / mid / far
• Embedding cache — optimized embedding reuse for large graphs

Knowledge Explorer API

Full FastAPI backend accessible at http://localhost:8000/docs:

• 12+ export formats (RDF, Parquet, AQL, JSON-LD, and more)
• WebSocket progress streaming for long operations
• Thread-safe sessions with rollback protection
• Audit trail for all operations

API Endpoints

The FastAPI server exposes a REST API alongside the browser dashboard:

Endpoint	Method	Description
/api/graph/summary	GET	Node count, edge count, entity types
/api/graph/search	GET	Full-text and type-filtered node search
/api/graph/path	GET	Bidirectional path between two nodes
/api/graph/neighbors	GET	Neighbors of a node with optional depth
/api/ontology/validate	POST	Run SHACL validation on the graph
/api/export/{format}	GET	Export graph in specified format
/ws/progress	WS	WebSocket stream for operation progress

Full OpenAPI docs available at http://localhost:8000/docs when the server is running.

Build and save the ContextGraph that Explorer loads. Programmatic ontology management and SHACL generation. Programmatic graph rendering without the Explorer server. Export to RDF, Parquet, AQL without launching a server.