semantica/docs/reference/explorer.md

title, description, icon

title	description	icon
Explorer	Interactive FastAPI dashboard for knowledge graph exploration, ontology management, and graph analytics.	map

semantica.explorer is a browser-based dashboard for exploring knowledge graphs, managing ontologies, and running visual analyses:

• Indexed search: 0.004ms on 118k nodes: no full scans
• Ontology Hub: visual editor, SHACL Studio, alignment authoring, and health dashboard
• Bidirectional path finding between any two nodes
• WebSocket progress streaming for live pipeline monitoring
• No code required after launch: full graph exploration in the browser

Getting Started

Install, export your graph to JSON, and launch:

pip install "semantica[explorer]"

# 1. Export your graph to a JSON file
import json
from semantica.context import ContextGraph

graph = ContextGraph()
graph.add_node("Python",  "language",  properties={"paradigm": "multi-paradigm"})
graph.add_node("FastAPI", "framework", properties={"language": "Python"})
graph.add_edge("Python", "FastAPI", "enables")
graph.save_to_file("my_graph.json")

# 2. Launch the Explorer
semantica-explorer --graph my_graph.json
# → Loading graph...
# → Graph loaded: 2 nodes, 1 edges
# → Semantica Explorer · http://127.0.0.1:8000
#     API docs  http://127.0.0.1:8000/docs
#     Health    http://127.0.0.1:8000/api/health

The browser opens automatically at http://127.0.0.1:8000. The interactive API docs are at /docs.

`semantica.explorer` is a **server process**, not an importable Python library. Use the CLI or `python -m semantica.explorer` to launch. The `app.py` module exposes a module-level `app` instance for use with uvicorn or Docker.

Launch

```python from semantica.context import ContextGraph

graph = ContextGraph()
graph.load_from_file("my_graph.json")   # verify graph loads
```

```bash
semantica-explorer --graph my_graph.json
# Serves at http://127.0.0.1:8000
```

```bash # Expose on the network 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
```

```bash # Import a JSON or CSV file into the running session curl -X POST http://localhost:8000/api/import \ -F "file=@updated_graph.json" ``` ```bash python -m semantica.explorer --graph my_graph.json --port 8080 ```

CLI Reference

The semantica-explorer command accepts exactly four flags:

Flag	Short	Default	Description
--graph	-g	(required)	Path to a ContextGraph JSON file to load
--port	-p	8000	Port to bind the server
--host	:	127.0.0.1	Host to bind the server: use 0.0.0.0 to expose on the network
--no-browser	:	off	Skip auto-opening the browser tab

There are no flags for authentication, CORS, or log level in the CLI. CORS allowed origins are configured via the `EXPLORER_CORS_ORIGINS` environment variable (comma-separated, default: `http://localhost:5173,http://127.0.0.1:5173`). **CORS origins are configured via environment variable.** Set `EXPLORER_CORS_ORIGINS` to a comma-separated list of allowed origins before launching (e.g. `EXPLORER_CORS_ORIGINS="http://myapp.example.com"`).

# Full example
EXPLORER_CORS_ORIGINS="http://myapp.example.com" \
  semantica-explorer --graph my_graph.json --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8080 --no-browser

What You Get

• Graph Explorer — Interactive node/edge search, path finding, and neighborhood expansion. Indexed search at 0.004ms on 118k-node graphs.
• Ontology Hub — SKOS vocabulary management, SHACL shape generation and validation, ontology alignment, health dashboard, and versioning.
• Analytics — Degree centrality, community detection, connectivity analysis, graph validation, and distance matrices.
• REST API — All features available as a REST API: fully documented at /docs.
• WebSocket Updates — Real-time graph mutation events streamed over WebSocket at /ws/graph-updates.
• CLI Launcher — semantica-explorer --graph my_graph.json for instant local startup.

Features

Core dashboard for navigating knowledge graphs:

- **Indexed search**: POST to `/api/graph/search` with a query; 0.004ms on 118k-node graphs
- **Path finding**: BFS or Dijkstra between any two nodes via `GET /api/graph/path?source=&target=`
- **Neighbor expansion**: `GET /api/graph/node/{id}/neighbors?depth=2`
- **Filter by entity type**: `GET /api/graph/nodes?type=Person`
- **Semantic neighborhood**: `GET /api/graph/semantic-neighborhood?node_id=&top_k=20`
- **Distance matrix**: `POST /api/graph/distance-matrix`

<Warning>
  **Filter large graphs before saving to JSON.** The CLI loads the entire JSON file into memory. For graphs > 10k nodes, filter to the relevant subgraph before exporting: the force-directed layout becomes unusable on very large graphs.
</Warning>

Ontology lifecycle management in the browser:

- **Registry**: `GET /api/ontology/registry`: list loaded ontologies
- **SKOS vocabularies**: `GET /api/ontology/skos/schemes`, `GET /api/ontology/skos/concept/{uri}`
- **SHACL**: `POST /api/ontology/shacl/generate`, `POST /api/ontology/shacl/validate`
- **Alignments**: `GET/POST /api/ontology/alignments`, `POST /api/ontology/suggest-alignments`
- **Proposals & versioning**: `POST /api/ontology/propose`, `GET /api/ontology/versions/{uri}`
- **Health**: `GET /api/ontology/health`

Graph metrics running against the loaded graph:

- **Combined metrics**: `GET /api/analytics?metrics=centrality,community,connectivity`
- **Graph validation**: `GET /api/analytics/validation`
- **Enrich: link prediction**: `POST /api/enrich/links`
- **Enrich: deduplication**: `POST /api/enrich/dedup`
- **Enrich: entity extraction**: `POST /api/enrich/extract`
- **Temporal**: `GET /api/temporal/snapshot`, `GET /api/temporal/diff`, `GET /api/temporal/bounds`

<Tip>
  **Use `/api/analytics/validation` to check graph quality.** The validator detects orphaned nodes, missing types, and other structural issues before you expose the graph to downstream pipelines.
</Tip>

Decision tracking and provenance queries:

- **Decisions**: `GET /api/decisions`, `GET /api/decisions/{id}`, `GET /api/decisions/{id}/chain`
- **Precedents**: `GET /api/decisions/{id}/precedents`
- **Causal distance**: `GET /api/decisions/causal-distance?source=&target=`
- **Compliance**: `GET /api/decisions/{id}/compliance`
- **Provenance**: `GET /api/provenance?node_id=`, `GET /api/provenance/report?node_id=`
- **Annotations**: `GET/POST /api/annotations`, `DELETE /api/annotations/{id}`

<Tip>
  **Use the REST API for automation, Explorer UI for exploration.** Explorer's REST endpoints are a stable programmatic API: pipe them into scripts to automate batch annotation, SPARQL querying, or exports.
</Tip>

API Endpoints

Full interactive docs at http://localhost:8000/docs. All endpoints accept and return JSON.

| Endpoint | Method | Description |
| :-------- | :------ | :----------- |
| `/api/graph/stats` | `GET` | Node count, edge count, entity type distribution |
| `/api/graph/nodes` | `GET` | List nodes: `?type=&search=&skip=&limit=&cursor=&bbox=` |
| `/api/graph/node/{id}` | `GET` | Fetch a single node with all properties |
| `/api/graph/node/{id}/neighbors` | `GET` | Neighbors of a node: `?depth=1` (1–5) |
| `/api/graph/edges` | `GET` | List edges: `?type=&source=&target=&skip=&limit=&cursor=` |
| `/api/graph/path` | `GET` | Shortest path: `?source=&target=&algorithm=bfs&directed=true` |
| `/api/graph/search` | `POST` | Indexed search: body: `{query, limit, filters, anchor_node}` |
| `/api/graph/distance-matrix` | `POST` | Pairwise distances: body: `{node_ids, metric}` (max 50 nodes) |
| `/api/graph/semantic-neighborhood` | `GET` | Semantic neighbors: `?node_id=&top_k=20&min_similarity=0.0` |

**Analytics:**

| Endpoint | Method | Description |
| :-------- | :------ | :----------- |
| `/api/analytics` | `GET` | Graph metrics: `?metrics=centrality,community,connectivity` |
| `/api/analytics/validation` | `GET` | Graph validation report |

**Enrich:**

| Endpoint | Method | Description |
| :-------- | :------ | :----------- |
| `/api/enrich/extract` | `POST` | Entity extraction from text |
| `/api/enrich/links` | `POST` | Link prediction for nodes |
| `/api/enrich/dedup` | `POST` | Duplicate detection |
| `/api/enrich/merge` | `POST` | Merge duplicate nodes |
| `/api/reason` | `POST` | Run reasoning over graph |

**Temporal:**

| Endpoint | Method | Description |
| :-------- | :------ | :----------- |
| `/api/temporal/snapshot` | `GET` | Graph snapshot at `?at=ISO8601` (defaults to now) |
| `/api/temporal/diff` | `GET` | Diff between two times: `?from_time=&to_time=` |
| `/api/temporal/patterns` | `GET` | Temporal activity patterns |
| `/api/temporal/bounds` | `GET` | Earliest and latest temporal bounds in graph |
| `/api/temporal/distance-history` | `GET` | Distance history: `?source=&target=` |

**Ontology:**

| Endpoint | Method | Description |
| :-------- | :------ | :----------- |
| `/api/ontology/registry` | `GET` | List loaded ontologies |
| `/api/ontology/load` | `POST` | Load an ontology from URL or content |
| `/api/ontology/create` | `POST` | Create a new ontology |
| `/api/ontology/search` | `GET` | Search ontology entities: `?q=term` |
| `/api/ontology/health` | `GET` | Ontology health and coverage metrics |
| `/api/ontology/alignments` | `GET/POST` | List or create ontology alignments |
| `/api/ontology/suggest-alignments` | `POST` | AI-suggested alignments |
| `/api/ontology/shacl/generate` | `POST` | Generate SHACL shapes |
| `/api/ontology/shacl/validate` | `POST` | Validate RDF against SHACL |
| `/api/ontology/skos/schemes` | `GET` | List SKOS concept schemes |
| `/api/ontology/skos/concept/{uri}` | `GET` | Get a SKOS concept |
| `/api/ontology/proposals` | `GET/POST` | Manage ontology change proposals |
| `/api/ontology/versions/{uri}` | `GET` | Version history |

**Vocabulary:**

| Endpoint | Method | Description |
| :-------- | :------ | :----------- |
| `/api/vocabulary/schemes` | `GET` | SKOS schemes via TripletStore |
| `/api/vocabulary/concepts` | `GET` | Concepts in a scheme: `?scheme=URI` |
| `/api/vocabulary/hierarchy` | `GET` | Concept hierarchy tree |
| `/api/vocabulary/import` | `POST` | Import SKOS/RDF vocabulary file |

**SPARQL:**

| Endpoint | Method | Description |
| :-------- | :------ | :----------- |
| `/api/sparql` | `POST` | Execute a SPARQL SELECT or ASK query |

**Decisions:**

| Endpoint | Method | Description |
| :-------- | :------ | :----------- |
| `/api/decisions` | `GET` | Paginated list of recorded decisions |
| `/api/decisions/{id}` | `GET` | Single decision details |
| `/api/decisions/{id}/chain` | `GET` | Causal chain for a decision |
| `/api/decisions/{id}/precedents` | `GET` | Similar past decisions |
| `/api/decisions/{id}/compliance` | `GET` | Policy compliance check |
| `/api/decisions/causal-distance` | `GET` | Causal distance: `?source=&target=` |

**Provenance:**

| Endpoint | Method | Description |
| :-------- | :------ | :----------- |
| `/api/provenance` | `GET` | Entity provenance lineage: `?node_id=` |
| `/api/provenance/report` | `GET` | Provenance export report: `?node_id=` |

**Annotations:**

| Endpoint | Method | Description |
| :-------- | :------ | :----------- |
| `/api/annotations` | `GET` | List annotations: `?node_id=` (optional) |
| `/api/annotations` | `POST` | Create annotation (returns 201) |
| `/api/annotations/{id}` | `DELETE` | Delete annotation (returns 204) |

**Export / Import:**

| Endpoint | Method | Description |
| :-------- | :------ | :----------- |
| `/api/export` | `POST` | Export graph as JSON or CSV: body: `{format, node_ids}` |
| `/api/export/distance-enriched` | `POST` | Export pairwise distances as CSV or JSONL |
| `/api/import` | `POST` | Import nodes/edges from `.json` or `.csv` file (max 50 MB) |

| Endpoint | Method | Description |
| :-------- | :------ | :----------- |
| `/api/health` | `GET` | Returns `{"status": "ok"}` |
| `/api/info` | `GET` | Server name, version, status |
| `/docs` | `GET` | Interactive Swagger UI: all endpoints |

WebSocket Graph Updates

Real-time graph mutation events are streamed over WebSocket at ws://localhost:8000/ws/graph-updates:

import asyncio
import json
import websockets

async def watch_updates():
    async with websockets.connect("ws://localhost:8000/ws/graph-updates") as ws:
        # Server sends an ack on connect
        ack = json.loads(await ws.recv())
        print("Connected:", ack)

        # Send a ping to verify the connection is alive
        await ws.send("ping")

        async for message in ws:
            event = json.loads(message)
            print("[{}] {}".format(event["event"], event.get("data")))

asyncio.run(watch_updates())

WebSocket message schema:

{
  "event":     "graph_mutation",
  "data": {
    "event_type":  "ADD_NODE",
    "entity_id":   "node_123",
    "payload":     {}
  },
  "timestamp": "2024-01-15T10:30:00+00:00"
}

Event types broadcast over the WebSocket include: connection_ack, pong, and graph_mutation (fired when nodes or edges are added/updated/removed via import or enrichment). Send the text "ping" to receive a pong response.

**Session state is lost on server restart.** There is no auto-save. Call `POST /api/export` with body `{"format": "json"}` to download the current state before shutting down.

Performance

Scenario	Latency
Node search (118k nodes, indexed)	0.004ms
Neighbor expansion (depth 2)	< 5ms
BFS path (118k nodes)	< 50ms
SPARQL SELECT (simple pattern)	< 20ms
Distance matrix (50 nodes, semantic)	~2s (with embedding cache)

The node search index is built on startup. For graphs > 500k nodes, allow extra startup time before connecting.

Distance matrix is capped at 50 node pairs per request. Semantic distance requires nodes to have embeddings stored in their properties.

Troubleshooting

Browser tab does not open The browser is launched 1.5 seconds after the server starts. Use --no-browser and open http://127.0.0.1:8000 manually if the auto-open fails.

Error: graph file not found The --graph path must be an existing file. Check the path and ensure the file exists before launching.

Error: uvicorn is required Install the explorer extras: pip install "semantica[explorer]".

Connection refused on API calls The server only binds to 127.0.0.1 by default. To access Explorer from another machine or container, launch with --host 0.0.0.0.

Empty graph after import The import endpoint (/api/import) only parses .json and .csv files. Other formats return HTTP 422. JSON files must contain a top-level entities/nodes array or relationships/edges array.

PathFinder not available error from /api/graph/path Path finding requires the semantica[kg] extras. Install with pip install "semantica[all]".

Semantic neighborhood returns 503 Semantic neighborhood requires node embeddings stored in node properties (keys embedding, vector, or node2vec_embedding). Graphs without embeddings return 503.

Session state lost after restart Session state is in-memory only. Use POST /api/export to save a JSON snapshot before shutting down.

• Context — Build and save the ContextGraph that Explorer loads.
• Ontology — Programmatic ontology management and SHACL generation.
• Visualization — Programmatic graph rendering without the Explorer server.
• Export — Export to RDF, Parquet, and other formats without launching a server.