Introspection API

The introspection API provides read-only access to the loaded ontology structure. Use it to explore classes, properties, hierarchies, and relationships at runtime.

All introspection queries go to GET /ontology/introspect with query parameters.

curl http://localhost:8080/ontology/introspect

Returns an array of all classes in the ontology with their hierarchical relationships.

curl "http://localhost:8080/ontology/introspect?class=Dog"

{
  "iri": "Dog",
  "superClasses": ["Mammal", "Animal"],
  "subClasses": ["GoldenRetriever", "Labrador"],
  "disjointWith": ["Cat"],
  "properties": [
    {
      "iri": "hasOwner",
      "type": "ObjectProperty",
      "domain": ["Animal"],
      "range": ["Person"],
      "isFunctional": true
    },
    {
      "iri": "name",
      "type": "DataProperty",
      "range": ["string"],
      "isFunctional": true
    },
    {
      "iri": "breed",
      "type": "DataProperty",
      "domain": ["Dog"],
      "range": ["string"],
      "isFunctional": true
    }
  ]
}

# Direct subclasses only
curl "http://localhost:8080/ontology/introspect?subclasses=Animal"

# All descendants (transitive closure)
curl "http://localhost:8080/ontology/introspect?subclasses=Animal&transitive=true"

# Direct superclasses
curl "http://localhost:8080/ontology/introspect?superclasses=GoldenRetriever"

# All ancestors (transitive closure)
curl "http://localhost:8080/ontology/introspect?superclasses=GoldenRetriever&transitive=true"

• Dynamic UIs: Build forms that adapt to the ontology structure
• Validation: Check if a class exists before inserting data
• Documentation: Auto-generate API docs from the ontology
• Debugging: Verify that the ontology was loaded correctly
• AI agents: Let LLMs explore the ontology to formulate queries