Known limitations (v0.18)¶
Honest limits for evaluators and new users. Capability matrix: What ships today. Desktop parity gate: v0.18 assessment on GitHub.
Editable formats¶
| Can edit (write-back) | Index / browse / query only |
|---|---|
Turtle (.ttl) | OWL/XML (.owl, .owx) |
OBO (.obo) | RDF/XML (.rdf, .xml), JSON-LD, N-Triples, N-Quads, TriG |
Entity Inspector and patch write-back apply to .ttl and .obo only. Opening a typical Protégé .owl corpus works for browse and query; convert or dual-maintain Turtle for editing. See Supported formats and OWL/XML workflow.
Catalog SQL (subset)¶
ontocore query and Query Workbench SQL mode are not full SQL. Supported: single-table SELECT, limited WHERE (=, !=, AND, OR, booleans). No JOIN, GROUP BY, ORDER BY, or LIMIT. Prefer SPARQL for graph patterns. Details: SQL reference.
CLI binaries¶
| Platform | Prebuilt CLI tarball | Recommended install |
|---|---|---|
| Linux x64 | Yes (GitHub Releases) | Tarball or cargo install ontocore-cli --locked |
| macOS | No | cargo install ontocore-cli --locked (Rust 1.88+; first build 15–30+ min) |
| Windows | No | cargo install ontocore-cli --locked |
Interactive editing does not need the CLI — use the VS Code / Cursor extension (bundled language server on all platforms).
Plugins and owlmake¶
Plugin host MVP shipped (manifest, permissions, views, preferences, context actions). A stable, semver-guaranteed plugin API and full production owlmake integration are v1.0 targets. See Plugin authoring and API stability.
API stability (pre-1.0)¶
Published crates are 0.18.x. Library APIs, LSP JSON, and SQL table columns may change between minor releases until v1.0. Pin in CI: cargo install ontocore-cli --locked --version 0.18.2.
Reasoning¶
EL / RL / RDFS / DL classification ships via Ontologos. Explanations are EL-first; DL clash traces are partial. Start / Synchronize / Classify / Consistency are distinct client workflows; Stop cancels the in-flight client request and ignores late results (the server may still finish CPU-bound classify). See Reasoner guide.
Layout persistence¶
Webview tabs survive VS Code reload. Restored tabs offer Reopen panel using the last saved command + context. Full Protégé-style dock/layout serialization remains a v1.0 IDE-shell item. Named perspectives open a fixed panel set.
Large ontologies¶
Graphs may be truncated (badge in the Graph panel). Prefer narrower search, lower neighborhood depth, or asserted-only mode. See workspace limits.
When not to use OntoCode today¶
- You need in-place OWL/XML or RDF/XML write-back — use Turtle/OBO or Protégé.
- You need full SQL analytics — use SPARQL or an external store.
- You need a stable plugin marketplace API without scaffolding — wait for v1.0 or keep Protégé plugins.
- You need WebProtégé collaboration — out of scope until post-1.0.
More: Start here · Protégé migration · Protégé decision · FAQ