Patch reference (OntoIndex v0.8)

Status: Documents behavior in OntoIndex v0.8.0. Pre-1.0 APIs may change. Canonical feature list: What ships today.

Turtle write-back uses a JSON array of patch operations. The CLI (ontoindex patch) and LSP (ontoindex/applyAxiomPatch) accept the same format.

Source of truth: patch.rs on GitHub

Format

• JSON array of operation objects
• Each object has an "op" field (snake_case)
• Turtle (.ttl) documents only

Operations

op	Required fields	Description
create_entity	entity_iri, kind	Create class, property, or individual
delete_entity	entity_iri	Remove entity block from file
set_label	entity_iri, value	Replace all rdfs:label values with one
add_label	entity_iri, value	Add a label
remove_label	entity_iri, value	Remove a matching label
set_comment	entity_iri, value	Replace all rdfs:comment values
add_comment	entity_iri, value	Add a comment
remove_comment	entity_iri, value	Remove a matching comment
add_sub_class_of	entity_iri, parent_iri	Add rdfs:subClassOf parent (named class IRI)
remove_sub_class_of	entity_iri, parent_iri	Remove a subClassOf axiom
add_complex_sub_class_of	entity_iri, manchester	Add complex SubClassOf from Manchester expression
remove_complex_sub_class_of	entity_iri, manchester	Remove complex SubClassOf matching Manchester text
add_equivalent_class	entity_iri, manchester	Add owl:equivalentClass from Manchester expression
remove_equivalent_class	entity_iri, manchester	Remove equivalent class axiom
set_equivalent_class	entity_iri, manchester	Replace equivalent class axioms with one expression
add_disjoint_class	entity_iri, other_iri	Add owl:disjointWith to another named class
remove_disjoint_class	entity_iri, other_iri	Remove a disjointWith axiom
set_deprecated	entity_iri, value	Set owl:deprecated (true or false)

kind values for create_entity

class, object_property, data_property, annotation_property, individual

Examples

Create a class with label and parent

[
  {
    "op": "create_entity",
    "entity_iri": "http://example.org/people#Student",
    "kind": "class"
  },
  {
    "op": "add_label",
    "entity_iri": "http://example.org/people#Student",
    "value": "Student"
  },
  {
    "op": "add_sub_class_of",
    "entity_iri": "http://example.org/people#Student",
    "parent_iri": "http://example.org/people#Person"
  }
]

Edit labels and comments

[
  {
    "op": "set_label",
    "entity_iri": "http://example.org/people#Person",
    "value": "Human being"
  },
  {
    "op": "add_comment",
    "entity_iri": "http://example.org/people#Person",
    "value": "A human person."
  }
]

Create an object property

[
  {
    "op": "create_entity",
    "entity_iri": "http://example.org/people#knows",
    "kind": "object_property"
  },
  {
    "op": "add_label",
    "entity_iri": "http://example.org/people#knows",
    "value": "knows"
  }
]

Mark deprecated and delete

[
  {
    "op": "set_deprecated",
    "entity_iri": "http://example.org/people#LegacyClass",
    "value": true
  }
]

[
  {
    "op": "delete_entity",
    "entity_iri": "http://example.org/people#LegacyClass"
  }
]

Complex subclass (Manchester)

[
  {
    "op": "add_complex_sub_class_of",
    "entity_iri": "http://example.org/clinic#Patient",
    "manchester": "ex:hasRecord some ex:MedicalRecord"
  }
]

Equivalent class (Manchester)

[
  {
    "op": "set_equivalent_class",
    "entity_iri": "http://example.org/clinic#Staff",
    "manchester": "ex:Employee"
  }
]

Disjoint classes

[
  {
    "op": "add_disjoint_class",
    "entity_iri": "http://example.org/org#Cat",
    "other_iri": "http://example.org/org#Dog"
  }
]

CLI usage

# Preview changes (stdout JSON, no write)
ontoindex patch ./ontology.ttl patches.json --preview

# Apply patches
ontoindex patch ./ontology.ttl patches.json

# Validate after apply
ontoindex validate .

Response shape (ApplyPatchResult)

{
  "applied": true,
  "preview_text": "...",
  "diagnostics": [],
  "document_path": "/path/to/ontology.ttl"
}

• applied: true when changes were written (false for --preview or on error)
• preview_text: resulting Turtle text when content changed
• diagnostics: patch errors (non-empty means apply failed)

LSP usage

Method: ontoindex/applyAxiomPatch

{
  "document_uri": "file:///path/to/ontology.ttl",
  "patches": [
    { "op": "add_label", "entity_iri": "http://ex#Person", "value": "Human" }
  ],
  "preview_only": false
}

See lsp-api.md and authoring.md.

Limitations (v0.8)

• Turtle only; RDF/XML, OWL/XML, JSON-LD are read-only
• Simple add_sub_class_of parent must be a named class IRI; use Manchester ops (add_complex_sub_class_of, add_equivalent_class, etc.) for class expressions
• Manchester: SubClassOf, EquivalentClasses, and DisjointClasses — property chains are view-only in the axiom catalog
• Patch engine uses targeted text edits; unusual formatting may need manual review