rdfdiff

rdfdiff reads an RDF file's Git history as changes to its vocabulary, rather than as changed characters. It reports classes, properties, individuals,

Equivalent RDF serializations produce no semantic change, so reformatting, prefix changes, reordered triples, and blank-node relabeling do not hide actual ontology evolution.

Install

uv tool install rdfdiff

Or run the current checkout:

uv run semanticdiff log --repo /path/to/ontology-repository

Use

Summarize every commit that changed an RDF file:

semanticdiff log v0.1..v0.2 --repo /path/to/ontology-repository --file ontology.ttl

Trace one entity through a revision range:

semanticdiff show ex:Product v0.1..HEAD --repo /path/to/ontology-repository --file ontology.ttl

When a repository has exactly one tracked RDF file, --file is optional. Use --text with log to append Git's raw hunks after the semantic report.

Library API

from rdflib import Graph
from semanticdiff import compare

changes = compare(before_graph, after_graph)

read_history(repo, revision_range, path) pairs each commit touching path with its semantic change set. The public vocabulary is exported from the package root: Change, ChangeKind, ChangeSet, CommitChanges, and EntityKind.

Development

uv sync --extra dev
uv run ruff check .
uv run ruff format --check .
uv run mypy semanticdiff
uv run pytest -q

The distribution is named rdfdiff; its Python import and command-line command remain semanticdiff. The project deliberately has no dependency on Ster. Ster can consume it as an optional integration, but the diff engine and command-line tool remain usable with any RDF repository.

Releases

Releases are published to PyPI by the pypi-publish.yml GitHub Actions workflow when a v* tag is pushed. PyPI trusted publishing must be configured for the gbelbe/semanticdiff repository, the pypi-publish.yml workflow, and the pypi environment before the first release tag is created. The pending PyPI publisher must use the rdfdiff project name.