rdflib-reasoning-engine 0.3.0

RETE-based RDFS and OWL 2 RL entailment for RDFLib

RDFLib Reasoning Engine

Agentic AI should be able to take advantage of basic reasoning in an efficient manner.

RDFS and OWL 2 RL reasoning define the semantics for two entailment regimes. These regimes can be computed using forward-chaining rules, though practical approaches may also benefit from special handling for transitive closures. The rdflib-reasoning-engine package provides an efficient general purpose forward chaining rule engine (i.e., RETE) that works with RDFLib.

Tutorials and demos

If you want to see the current RDFS inference surface in action, start with:

• ../notebooks/demo-rdfs-inference.ipynb: compact end-to-end tutorial for RDFLib-backed RDFS materialization plus a proof view of the rule applications behind one inferred triple
• ../notebooks/demo-proof-reconstructor.ipynb: proof-focused companion notebook covering proof reconstruction, Mermaid rendering, markdown rendering, and raw proof inspection

Feature Matrix

Status values:

• Implemented: available in the package today
• In progress: scaffolding or partial implementation exists, but the feature is not yet wired end-to-end
• Not started: identified feature target with no concrete implementation yet

RDFS entailment rules

This matrix tracks the intermediate RDFS rule target using the cached RDF 1.1 Semantics specification at docs/specs/rdf11-semantics/optimized.html. The informative RDFS entailment rules are identified there as rdfs1 through rdfs13.

Feature	Spec reference	Status
Property typing	rdfs1	Implemented
Domain inference	rdfs2	Implemented
Range inference	rdfs3	Implemented
Resource typing axioms	rdfs4a, rdfs4b	Implemented
Subproperty transitivity	rdfs5	Implemented
Every property is a subproperty of itself	rdfs6	Implemented
Subproperty inheritance	rdfs7	Implemented
Class typing for rdfs:Class	rdfs8	Implemented
Subclass typing propagation	rdfs9	Implemented
Every class is a subclass of itself	rdfs10	Implemented
Subclass transitivity	rdfs11	Implemented
Container membership property inheritance	rdfs12	Implemented
Datatype subclass typing	rdfs13	Implemented

OWL 2 RL rules

The authoritative local reference for this matrix is docs/specs/owl2-reasoning-profiles/INDEX.md, which indexes Section 4.3 of the cached OWL 2 Profiles specification.

Feature	Spec reference	Status
Equality rules	eq-ref, eq-sym, eq-trans, eq-rep-s, eq-rep-p, eq-rep-o, eq-diff1, eq-diff2, eq-diff3	Not started
Property assertion and typing rules	prp-ap, prp-dom, prp-rng	Not started
Functional and inverse-functional property rules	prp-fp, prp-ifp	Not started
Irreflexive, symmetric, asymmetric, and transitive property rules	prp-irp, prp-symp, prp-asyp, prp-trp	Not started
Subproperty, equivalent property, and property disjointness rules	prp-spo1, prp-spo2, prp-eqp1, prp-eqp2, prp-pdw, prp-adp	Not started
Inverse property rules	prp-inv1, prp-inv2	Not started
Key and negative property assertion rules	prp-key, prp-npa1, prp-npa2	Not started
Core class rules	cls-thing, cls-nothing1, cls-nothing2, cls-int1, cls-int2, cls-uni, cls-com, cls-oo	Not started
Some/all values from and has-value rules	cls-svf1, cls-svf2, cls-avf, cls-hv1, cls-hv2	Not started
Max cardinality rules	cls-maxc1, cls-maxc2, cls-maxqc1, cls-maxqc2, cls-maxqc3, cls-maxqc4	Not started
Class axiom rules	cax-sco, cax-eqc1, cax-eqc2, cax-dw, cax-adc	Not started
Datatype rules	dt-type1, dt-type2, dt-eq, dt-diff, dt-not-type	Not started
Schema vocabulary rules	scm-cls, scm-sco, scm-eqc1, scm-eqc2, scm-op, scm-dp, scm-spo, scm-eqp1, scm-eqp2, scm-dom1, scm-dom2, scm-rng1, scm-rng2, scm-hv, scm-svf1, scm-svf2, scm-avf1, scm-avf2, scm-int, scm-uni	Not started

Engine capabilities

This matrix tracks functional engine features independent of standards coverage.

Feature	Status	Notes
Alpha memory / node support	Implemented	Shared alpha nodes perform literal filtering and retain persistent alpha memory across incremental updates
Beta memory / join node support	Implemented	Shared beta nodes perform left-deep joins and retain persistent partial-match memory across incremental updates
Triple pattern matching	Implemented	Public Rule IR, compiler normalization, and NetworkMatcher execute RDFLib-variable triple patterns end-to-end
Rule firing and agenda management	Implemented	Agenda orders activations by salience and breadth-first depth; richer conflict resolution policy remains future work
Inference materialization	Implemented	Compiled logical productions execute to fixed point in RETEEngine, and RETEStore materializes inferred triples into RDFLib contexts
RDF triple well-formedness enforcement	Implemented	The engine rejects or warns-and-skips triples with literal subjects or non-IRI predicates, preventing malformed triples from entering working memory or derived outputs
Builtin predicate / function support	Implemented	Predicate conditions compile and execute through the RETE matcher using injected read-only predicate hooks
Rule action callbacks	Implemented	Callback consequents execute through the agenda with read-only invocation context; richer signature validation and retraction-time policy remain future work
Derivation / trace logging	Implemented	Engine-native DerivationRecord values are emitted for new logical conclusions produced by fired rules
JTMS-compatible support bookkeeping	Implemented	WorkingMemory, DependencyGraph, and Justification records track stated facts and multi-parent support for derived facts; recursive retraction remains future work
Explanation reconstruction	Implemented	DerivationProofReconstructor rebuilds DirectProof trees from non-silent derivation records for triple-goal explanations
Proof rendering (markdown and Mermaid)	Implemented	Presentation-focused rendering over canonical DirectProof data includes namespace-aware shortening and notebook display adapters via optional extras
Contradiction / inconsistency handling	Not started	Detecting, surfacing, or managing incompatible conclusions
Specialized transitive relation index	Not started	Intended optimization path for rdfs:subClassOf and rdfs:subPropertyOf first; broader general transitive-property support remains a later design question

Current integration baseline

The supported RDFLib integration path is Store events -> BatchDispatcher -> RETEStore -> RETEEngine.

The rdflib-reasoning-engine package is part of the rdflib-reasoning metapackage.