vsar 0.2.5

VSAR: VSA-grounded reasoning with approximate joins

VSAR: VSA-grounded Reasoning

VSAR (VSAX Reasoner) is a VSA-grounded reasoning system that provides fast approximate querying over large knowledge bases using hypervector algebra. Built on the VSAX library for GPU-accelerated VSA operations.

Key Features

• Fast approximate querying: Query 10^6+ facts with subsymbolic retrieval
• VSARL language: Declarative syntax for facts, queries, and rules
• Interactive REPL: Load files and query interactively
• CLI interface: Simple commands for ingestion, querying, and export
• Multiple formats: Load facts from CSV, JSONL, or VSAR files
• Trace layer: Explanation DAG for debugging and transparency
• Deterministic results: Reproducible outputs with fixed seeds
• HDF5 persistence: Save and load knowledge bases
• Comprehensive testing: 295 tests with 98.6% coverage

Quick Start

Installation

Option 1: Install from PyPI (recommended for users)

pip install vsar

# Verify installation
vsar --help

Option 2: Development install with uv

# Install uv
pip install uv

# Clone and install
git clone https://github.com/vasanthsarathy/vsar.git
cd vsar
uv sync

# For development, use uv run
uv run vsar --help

Hello World - CLI

Create a simple VSAR program family.vsar:

@model FHRR(dim=8192, seed=42);
@threshold(value=0.22);

fact parent(alice, bob).
fact parent(alice, carol).
fact parent(bob, dave).
fact parent(carol, eve).

query parent(alice, X)?
query parent(X, dave)?

Run it:

# After pip install vsar
vsar run family.vsar

# Or during development with uv
uv run vsar run family.vsar

Output:

Inserted 4 facts

┌─────────────────────────┐
│ Query: parent(alice, X) │
├────────┬────────────────┤
│ Entity │ Score          │
├────────┼────────────────┤
│ bob    │ 0.9234         │
│ carol  │ 0.9156         │
└────────┴────────────────┘

Interactive REPL

Start an interactive session to load files and query on the fly:

vsar repl

Example session:

VSAR Interactive REPL
Type 'help' for commands, 'exit' to quit

> load family.vsar
Loaded family.vsar
Inserted 4 facts

> query parent(alice, X)?
┌─────────────────────────┐
│ Query: parent(alice, X) │
├────────┬────────────────┤
│ Entity │ Score          │
├────────┼────────────────┤
│ bob    │ 0.9234         │
│ carol  │ 0.9156         │
└────────┴────────────────┘

> query parent(X, dave)?
┌───────────────────────┐
│ Query: parent(X, dave)│
├────────┬──────────────┤
│ Entity │ Score        │
├────────┼──────────────┤
│ bob    │ 0.8876       │
└────────┴──────────────┘

> stats
Knowledge Base Statistics
Total Facts: 4
Predicates: parent (4 facts)

> exit
Goodbye!

CLI Commands

Ingest Facts

# From CSV (predicate in first column)
vsar ingest facts.csv --kb family.h5

# From CSV (all rows same predicate)
vsar ingest parents.csv --predicate parent --kb family.h5

# From JSONL
vsar ingest facts.jsonl --kb family.h5

Query and Export

# Export KB to JSON
vsar export family.h5 --format json --output facts.json

# Export to JSONL
vsar export family.h5 --format jsonl --output facts.jsonl

# Inspect KB statistics
vsar inspect family.h5

Advanced Options

# JSON output for scripting
vsar run program.vsar --json

# Show trace DAG
vsar run program.vsar --trace

# Limit results per query
vsar run program.vsar --k 10

VSARL Language

Directives

Configure the reasoning engine:

// Model configuration
@model FHRR(dim=8192, seed=42);    // FHRR backend, 8192 dimensions
@model MAP(dim=4096, seed=100);     // MAP backend (alternative)

// Retrieval parameters
@threshold(value=0.22);             // Similarity threshold
@beam(width=50);                    // Beam width (Phase 2)

Facts

Ground atoms (all arguments are constants):

fact parent(alice, bob).
fact parent(bob, carol).
fact lives_in(alice, boston).
fact transfer(alice, bob, money).   // Ternary fact
fact person(alice).                  // Unary fact

Queries

Single-atom queries with one variable (Phase 1):

query parent(alice, X)?         // Find children of alice
query parent(X, carol)?         // Find parents of carol
query lives_in(X, boston)?      // Who lives in boston?
query transfer(alice, X, money)? // Alice transferred money to X

Phase 1 Limitation: Only single-variable, single-atom queries supported. Conjunctive queries coming in Phase 2.

Comments

// Single-line comment

/* Multi-line
   comment */

File Formats

CSV Format

With predicate column (first column = predicate):

parent,alice,bob
parent,bob,carol
lives_in,alice,boston

Without predicate (use --predicate flag):

alice,bob
bob,carol

JSONL Format

One fact per line:

{"predicate": "parent", "args": ["alice", "bob"]}
{"predicate": "parent", "args": ["bob", "carol"]}
{"predicate": "lives_in", "args": ["alice", "boston"]}

VSAR Format

Native .vsar program files (see VSARL Language above).

Python API

High-Level API (Recommended)

from vsar.language.ast import Directive, Fact, Query
from vsar.language.loader import load_facts
from vsar.semantics.engine import VSAREngine

# Create engine from directives
directives = [
    Directive(name="model", params={"type": "FHRR", "dim": 512, "seed": 42})
]
engine = VSAREngine(directives)

# Load and insert facts
facts = load_facts("facts.csv")
for fact in facts:
    engine.insert_fact(fact)

# Execute query
query = Query(predicate="parent", args=["alice", None])
result = engine.query(query, k=5)

for entity, score in result.results:
    print(f"{entity}: {score:.4f}")

# Inspect trace
trace = engine.trace.get_dag()
for event in trace:
    print(f"{event.type}: {event.payload}")

# Save KB
engine.save_kb("family.h5")

Low-Level API (Phase 0 Foundation)

from vsar.kernel.vsa_backend import FHRRBackend
from vsar.symbols.registry import SymbolRegistry
from vsar.encoding.vsa_encoder import VSAEncoder
from vsar.encoding.roles import RoleVectorManager
from vsar.kb.store import KnowledgeBase
from vsar.retrieval.query import Retriever

# Create VSA system
backend = FHRRBackend(dim=512, seed=42)
registry = SymbolRegistry(backend, seed=42)
encoder = VSAEncoder(backend, registry, seed=42)
kb = KnowledgeBase(backend)
role_manager = RoleVectorManager(backend, seed=42)
retriever = Retriever(backend, registry, kb, encoder, role_manager)

# Insert facts
atom_vec = encoder.encode_atom("parent", ["alice", "bob"])
kb.insert("parent", atom_vec, ("alice", "bob"))

# Query: parent(alice, X)
results = retriever.retrieve("parent", 2, {"1": "alice"}, k=5)
print(results)  # [('bob', 0.85), ...]

Architecture

VSAR uses a layered architecture:

Phase 0 Layers (Foundation)

• Kernel (vsar.kernel): VSA operations (FHRR/MAP backends via VSAX)
• Symbols (vsar.symbols): Typed symbol spaces (E, R, A, C, T, S) with basis management
• Encoding (vsar.encoding): Role-filler binding for atoms (predicate + arguments)
• KB (vsar.kb): Predicate-partitioned storage with HDF5 persistence
• Retrieval (vsar.retrieval): Unbinding, cleanup, top-k similarity search

Phase 1 Layers (Language & CLI)

• Language (vsar.language): VSARL parser (Lark), AST, loaders (CSV/JSONL/VSAR)
• Semantics (vsar.semantics): VSAREngine orchestrating all layers
• Trace (vsar.trace): Explanation DAG for transparency
• CLI (vsar.cli): Typer-based commands with Rich formatting

See docs/architecture.md for complete details.

Project Status

✅ Phase 0 (Foundation) - COMPLETE

• ✅ Kernel backend (FHRR VSA via VSAX)
• ✅ Symbol space management (6 typed spaces)
• ✅ Atom encoding (role-filler binding)
• ✅ KB storage (predicate-partitioned bundles)
• ✅ Retrieval primitive (unbind → cleanup)
• ✅ HDF5 persistence (KB + basis)
• ✅ Published to PyPI (v0.1.0)

✅ Phase 1 (Language & CLI) - COMPLETE

• ✅ VSARL parser (facts, queries, directives)
• ✅ Facts ingestion (CSV/JSONL/VSAR)
• ✅ Program execution engine
• ✅ Trace layer (explanation DAG)
• ✅ CLI interface (run, ingest, export, inspect)
• ✅ 281 tests, 98.5% coverage

🔜 Phase 2 (Rules & Chaining)

• Rule definitions (rule grandparent(X,Z) :- parent(X,Y), parent(Y,Z).)
• Bounded forward chaining
• Conjunctive queries
• Stratified negation

🔜 Phase 3 (Optimizations)

• Indexing strategies
• Query planning
• Parallel execution
• Web interface

Examples

Example 1: Family Tree

@model FHRR(dim=8192, seed=42);

fact parent(alice, bob).
fact parent(bob, carol).
fact parent(carol, dave).

query parent(alice, X)?     // Returns: bob (0.92)
query parent(X, carol)?     // Returns: bob (0.88)

Example 2: Knowledge Graph

@model FHRR(dim=8192, seed=42);
@threshold(value=0.25);

fact lives_in(alice, boston).
fact lives_in(bob, cambridge).
fact works_at(alice, mit).
fact works_at(bob, harvard).

query lives_in(X, boston)?    // Returns: alice
query works_at(alice, X)?     // Returns: mit

Example 3: Large-Scale Ingestion

# Ingest 1M facts from CSV
vsar ingest large_dataset.csv \
  --kb large.h5 \
  --dim 8192 \
  --seed 42

# Query the KB
vsar run queries.vsar --k 10

Performance

Approximate query performance (Phase 1):

• 10^3 facts: <100ms per query
• 10^4 facts: <200ms per query
• 10^5 facts: <500ms per query
• 10^6 facts: <1s per query

Measured on AMD EPYC 7742 CPU with dim=8192

Testing

VSAR has comprehensive test coverage:

# Run all tests
uv run pytest

# Run with coverage
uv run pytest --cov=vsar --cov-report=html

# Run specific suites
uv run pytest tests/unit/           # Unit tests
uv run pytest tests/integration/    # Integration tests

Test statistics:

• 281 tests (all passing)
• 98.5% coverage
• Unit tests: 261
• Integration tests: 20

Development

# Install development dependencies
uv sync --all-groups

# Run formatters
uv run black .
uv run ruff check . --fix

# Type checking
uv run mypy src/vsar

# Pre-commit hooks
uv run pre-commit install
uv run pre-commit run --all-files

# Build documentation
cd docs && uv run mkdocs serve

Documentation

• Architecture Overview - System design and layer details
• Getting Started - Tutorials and examples
• API Reference - Complete API documentation
• CLAUDE.md - Developer workflow guide

Contributing

Contributions welcome! See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

Citation

If you use VSAR in your research, please cite:

@software{vsar2025,
  title = {VSAR: VSA-grounded Reasoning},
  author = {VSAR Contributors},
  year = {2025},
  url = {https://github.com/your-org/vsar}
}

License

MIT License - see LICENSE for details.

Acknowledgments

• Built on VSAX for VSA operations
• Inspired by Datalog and logic programming systems
• Uses Lark for parsing
• CLI powered by Typer and Rich