APIs for reasoning Link to API4KB Main Page

• Check for logical consistency, satisfiability
• Check for deductive closure (if appropriate)
• Provide basic classification (subsumption, identity reasoning)
• Provide / identify inferred facts, and materialized in the knowledge base, indicate which are inferred
• Explanation support

Meta-APIs

• Supported languages, formats
• Provide metrics, similar to what is done today for Protégé
• Provide indication of reasoner capabilities
  • how expressive
  • what operations are supported

Additional Requirements

• Support both batch and dynamic interfaces
  • e.g., assertion/retraction of facts at run time
• Support for multiple reasoners, kinds of reasoning
  • e.g., DL, DL approximation (such as TrOWL), various OWL profiles, OWL “Full” with punning, RDF entailment
  • semantic profiles e.g. different entailment regimes

So, looking at the requirements: we would like to build a KB incrementally, check its consistency and either confirm or undo some of the changes. I don't see anything that mandates the transactional approach. The consistency check should not be a problem:

* CheckConsistency(

  in URL knowledgeBase
  out boolean isKBConsistent );

REST mapping : POST

(Apparently trivial API, but we should define what “consistent” means in the general case vs pure ontology KBs)

Questions