CLI Reference¶

The shifty binary provides commands for validation and inference, plus inspect and version commands for pipeline introspection and build identification. Shapes files and data files can be local paths or HTTP/HTTPS URLs; both --shapes and --data are repeatable to merge multiple files.

Install¶

# Build and install from the workspace:
cargo install --path crates/shifty-cli

# Or build without installing:
cargo build --release -p shifty-cli
./target/release/shifty --help

Print the installed CLI version:

shifty version

validate¶

Validate a data graph against a SHACL shapes graph:

shifty validate --shapes shapes.ttl --data data.ttl

Note

--data defaults to --shapes when omitted. So shifty validate --shapes combined.ttl reads shapes and data from the one file, while --shapes shapes.ttl --data data.ttl compiles the schema only from --shapes — SHACL vocabulary in the --data graph is ignored, never turned into constraints. Both --shapes and --data are repeatable and unioned, so to validate against shapes embedded in your data, add that file as an extra --shapes source. See Shapes and data graphs.

Default output is a human-readable summary:

conforms: false
violations: 1
  <http://example.org/bob>  [target: ∃ rdf:type .⊤]
      - (ex:name) 123 → expected datatype xsd:string

Emit a W3C sh:ValidationReport in Turtle:

shifty validate --shapes shapes.ttl --data data.ttl --report

JSON output:

shifty validate --shapes shapes.ttl --data data.ttl --format json

Skip SHACL-AF rule inference (validation only, no sh:rule expansion):

shifty validate --shapes shapes.ttl --data data.ttl --no-infer

Graph mode¶

The --graph-mode flag controls which triples are visible to path traversal and SPARQL evaluation during validation.

Mode	Description
`data`	Focus nodes come from the data graph; path traversal and SPARQL use the data graph only
`union` (default)	Focus nodes from data; paths and SPARQL use data ∪ shapes
`union-all`	Focus nodes and evaluation both use data ∪ shapes

shifty validate --shapes shapes.ttl --data data.ttl --graph-mode union
shifty validate --shapes shapes.ttl --data data.ttl --graph-mode union-all

Named Shape Entry Points¶

Use --shape-name to validate only selected named shapes as top-level entry points. The flag is repeatable, and --entry-shape is an alias.

shifty validate \
  --shapes shapes.ttl \
  --data data.ttl \
  --shape-name http://example.org/PersonShape

Only target-bearing statements owned by the selected named shapes are used as entry points. Referenced helper shapes are still evaluated normally, so dependencies reached through sh:node, sh:property, qualified value shapes, and boolean shape expressions keep their usual semantics. Shape names may be passed as bare IRIs or wrapped in angle brackets.

infer¶

Run SHACL-AF sh:rule entries to a fixed point, then print the derived triples:

shifty infer --shapes rules.ttl --data data.ttl

Output:

inferred 3 triple(s):
  <http://example.org/r1> <http://example.org/area> "6"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#integer>
  ...

If the rules are embedded in the data graph, omit --data and pass a single file:

shifty infer --shapes combined.ttl

To write the full graph (original + inferred) to a Turtle file:

shifty infer --shapes rules.ttl --data data.ttl --output result.ttl

inspect¶

inspect reveals the internal pipeline stages so you can see exactly how shifty interprets a shapes graph.

# Raw triples after parsing
shifty inspect --stage rdf shapes.ttl

# Lowered algebraic IR (φ/π notation)
shifty inspect --stage algebra shapes.ttl

# After normalization and common-subexpression elimination
shifty inspect --stage normalized shapes.ttl

# Stratification analysis (recursion detection)
shifty inspect --stage strata shapes.ttl

# Physical plan: focus sources + cost-ordered shape checks
shifty inspect --stage plan shapes.ttl

# SPARQL constraint capability: native vs. Spareval fallback
shifty inspect --stage capability shapes.ttl

All stages support --format text (default) and --format json. The algebra and normalized stages also accept --format dot for Graphviz output.

For the full Rust API, see docs.rs/shifty-engine.