Repair reference

Experimental: this can change at any time

Symbolic repair is experimental. The shifty.experimental.repair Python module, the shifty repair command, and the Rust repair API can change in any release, without a deprecation period. Pin the Shifty version if you depend on them.

Everything here is in shifty.experimental.repair. Failure, Satisfaction, their atom and target types, RepairDelta, and delta_from_graph also stay in shifty, because the stable evidence API returns or takes them.

Repairs edit the data graph. The repair guide shows how to fill templates, check candidate edits, and apply them.

RepairSession

repair.RepairSession(shacl_graph, data_graph=None, *, infer=True, base=None)

Binds a shapes graph and a data graph, running SHACL-AF inference first by default. data_graph=None means the shapes graph embeds the data.

Method	Meaning
witnesses()	The violation horizon: one Failure per failing (focus, statement). Empty exactly when the graph conforms.
witnesses_for(shape_iri)	The same, restricted to statements targeting one shape. Raises ValueError if no shape is named that.
satisfactions_for(shape_iri)	The dual: one Satisfaction per passing focus for that shape, each recording the values matched along every checked path.
gate(delta)	Re-validate G ⊕ ΔG and diff against G. Returns a RepairOutcome. Applies nothing, decides nothing.
advance(delta)	A new session over G ⊕ ΔG, same schema, no re-inference.
apply(delta)	Materialize G ⊕ ΔG as a fresh rdflib.Graph without advancing.
to_graph()	The session’s current graph, with every accepted delta applied.
repair_node_against(node, shape_id)	A tree making node conform to sub-shape shape_id. None if it already does. The building block for a conforms to hole.
describe_shape(shape_id)	A fully expanded, human-readable definition of that shape, every child inlined and no @id indirection.
describe_shape_pretty(shape_id, width=100)	The same definition broken and indented by nesting depth once it exceeds width. Returns the one-line form byte-identical when it already fits, so it is safe to call unconditionally.
diagnostics	Non-fatal lowering warnings and unsupported features. Invalid shapes diagnostics raise while constructing the session.

G ⊕ ΔG applies deletes first, then adds, so a triple present on both sides is a net add.

Failure and Satisfaction

The same objects the Evidence reference interface returns, and stable like it. A Failure records why a focus node fails; a Satisfaction records why it passes. Only repair_tree() is experimental.

FocusWitness and FocusSatisfaction, from 0.3.0, are deprecated aliases for these types. They warn on use and will be removed in 1.0.

Member	Meaning
focus	The focus node.
shape_name	The IRI of the statement’s shape, when it is a named RDF node.
selector	The Target that selected this focus.
statement_id / constraint_id	The join key shared with validate_algebra()’s violations.
summary()	Leaf facts as WitnessAtom / SatAtom, without the tree.
explain()	Human-readable rendering.
walk(), supporting_triples(), path_supports(), matched_values(), missing_obligations(), offending_values(), source_constraints()	The evidence projections; see Evidence reference.
to_json() / to_dict()	Serialization.
repair_tree()	Synthesize the repair template for this failure. Failure only.

RepairTree

The template: a parametric, inspectable description of the whole repair space for one violation. Its structure mirrors the constraint — conjunction becomes “do all”, disjunction becomes “do any one”, a cardinality gap becomes a repeat block.

Member	Meaning
is_blocked	True when no data repair exists in scope for this focus.
explain()	Human-readable rendering of the template.
holes()	Every Hole currently in the tree.
choices()	Every open decision point, as Choice objects.
instantiate(plan)	Fold a RepairPlan over the tree. Returns Instantiated. Pure: validates nothing, chooses nothing.

Node kinds, as they appear in explain() output:

Kind	Meaning
Noop	Already satisfied; the empty repair.
Blocked	Unrepairable in scope, with a reason.
Edits	A set of add/delete triple patterns, with the holes they mention.
All	Satisfy every child.
Any	Satisfy any one child.
Repeat [min..max]	Instantiate the body between min and max times.

Blocked branches are propagated during normalization. An All with any blocked child is blocked. An Any drops blocked children and is blocked only when all children are blocked. Unblocked branches therefore contain only supported alternatives.

Reasons a branch can be blocked:

Reason	Meaning
opaque SPARQL	sh:sparql is not algebraically invertible.
cannot mutate identity	A node-kind or identity test on the focus itself; editing data cannot change it.
coinductive	Support reached through a greatest-fixed-point back-edge, with no finite set of facts to delete.
unsupported	A construct this version does not synthesize repairs for.

Hole

A typed placeholder. The engine will not invent a value; the hole says what a legal one looks like.

Member	Meaning
id	The identifier to pass to RepairPlan.bind.
constraint	What a legal value must satisfy, rendered — e.g. any node, datatype(xsd:string), typed value.
candidates(limit)	Existing terms in the graph that satisfy the constraint. A convenience for reuse-oriented drivers; bindings need not come from it.
conforms_to	The sub-shape id a value must conform to, if any.
conforms_to_shapes	Every such shape id, when there is more than one.
sub_shapes()	(id, description) pairs for those shapes.

Hole constraints correspond to: any node; a freshly minted node; equality with a constant; a value type (datatype, numeric range, length, pattern); a node kind; membership in a finite set; or conformance to a sub-shape.

RepairPlan

Your choices, as serializable data keyed by node and hole id. Partial plans are legal.

plan = repair.RepairPlan()
plan.choose(node_id, branch_index)   # pick a child at an Any
plan.count(node_id, n)               # pick a count at a Repeat
plan.bind(hole_id, term)             # bind a hole
plan.clear(id)                       # undo one entry

term is an N-Triples spelling: '"Bob"', '"12"^^<...#integer>', '<http://example.org/bob>'.

Instantiated

Member	Meaning
delta	The RepairDelta resolved so far.
open_holes	Holes still needing a term.
open_choices	Node ids of Any/Repeat nodes still needing a decision.
is_complete	True when nothing is open.

Important

Resolving a Repeat count stamps out that many copies of its body, and each copy gets fresh holes with new ids. Fill choices first, re-instantiate, then bind the holes that appear. Binding a hole id observed before the count was fixed binds a template hole that no longer corresponds to anything in the output.

RepairDelta

Member	Meaning
add / delete	Lists of (subject, predicate, object) N-Triples strings.
is_empty	Whether the delta does nothing.
RepairDelta.from_ntriples(add, delete)	Build one from N-Triples text.

shifty.delta_from_graph(add=None, delete=None) -> RepairDelta

Build a delta from hand-authored subgraphs — an rdflib.Graph, Turtle text, or a list of either, unioned. This is how a driver proposes a whole subgraph (a new node with its type and properties) rather than one term. It gates and applies exactly like a synthesized delta.

Because deletes are applied before adds, a triple you intend to remove must not also be re-asserted by an add source. The replace pattern is: put it in delete, and the replacement in add.

RepairOutcome

Member	Meaning
fixed	Violations this delta removes.
introduced	New violations it would cause.
remaining	Pre-existing violations still unfixed.
is_sound	introduced is empty.
is_progress	Sound, and fixed is non-empty.

The gate is whole-graph rather than focus-local, because a delta that fixes one node by breaking another is not a repair. The verdict is exactly the set difference of violations(G ⊕ ΔG, S) against violations(G, S), computed by re-running the same validator.

Rust

The Rust API hasn’t moved: it is in shifty-engine and shifty-repair, and is just as experimental. It exposes the same model: witness_violations, witness_shape, satisfy_shape, witness_node, synthesize, synthesize_focus, instantiate, candidates, gate, and render (which projects a template to a parameterized RDF graph plus a self-hosted SHACL sidecar over its holes, for graph-matching drivers). See docs.rs.