Catenary

Catenary draws diagrams of RDF, OWL, SHACL and SKOS models in VS Code. It reads model files through the Turtle RDF language server, stores each diagram as a *.view.trig view file, and exports diagrams into Markdown documents as SVG.

Requirements

VS Code 1.101 or later. The extension depends on the Turtle RDF language server (abhishekkundu25.turtle-language-server); VS Code installs it with Catenary.

Features

• Open *.view.trig in a custom editor with node shape cards, attribute rows, associations, collections, value sets, instance cards, entity groups, notes, frames and arrows.
• Place, remove, move, resize and color view elements; switch cards between simple and detailed display.
• Remove relation edges from a view, route edges with bends, and change property rows to lines or back to rows.
• Collect instance cards into entity groups and expand them back into cards.
• Edit group labels and note Markdown, add note arrows, and apply Layered or Force layout.
• Navigate to model sources and view references; drop workspace files as references.
• Read model files through turtle-lsp, including labels, prefixes, navigation and SHACL diagnostic badges. Canvas edits write view files only; they do not add or change model statements.
• Embed views in Markdown and export documents with SVG diagrams.
• Out of scope: model explorer, outline, forms, properties panel, model relation editing, a separate SHACL validator or a parser for model files.

Use

Run Catenary: New View… from the explorer context menu to create a view file, or open an existing *.view.trig file.

• Open a *.view.trig file to display its canvas.
• Click TriG at the right end of the canvas toolbar to open the view file as text; save first if prompted.
• Click Catenary: Open in Canvas in the TriG editor title to return to the canvas; save first if prompted.
• Choose Insert… in the palette or Catenary: Insert Element… in the editor title to place workspace elements that the view does not show.
• Choose Insert… → Link to a file… or Link to a view… to place a file or view reference without dragging.
• Drag a box to move it; drag its resize handle to resize it.
• Click × or press Delete to remove selected elements from the view, not the model.
• Use halo expansion buttons to place hidden neighbours, applicable shapes or checked instances.
• Use a card's halo expand button to show a deleted relation edge again.
• Use halo … → Color to set or clear the selected elements' view color.
• Use halo … → Simple cards or Show details to change selected cards' display.
• Use halo … → Collect to put selected instance cards into an entity group; use Expand to show the cards again.
• Use an entity group's + member input to add an existing instance; use its row × to remove membership from this view.
• Use a row's ➟ to show its element separately or draw a property as a line; use the line's row control to return a property to a row.
• Drag an edge to add a bend, drag a bend to move it, and double-click a bend to remove it.
• Choose Group or Note in the palette and click the canvas to create a view mark.
• Double-click a group label to rename it; double-click a note to edit its Markdown.
• Press Ctrl+Enter or click outside a note editor to commit; press Escape to cancel.
• Drag a note's arrow control to its target to create a view arrow.
• Choose Layout… and then Layered or Force to lay out the view in one undo step.
• Double-click a view or file reference to open it; use the halo's open-in control for a model element's source.
• Drag a workspace file from the explorer onto the canvas to add a file or view reference.
• Use Ctrl+C, Ctrl+X and Ctrl+V to copy or move placements between views; cut alone makes no edit.
• Paste Turtle text to place known workspace subjects; unknown subjects are reported without changing model files.
• Use VS Code Undo, Redo and Save for view edits.
• Run Catenary: Insert View… in Markdown to insert an image whose destination is a view IRI.
• Run Catenary: Export Markdown… from Markdown or the explorer to write documents and diagram SVGs to a destination folder.

VS Code Settings exposes card, group and note font sizes, edge style and vocabulary color. These preferences apply across views; they are not model data.

Development

pnpm install
pnpm build          # dist/extension.js, dist/webview.js
pnpm verify         # typecheck, knip, unit tests and source citation check
pnpm ui             # real mouse and keys in headless VS Code
pnpm ui -- --section bookshop   # one section of the UI checks (model, bookshop)
pnpm ui:markdown    # export a Markdown document with an embedded view

The UI scripts build and launch a development host; this repository has no F5 launch configuration. A full pnpm ui run takes about 90 s; it stops with a failure after 300 s (CATENARY_UI_DEADLINE_MS), and a single Playwright action fails after 15 s. pnpm package writes the .vsix file.

Rules:

• Copy Catenary's canvas and diagram derivation by dependency; remove model-edit paths and unreachable functions.
• Test this extension's behavior with small unit tests and UI checks; no parity suite against Catenary.
• Use pnpm and lowercase readme.md. Keep Markdown prose on one line per paragraph.

plan.md in the repository holds completed katas, decisions and open items.