RDFscope for VS Code (Preview)

Explore RDF files inside your editor: follow graph connections, inspect exact IRIs and literal datatypes, search resources, and run read-only SPARQL queries. The Rust RDF engine runs locally in a WebAssembly worker. No server, executable, account, telemetry, or network connection is required to browse files.

Download the VSIX from the preview release and use Extensions → Install from VSIX. Marketplace publication uses the pre-release channel under rvben.rdfscope. Preview releases may change as the extension evolves.

Use

• Right-click a .ttl, .rdf, .trig, .nt, .nq, or .jsonld file and choose RDFscope: Explore RDF File, or run that command from the Command Palette.
• Exploration opens in the current editor group. Use Explore RDF File to the Side when you want the graph and source in separate groups.
• Alternatively, choose Reopen Editor With → RDFscope Graph Explorer.
• Use Open Source in the editor toolbar to see the text beside the graph.
• Use Reload from Source to load edits, including unsaved text. Reload resets the exploration; save a workspace first to keep the layout and query.
• SPARQL uses the full pane, with Run query pinned above the editor. Inspect resources in a closable side drawer without leaving your query.
• Save a .rdfscope.json workspace and reopen it to restore an investigation. Workspace and graph/data/query exports use VS Code's Save dialog.

The text editor remains the default. Browsing never edits the RDF source. Each graph tab has its own dataset and exploration. Hidden tabs retain their state, but closing a tab ends the session; save a workspace before closing.

Limits

Files are limited to 10 MB. The canvas shows at most 200 resources and 2,000 edges; use search, connection pages, and SPARQL to explore beyond it. Endpoint connections are available in the standalone application, not the extension. Remote JSON-LD contexts are not fetched. Relative IRIs use the existing engine's https://rdfscope.local/import/ fallback unless a document defines its own base. This is a preview extension, using the same RDF engine as RDFscope.

Build and try locally

Requires the repository's Rust/Node prerequisites and wasm-pack 0.14.0. From the repository root:

npm --prefix vscode run build
npm --prefix vscode test
npm --prefix web exec -- playwright install chromium --only-shell
npm --prefix vscode run test:integration
code --extensionDevelopmentPath="$PWD/vscode" "$PWD"

If a verified browser build already exists locally, npm --prefix vscode run build -- --reuse-engine rebuilds only the interface and reuses web/wasm/ and its existing browser dependency notices. Use the full build for releases.

In the development window, open examples/research-library.trig using RDFscope. The build creates vscode/media/ with the frontend, worker, WebAssembly engine, and dependency notices. These generated files are not committed.

To create a local installable package after building:

cd vscode
npx @vscode/vsce package --no-dependencies --pre-release

Install the resulting .vsix through Extensions → Install from VSIX. Packaging does not publish the extension. Marketplace publication requires a publisher account and a separate release review.