CIMcheck

Real-time SPARQL and SHACL validation against CIM/CGMES schema profiles, directly in VS Code.

Write a SPARQL query or SHACL shape and get immediate feedback: unknown classes and properties are underlined, syntax errors are highlighted, and semantic issues like domain/range mismatches are flagged as you type — all resolved against your actual RDFS profile files.

Features

Syntax highlighting

Provides grammar-based syntax highlighting for:

• SPARQL — .rq, .sparql
• SHACL / Turtle — .ttl, .shacl

Real-time diagnostics

The language server validates every open document against the loaded CIM schema and reports findings as squiggly underlines:

Hover documentation

Hover over any CIM term (e.g. cim:ACLineSegment) to see its full IRI and the schema profile it belongs to.

Auto-completion

Typing : after a prefix (e.g. cim:) triggers completion suggestions for all classes and properties in the loaded schema.

Go-to-definition

Press F12 or Ctrl+Click on any CIM IRI to jump directly to its declaration line in the source .rdf or .ttl profile file.

Workspace symbol search

Press Ctrl+T (or Cmd+T on macOS) and type a CIM class or property name to find and navigate to any schema term across the workspace. Supports partial, case-insensitive matching (e.g. aclineseg matches ACLineSegment).

Requirements

• Java 21 or later must be available on your system. The extension launches the language server as a Java process.
• VS Code 1.75 or later.

Getting started

1. Create a configuration file

Create a file at .cgmes/validation.json in your workspace root. This file tells the extension where your RDFS profile files are located.

Example — directory of profiles:

{
  "schemasDirectory": "schemas/cgmes-3.0"
}

Example — individual files:

{
  "schemas": [
    "schemas/EquipmentCore.rdf",
    "schemas/Topology.rdf"
  ]
}

The extension watches this file and reloads the schema automatically whenever it changes.

2. Open a SPARQL or SHACL file

Open any .rq, .sparql, .ttl, or .shacl file. The extension activates, loads the schema in the background, and begins validating. A notification confirms when the schema has loaded successfully.

Configuration

Validation configuration reference

The .cgmes/validation.json file supports these fields:

{
  "schemasDirectory": "path/to/profiles",
  "schemas": ["path/to/Profile.rdf"],
  "strictness": "default",
  "namedGraphs": {
    "http://example.org/graph/EQ": "http://iec.ch/TC57/ns/CIM/CoreEquipment-EU/3.0"
  }
}

Either schemasDirectory or schemas is required (or both).

strictness

Controls which findings are reported and how severities are mapped:

namedGraphs

Maps named graph IRIs to profile version IRIs. When set, terms inside a GRAPH <iri> {} block are validated against the mapped profile only, rather than all loaded profiles. Graphs not listed here produce a GRAPH_NOT_CONFIGURED information diagnostic.

"namedGraphs": {
  "http://example.org/EQ": "http://iec.ch/TC57/ns/CIM/CoreEquipment-EU/3.0",
  "http://example.org/TP": "http://iec.ch/TC57/ns/CIM/Topology-EU/3.0"
}

Commands

Troubleshooting

The extension shows "Schema load failed" Open the CIMcheck output channel (CIMcheck: Show Output) to see the full error. Common causes: incorrect path in schemasDirectory/schemas, or a malformed RDF file.

"No .cgmes/validation.json found" The extension looks for this file in your workspace root. Create it with at least a schemasDirectory or schemas entry.

Java not found or wrong version Set cimcheck.javaExecutable to the full path of a Java 21+ executable, e.g. /usr/lib/jvm/java-21/bin/java.

No diagnostics appearing Check that the file extension is recognised (.rq, .sparql, .ttl, .shacl) and that the schema loaded successfully. The status notification "SPARQL Validation: Schema loaded successfully." confirms the schema is ready.

Known Limitations

Standard vocabulary terms are not validated Terms from well-known standard namespaces (rdf:, rdfs:, owl:, xsd:, sh:, dcat:, dcterms:, skos:, cims:, cimuml:) are silently accepted regardless of whether the exact term is defined in those vocabularies. A typo like rdfs:Classs will not be flagged. This is intentional — these vocabularies are not part of CIM profile files, so the schema index has no information about them.

License

Apache License 2.0 — see LICENSE.