Quick Start

Install

brew install nanograph/tap/nanograph

Or build from source (requires Rust toolchain + protoc):

cargo install nanograph-cli

The Star Wars graph

The examples/starwars/ directory has a ready-to-run knowledge graph with typed schema, search fields, aliases, and checked-in project config.

Here's a slice of the graph:

The schema defines node types with typed properties, and edges between them:

node Character {
    slug: String @key
    name: String
    species: String
    alignment: enum(hero, villain, neutral)
    era: enum(prequel, clone_wars, original)
    tags: [String]?
}

node Film {
    slug: String @key
    name: String
    episode: I32
    release_date: Date
}

edge DebutsIn: Character -> Film
edge HasMentor: Character -> Character
edge AffiliatedWith: Character -> Faction { role: String? }

@key marks the identity property — used for edge resolution and merge operations. Types are enforced at load time and query compile time.

Init and load

cd examples/starwars

nanograph init
nanograph load --data starwars.jsonl --mode overwrite

The checked-in examples/starwars/nanograph.toml supplies the default DB path, query root, mock embedding mode, and search aliases. init creates the database directory from the schema, and load ingests JSONL data with schema validation.

For new projects outside the examples, init also scaffolds nanograph.toml and .env.nano. See Project Config for the exact layout.

Query

# semantic search
nanograph run search "father and son conflict"

# inspect agent-facing schema metadata
nanograph describe --type Character --format json

# who did Yoda train?
nanograph run --query starwars.gq --name students_of --param name="Yoda"

# cross-type traversal
nanograph run debut anakin-skywalker

Queries are typechecked against the schema — wrong property names, type mismatches, and invalid traversals are caught before execution:

nanograph check --query starwars.gq

Next steps

Schema Language Reference — types, annotations, constraints
Project Config — nanograph.toml, .env.nano, aliases, defaults
Query Language Reference — match, return, traversal, mutations
Search Guide — text search, vector search, hybrid ranking
CLI Reference — all commands and options
Star Wars Example — worked walkthrough with output
Context Graph Example — CRM/RevOps case study

Home Schema