existence

CLI for the Existence ontology framework.

Navigate, validate, and visualize ontology term definitions organized in scoping rings.

Install

cargo install existence

Or build from source:

git clone https://github.com/existence-lang/existence
cd existence
cargo install --path .

Usage

All commands auto-detect the ontology directory. If you're inside an ontology repo (one with existence.toml), it just works. Otherwise, use --ontology <path> or run existence fetch first.

Lookup a term

# Print the full markdown definition
existence lookup existence

# Output as structured JSON (title, ontology, axiology, epistemology sections)
existence lookup existence --json

Navigate scoping rings

# List all rings and their terms
existence scope

# List only Ring 0 (kernel) terms
existence scope 0

# List Ring 1 (software) terms
existence scope 1

Lint ontology nodes

# Validate all nodes in src/
existence lint

# Validate a specific directory or file
existence lint src/existence.md

Checks:

• Title (# Term) is present
• Required sections: ## [Ontology], ## [Axiology], ## [Epistemology]
• Broken links: [term](./term.md) references where src/term.md doesn't exist

Exit code 0 if clean, 1 if errors found.

Generate relationship graph

# DOT format (pipe to graphviz)
existence graph | dot -Tsvg -o ontology.svg

# Filter to a specific ring
existence graph 0 | dot -Tpng -o kernel.png

# JSON adjacency list
existence graph --format json

Fetch an ontology

# Clone from GitHub
existence fetch github:existence-lang/ontology

# Pull all sources defined in existence.toml
existence fetch

Sources are stored in ~/.existence/sources/{org}/{repo}/.

Configuration

Ontologies are configured via existence.toml:

[meta]
name = "existence-lang/ontology"
description = "Reference existential ontology"

[rings.0]
name = "kernel"
description = "14 universal terms, always loaded"
terms = ["existence", "entity", "abstraction", "scope", "context", ...]

[rings.1]
name = "software"
description = "The DDD bridge"
terms = ["project", "model", "algorithm", ...]

[sources]
upstream = "github:existence-lang/ontology"

Commands (v0.3.0)

Command	Description	Status
lookup <term>	Read a node's full definition	Implemented
scope [ring]	List terms at a ring level	Implemented
lint [path]	Validate nodes against SPEC.md rules	Implemented
graph [ring]	Generate term relationship graph (DOT/JSON)	Implemented
fetch [source]	Clone or pull ontology from GitHub	Implemented
install	Set up ~/.claude integration	Planned
serve	Start local API server	Planned
build-site	Generate static site + JSON API	Planned
context <domain>	Suggest relevant terms for a domain	Planned

License

Apache-2.0