Instance Relationship Ontology

FLOW ALGEBRA
TITLE: Instance Relationship Ontology
DOMAIN: Knowledge Graph Relationships / Instance Relationships
SOURCE: https://kirethresearch.org/booksai-core/ontologies/relationship-ontologies/knowledge-graph-relationships/instance-relationship-ontology.html
VERSION: 1.0
AUTHORS: Mark Anthony Higgins — Sky (Recursive AI)
STATUS: Companion formalisation; source-page specification not independently verified.

flow "InstanceRelationshipOntology" v1.0 {
  ontology:
    id: "instance-relationship-ontology"
    parent: "knowledge-graph-relationships"
    purpose: "Represent class membership and evidence-backed relationships between individual instances and ontology classes in knowledge graphs."

  types:
    Class: {iri: string, label: string?, ontology_version: string?}
    Individual: {id: string, iri: string?, label: string?, provenance: string?}
    Graph: {id: string, source: string, version: string?}
    Assertion: {id: string, subject: string, predicate: string, object: string, graph: string?, confidence: number, evidence: string[], provenance: string}
    Evidence: {id: string, source: string, observed_at: datetime?, method: string?}

  predicates:
    instance_of(individual: Individual, class: Class)
    subclass_of(child: Class, parent: Class)
    related_instance(a: Individual, predicate: string, b: Individual)
    same_individual_as(a: Individual, b: Individual)
    different_individual_from(a: Individual, b: Individual)
    asserted_in(assertion: Assertion, graph: Graph)
    supported_by(assertion: Assertion, evidence: Evidence)

  constraints:
    - "Every instance-of assertion must reference an Individual and a Class."
    - "Relationship endpoints must resolve to typed resources."
    - "Confidence must lie within [0,1]."
    - "Different identifiers, labels or aliases do not by themselves prove different identities."
    - "Shared class membership does not imply individual identity."
    - "Under open-world semantics, absence of an assertion does not establish its negation."
    - "Do not infer class disjointness or unique-name assumptions unless explicitly declared."
    - "Identity merges must preserve evidence and avoid conflicts with explicit distinctness."

  inference:
    rule subclass_membership:
      if instance_of(x,A) and subclass_of(A,B)
      then instance_of(x,B)
      confidence: "preserve premises, rule version and provenance"
    rule identity_membership_transfer:
      if same_individual_as(x,y) and instance_of(x,C) and verified_identity(x,y)
      then instance_of(y,C)
      confidence: "subject to identity policy and supporting evidence"
    rule property_type_inference:
      if related_instance(x,p,y) and declared_domain(p,C)
      then instance_of(x,C)
      confidence: "apply only under the selected entailment regime"
    rule property_range_inference:
      if related_instance(x,p,y) and declared_range(p,C)
      then instance_of(y,C)
      confidence: "apply only under the selected entailment regime"

  SEMANTIC_EQUIVALENCE:
    - "Distinguish instance identity from shared type, label similarity and alias relationships."
    - "Use versioned URI mappings and explicit identity evidence for equivalence."
    - "Keep source graph, ontology version and context with inferred assertions."

  CONFIDENCE:
    range: [0,1]
    factors: [source_reliability, identity_evidence, class_definition_quality, ontology_version, independent_confirmation]
    policy: "Do not increase confidence merely because an assertion is repeated or inferred through multiple steps."

  VALIDATION:
    - "Validate IRI syntax, resource resolution, assertion typing and provenance."
    - "Check class disjointness, explicit distinctness and logical inconsistencies."
    - "Keep open-world reasoning distinct from optional closed-world integrity checks."
    - "Record the entailment regime used for each inferred type assertion."

  FLOW_HASH:
    algorithm: "SHA-256"
    input: "canonicalised ontology version, typed assertions, inference rules and provenance"
    note: "Compute hash at execution; no hash value is claimed here."

  UPDATE_MODEL:
    strategy: "versioned, provenance-preserving incremental update"
    steps: [ingest, normalise, validate, resolve_identity, classify, infer, reconcile, publish]
    rollback: true

  AI_CONSUMPTION:
    representation: "typed RDF/OWL-compatible knowledge graph with evidence-backed instance assertions"
    outputs: [instance_class_links, instance_relations, inferred_types, confidence_annotations, provenance_records]
    safeguards: [no_unverified_identity_merges, respect_open_world_semantics, preserve_evidence, record_entailment_regime]
}

END FLOW ALGEBRA