knowledge-graph-builder

Knowledge Graph Builder

This skill provides guidance for designing knowledge graphs that capture entities, relationships, and semantic meaning for powerful querying and reasoning.

Core Competencies

• Graph Modeling: Entity-relationship design for graphs
• Query Languages: Cypher (Neo4j), SPARQL (RDF), Gremlin
• Ontology Design: Schema, taxonomies, semantic relationships
• Graph Algorithms: Pathfinding, centrality, community detection

Knowledge Graph Fundamentals

What Makes a Knowledge Graph

Knowledge Graph = Entities + Relationships + Schema + Semantics

Traditional Database:           Knowledge Graph:
┌────────────────────┐         ┌─────────────────────────────┐
│ Tables with rows   │         │ (Person)──KNOWS──▶(Person)  │
│ Foreign keys       │   vs    │     │                       │
│ JOIN operations    │         │   WORKS_AT                  │
│                    │         │     ▼                       │
└────────────────────┘         │ (Company)──IN──▶(Industry)  │
                               └─────────────────────────────┘

When to Use Knowledge Graphs

Use Case	Why Graphs Excel
Recommendation systems	Traverse connections to find related items
Fraud detection	Identify suspicious relationship patterns
Knowledge management	Connect concepts and infer relationships
Master data management	Unify entities across systems
Root cause analysis	Follow causal chains through dependencies

Graph Data Modeling

Entity Design

Identify core entities (nodes):

// Person entity with properties
CREATE (p:Person {
    id: 'p001',
    name: 'Alice Chen',
    email: 'alice@example.com',
    created_at: datetime()
})

// Multiple labels for categorization
CREATE (c:Organization:Company:TechCompany {
    id: 'c001',
    name: 'Acme Corp',
    founded: 2010
})

Relationship Design

Model connections with typed, directed edges:

// Simple relationship
(person)-[:WORKS_AT]->(company)

// Relationship with properties
(person)-[:WORKS_AT {
    role: 'Engineer',
    start_date: date('2020-01-15'),
    department: 'Engineering'
}]->(company)

// Temporal relationships
(person)-[:EMPLOYED_BY {
    from: date('2018-01-01'),
    to: date('2020-12-31')
}]->(company1)
(person)-[:EMPLOYED_BY {
    from: date('2021-01-01')
}]->(company2)

Common Relationship Patterns

Hierarchical:     (Child)──IS_CHILD_OF──▶(Parent)
                  (Employee)──REPORTS_TO──▶(Manager)

Associative:      (Person)──KNOWS──▶(Person)
                  (Document)──REFERENCES──▶(Document)

Temporal:         (Event)──PRECEDES──▶(Event)
                  (Version)──SUPERSEDES──▶(Version)

Categorical:      (Product)──BELONGS_TO──▶(Category)
                  (Concept)──IS_A──▶(Category)

Spatial:          (Location)──NEAR──▶(Location)
                  (Region)──CONTAINS──▶(City)

Schema Definition

// Node constraints
CREATE CONSTRAINT person_id IF NOT EXISTS
FOR (p:Person) REQUIRE p.id IS UNIQUE;

CREATE CONSTRAINT company_id IF NOT EXISTS
FOR (c:Company) REQUIRE c.id IS UNIQUE;

// Property existence
CREATE CONSTRAINT person_name IF NOT EXISTS
FOR (p:Person) REQUIRE p.name IS NOT NULL;

// Indexes for query performance
CREATE INDEX person_name_idx IF NOT EXISTS
FOR (p:Person) ON (p.name);

CREATE INDEX company_industry_idx IF NOT EXISTS
FOR (c:Company) ON (c.industry);

Cypher Query Patterns

Basic Traversal

// Find all colleagues (people who work at same company)
MATCH (person:Person {name: 'Alice Chen'})-[:WORKS_AT]->(company)
      <-[:WORKS_AT]-(colleague:Person)
WHERE colleague <> person
RETURN colleague.name, company.name

// Variable-length paths (1-3 hops)
MATCH path = (start:Person)-[:KNOWS*1..3]->(end:Person)
WHERE start.name = 'Alice Chen' AND end.name = 'Bob Smith'
RETURN path, length(path) as hops

Aggregation

// Count relationships
MATCH (p:Person)-[:WORKS_AT]->(c:Company)
RETURN c.name, count(p) as employee_count
ORDER BY employee_count DESC

// Collect into lists
MATCH (p:Person)-[:HAS_SKILL]->(s:Skill)
RETURN p.name, collect(s.name) as skills

Recommendations

// "People you may know" - friends of friends
MATCH (me:Person {id: $userId})-[:KNOWS]-(friend)-[:KNOWS]-(suggestion)
WHERE NOT (me)-[:KNOWS]-(suggestion) AND me <> suggestion
RETURN suggestion.name, count(friend) as mutual_friends
ORDER BY mutual_friends DESC
LIMIT 10

// Content-based: similar interests
MATCH (me:Person {id: $userId})-[:INTERESTED_IN]->(topic)
      <-[:INTERESTED_IN]-(similar:Person)
WHERE me <> similar
WITH similar, count(topic) as shared_interests
ORDER BY shared_interests DESC
RETURN similar.name, shared_interests
LIMIT 10

Path Analysis

// Shortest path
MATCH path = shortestPath(
    (start:Person {name: 'Alice'})-[:KNOWS*]-(end:Person {name: 'Bob'})
)
RETURN path, length(path)

// All shortest paths
MATCH path = allShortestPaths(
    (start:Person)-[:KNOWS*]-(end:Person)
)
WHERE start.name = 'Alice' AND end.name = 'Bob'
RETURN path

Graph Algorithms

Centrality Measures

Algorithm	Purpose	Use Case
Degree	Connection count	Find popular nodes
Betweenness	Bridge detection	Find brokers/bottlenecks
PageRank	Influence propagation	Rank importance
Closeness	Average distance	Find well-connected nodes

// Using Neo4j Graph Data Science
CALL gds.pageRank.stream('myGraph')
YIELD nodeId, score
RETURN gds.util.asNode(nodeId).name AS name, score
ORDER BY score DESC
LIMIT 10

Community Detection

// Louvain for community detection
CALL gds.louvain.stream('myGraph')
YIELD nodeId, communityId
RETURN communityId, collect(gds.util.asNode(nodeId).name) as members
ORDER BY size(members) DESC

Knowledge Graph Patterns

Entity Resolution

// Find potential duplicates
MATCH (p1:Person), (p2:Person)
WHERE p1.id < p2.id
  AND (p1.email = p2.email
       OR (p1.name = p2.name AND p1.birth_date = p2.birth_date))
RETURN p1, p2

// Merge duplicates
MATCH (p1:Person {id: 'keep'}), (p2:Person {id: 'duplicate'})
CALL apoc.refactor.mergeNodes([p1, p2], {
    properties: 'combine',
    mergeRels: true
})
YIELD node
RETURN node

Semantic Layering

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                 Instance Layer                       │
│   (Alice)──KNOWS──▶(Bob)                            │
│   (Alice)──WORKS_AT──▶(Acme)                        │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│                  Schema Layer                        │
│   (:Person)──CAN_KNOW──▶(:Person)                   │
│   (:Person)──CAN_WORK_AT──▶(:Company)               │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│                 Ontology Layer                       │
│   (Person)──IS_A──▶(Agent)                          │
│   (Company)──IS_A──▶(Organization)                  │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Temporal Modeling

// State over time
CREATE (person)-[:HAS_STATE {
    valid_from: date('2020-01-01'),
    valid_to: date('2020-12-31')
}]->(state:PersonState {
    status: 'employed',
    salary: 80000
})

// Query state at point in time
MATCH (p:Person {id: $personId})-[r:HAS_STATE]->(s)
WHERE r.valid_from <= date($queryDate)
  AND (r.valid_to IS NULL OR r.valid_to >= date($queryDate))
RETURN s

Best Practices

Modeling Guidelines

1. Prefer relationships over properties when the connection has meaning
2. Use specific relationship types (:MANAGES not :RELATED_TO)
3. Model for your queries - understand access patterns first
4. Keep properties atomic - no arrays for searchable data
5. Version nodes, not graphs - temporal properties on relationships

Performance Tips

• Index properties used in WHERE clauses
• Use parameters ($userId) not string concatenation
• Limit variable-length paths (*1..5 not *)
• Profile queries with EXPLAIN and PROFILE
• Consider relationship direction in traversals

References

• references/cypher-patterns.md - Advanced Cypher query examples
• references/graph-modeling.md - Entity and relationship design patterns
• references/graph-algorithms.md - Algorithm selection and configuration