FlureeLabs

Standards and Feature Flags

This document covers Fluree's compliance with standards and feature flags.

Standards Compliance

RDF 1.1

Status: Fully compliant

Fluree implements the W3C RDF 1.1 specification:

  • RDF triples (subject-predicate-object)
  • IRI identifiers
  • Typed literals
  • Language tags
  • Blank nodes
  • RDF datasets

Specification: https://www.w3.org/TR/rdf11-concepts/

JSON-LD 1.1

Status: Fully compliant

Fluree supports JSON-LD 1.1:

  • @context for namespace mappings
  • @id for resource identification
  • @type for type specification
  • @graph for multiple entities
  • @value and @type for literals
  • @language for language tags
  • Nested objects
  • Arrays

Specification: https://www.w3.org/TR/json-ld11/

SPARQL 1.1 Query

Status: In progress toward full compliance

Supported SPARQL features:

  • SELECT queries
  • CONSTRUCT queries
  • ASK queries
  • DESCRIBE queries
  • FROM and FROM NAMED clauses
  • GRAPH patterns
  • OPTIONAL patterns
  • UNION patterns
  • FILTER expressions
  • BIND expressions
  • Aggregations (COUNT, SUM, AVG, MIN, MAX, SAMPLE, GROUP_CONCAT) with DISTINCT modifier
  • GROUP BY (variables and expressions)
  • ORDER BY
  • LIMIT and OFFSET
  • Subqueries
  • Property paths (partial: +, *, ^, |, /; see SPARQL docs)

Aggregate result types: COUNT and SUM of integers return xsd:integer (per W3C spec), not xsd:long. SUM of mixed types and AVG return xsd:double.

W3C Compliance Testing: Fluree runs the official W3C SPARQL test suite via the testsuite-sparql crate. The suite automatically discovers and runs 700+ test cases from W3C manifest files. See the compliance test guide for details.

Specification: https://www.w3.org/TR/sparql11-query/

SPARQL 1.1 Update

Status: Partial support

Supported:

  • INSERT DATA (via JSON-LD transactions)
  • DELETE/INSERT WHERE (via WHERE/DELETE/INSERT)

Not yet supported:

  • DELETE DATA
  • LOAD
  • CLEAR
  • DROP
  • COPY, MOVE, ADD

Use JSON-LD transactions for transaction operations.

Specification: https://www.w3.org/TR/sparql11-update/

Turtle

Status: Fully supported

Fluree parses Turtle 1.1:

  • @prefix declarations
  • Base IRIs
  • Abbreviated syntax (a, ;, ,)
  • Literals with datatypes and language tags
  • Collections
  • Blank nodes

Specification: https://www.w3.org/TR/turtle/

JSON Web Signature (JWS)

Status: Partial (EdDSA only)

Supported algorithms:

  • EdDSA (Ed25519) - Only supported algorithm

Not yet supported:

  • ES256, ES384, ES512 (ECDSA)
  • RS256 (RSA)
  • HS256, HS384, HS512 (HMAC)

Specification: RFC 7515

Note: Requires the credential feature flag.

Verifiable Credentials

Status: Planned (not yet implemented)

The credential module currently supports JWS verification only. Full VC support (proof verification, JSON-LD canonicalization) is planned but not yet available.

Specification: https://www.w3.org/TR/vc-data-model/

Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs)

Status: Partial support

Supported DID methods:

  • did:key (Ed25519 keys only)

Not yet supported:

  • did:web
  • did:ion
  • did:ethr

Specification: https://www.w3.org/TR/did-core/

Note: Requires the credential feature flag.

Compile-Time Feature Flags (Cargo)

These features are controlled at compile time via Cargo:

fluree-db-api Features

FeatureDefaultDescription
nativeYesFile storage support
awsNoAWS-backed storage support (S3, storage-backed nameservice). Enables FlureeBuilder::s3() and S3-based JSON-LD configs.
credentialNoDID/JWS/VerifiableCredential support for signed queries/transactions. Pulls in crypto dependencies (ed25519-dalek, bs58).
icebergNoApache Iceberg/R2RML graph source support
shaclNoSHACL constraint validation (requires fluree-db-transact + fluree-db-shacl). Default in server/CLI.
vectorNoEmbedded vector similarity search (HNSW indexes via usearch)
ipfsNoIPFS-backed storage via Kubo HTTP RPC
search-remote-clientNoHTTP client for remote BM25 and vector search services
aws-testcontainersNoOpt-in LocalStack-backed S3/DynamoDB tests (auto-start via testcontainers)
fullNoConvenience bundle: native, credential, iceberg, shacl, ipfs

Example:

[dependencies]
fluree-db-api = { path = "../fluree-db-api", features = ["native", "credential"] }

fluree-db-server Features

FeatureDefaultDescription
nativeYesFile storage support (forwards to fluree-db-api/native)
credentialYesSigned request verification (forwards to fluree-db-api/credential)
shaclYesSHACL constraint validation (forwards to fluree-db-api/shacl)
icebergYesApache Iceberg/R2RML graph source support (forwards to fluree-db-api/iceberg)
awsNoAWS S3 storage + DynamoDB nameservice (forwards to fluree-db-api/aws)
oidcNoOIDC JWT verification via JWKS (RS256 tokens from external IdPs)
swagger-uiNoSwagger UI endpoint
otelNoOpenTelemetry tracing

To build the server without credential support (faster compile):

cargo build -p fluree-db-server --no-default-features --features native

Runtime Feature Flags

Experimental Features

Enable experimental features:

./fluree-db-server --features experimental

Or in config:

[features]
experimental = true

Current Experimental Features:

  • SPARQL property paths
  • GeoSPARQL support
  • Reasoning and inference
  • Additional DID methods

Feature-Specific Flags

Enable specific features:

./fluree-db-server \
  --enable-property-paths \
  --enable-reasoning

[features]
property_paths = true
reasoning = false
geosparql = false

Parsing Modes

Strict Mode (Default)

Enforces strict compliance with standards:

  • Invalid IRIs rejected
  • Type mismatches rejected
  • Strict JSON-LD parsing
./fluree-db-server --strict-mode true

Lenient Mode

More permissive parsing:

  • Attempts to fix malformed IRIs
  • Coerces types when possible
  • Accepts non-standard syntax
./fluree-db-server --strict-mode false

Use lenient mode only when you fully control inputs and explicitly want permissive parsing behavior.

API Versioning

Current API version: v1

Version Header:

X-Fluree-API-Version: 1

Supported Data Formats

JSON-LD

Supported JSON-LD versions:

  • JSON-LD 1.0: Yes
  • JSON-LD 1.1: Yes

SPARQL

Supported SPARQL versions:

  • SPARQL 1.0: Yes
  • SPARQL 1.1: Yes

RDF Formats

FormatReadWrite
JSON-LDYesYes
TurtleYesYes
N-TriplesPlannedPlanned
N-QuadsPlannedPlanned
RDF/XMLPlannedNo
TriGPlannedPlanned

Protocol Support

HTTP Versions

  • HTTP/1.1: Fully supported
  • HTTP/2: Supported
  • HTTP/3: Planned

TLS Versions

  • TLS 1.2: Supported
  • TLS 1.3: Supported
  • SSL 3.0: Not supported (deprecated)
  • TLS 1.0/1.1: Not supported (deprecated)

Client Support

Fluree works with:

HTTP Clients:

  • curl
  • Postman
  • Insomnia
  • Any HTTP client library

RDF Libraries:

  • Apache Jena (Java)
  • RDF4J (Java)
  • rdflib (Python)
  • N3.js (JavaScript)

SPARQL Clients:

  • Apache Jena ARQ
  • RDF4J SPARQLRepository
  • Any SPARQL 1.1 client

Platform Support

Operating Systems

Server:

  • Linux (x86_64, aarch64)
  • macOS (Intel, Apple Silicon)
  • Windows (x86_64)

Clients:

  • Any OS with HTTP support

Cloud Platforms

  • AWS (native support)
  • Google Cloud Platform (via file storage)
  • Azure (via file storage)
  • Self-hosted / on-premises

Container Support

  • Docker: Full support
  • Kubernetes: Full support
  • Podman: Supported
  • Docker Compose: Full support

Database Support

Import Sources

Fluree can import from:

RDF Databases:

  • Apache Jena TDB
  • Virtuoso
  • Stardog
  • GraphDB
  • Any RDF export

Graph Databases:

  • Neo4j (via RDF export)
  • Amazon Neptune (via RDF export)

Relational Databases:

  • Via R2RML mapping
  • Direct SQL query

Export Formats

Export Fluree data to:

  • Turtle files
  • JSON-LD documents
  • SPARQL CONSTRUCT results
  • Any RDF format

Feature Roadmap

Planned Features

Query:

  • SPARQL property paths: remaining operators (? zero-or-one, ! negated set)
  • GeoSPARQL
  • SPARQL 1.1 Federation
  • Full SPARQL UPDATE

Storage:

  • Additional cloud providers (GCP, Azure)
  • Hybrid storage modes

Security:

  • OAuth 2.0 integration
  • SAML support
  • Additional DID methods

Graph Sources:

  • BigQuery integration
  • Snowflake integration
  • Elasticsearch integration

Experimental Status

Feature availability is currently documented in this compatibility matrix and by crate feature flags; the standalone server does not expose a /features HTTP endpoint.

Browser Support

For web applications using Fluree API:

Supported Browsers:

  • Chrome/Edge 90+
  • Firefox 88+
  • Safari 14+

Requirements:

  • Fetch API support
  • CORS support
  • WebSocket support (for future streaming)

Tool Support

RDF Tools

Compatible with standard RDF tools:

  • Protégé (ontology editor)
  • TopBraid Composer
  • RDF validators
  • SPARQL editors

Data Tools

Works with data engineering tools:

  • Apache Airflow (via HTTP operators)
  • dbt (via SQL proxy with R2RML)
  • Apache Spark (via Iceberg)
  • Pandas (via query API)

Version Requirements

Rust Version

Building from source requires:

  • Rust 1.75.0 or later
  • Cargo 1.75.0 or later

Dependencies

Runtime dependencies:

  • None (statically linked binary)

Optional dependencies:

  • AWS SDK (for AWS storage)

Related Documentation