First Edition
SHACL for the Practitioner
Exploring knowledge graphs through the Shapes Constraint Language. A hands-on guide, written and illustrated by hand.
Get Your Copy 2026 Conference Offer
Exploring knowledge graphs through the Shapes Constraint Language. A hands-on guide, written and illustrated by hand.
Get Your Copy 2026 Conference Offer
SHACL for the Practitioner guides you from the fundamentals of RDF, semantic technologies and knowledge graphs through the full depth of the Shapes Constraint Language, with hand-drawn illustrations, real code, and stories from production.
Written and illustrated by Veronika Heimsbakk, edited by Larry Swanson, with a foreword by Holger Knublauch, one of the original authors of the SHACL specification. The book is typeset in LaTeX with hand-drawn chapter illustrations traced to vector in Inkscape. Every diagram, every unicorn, every page: crafted with care.
RDF, the Semantic Web, logic and the Resource Description Framework, from scratch.
Shapes, constraint components, SHACL-SPARQL and the SHACL engine explained.
Ten real-world case studies from maritime authorities to railway law.
Exercises, logical puzzles, and companion code on GitHub to put theory into practice.
Three parts, eighteen chapters, plus appendices. From first principles to production-grade stories.
Guest authors share how SHACL drives data-driven value across industries and organizations worldwide.
Reviews, posts and moments from readers around the world.
Over the weekend I finished Veronika Heimsbakk's new book "SHACL for the Practitioner." I've been eagerly awaiting this book's publication and delivery from sunny Norway since Veronika first announced its near completion months ago, and the delivered work lives up to my every expectation.
My enthusiasm for this (admittedly niche) topic is twofold: First, SHACL for the Practitioner means that we now have a complete set of approachable, reader-friendly books for the semantic web technologies that form the foundations of knowledge graphs (RDFS, OWL, SPARQL, SHACL).
Second, Veronika's clear, accessible style takes what could quickly become a technically obtuse topic and frames it as a pragmatic, down to earth complement to OWL and RDFS.
While SHACL isn't otherwise a starting place I would recommend to someone new to semantic web technologies, part one of this book, "Back to Basics", is hands down the clearest holistic overview I've seen of what the semantic stack seeks to accomplish and how the technologies fit together. Even if you need to come back to the rest of the book for a second pass after you've covered the other technologies elsewhere, this initial framing provides an admirable map for the rest of the semantic web territory.
Parts two and three provide an introduction to the nuts and bolts of designing, writing, and applying SHACL to validate data (of course), and then a selection of real-world case studies ("SHACL Stories") that illustrate the wide variety of applications for which SHACL provides practical data validation at scale. The coverage of SHACL shapes and constraints is concise and to-the-point, and kept relatable with a common example throughout. Some of the case studies were more accessible to me than others, but I suspect this is just right: everyone will bring their own background and experience to these stories, and there's a range of topics here to accommodate that.
I'm a hands-on learner, so I'm going to need to crack open a text editor to get a feel for some of these patterns and approaches, but I couldn't ask for a better introduction to this space. If you're like me and have been itching to round out your semantic web knowledge with SHACL, this is a fantastic place to start.
Thanks for a welcoming and informed introduction to SHACL, Veronika!
This book provides a guided tour through the world of SHACL, developing themes with clear and highly accessible examples and illustrations. The material is super useful for anyone working with graph technologies, in terms of data quality, auditing, and so on -- though also increasingly in terms of inference. The latter half is a collection of case studies for production use cases.
SHACL is a locus for some of the most interesting and pragmatic work in semantic technologies currently, and Veronika Heimsbakk has consistently been one of the instructors/authors in the world about this.
Got my copy yesterday, exciting fit for the classic bookends: Semantic Web for the Working Ontologist & Learning SPARQL
Just got my copy of "SHACL for the Practitioner", and look at this!
A handwritten note, a bookmark, and the cutest stickers ever ("Messy data? Not on my shape" one is my favorite 😂).
Veronika Heimsbakk thank you for making it feel so personal.
Can't wait to dive in!
Stay sharp, stay shaped!
#SHACL #SemanticWeb #RDF #KnowledgeGraphs
Everything you need to know before ordering.
Common questions about ordering, shipping and the e-book.
Each PDF copy is personally generated with your name watermarked on the file. Due to this manual process, the e-book will not be delivered instantly. Please make sure your e-mail address is correct at checkout.
Paperback copies are shipped from Norway. Due to the costs of distribution as a private person, there is only simplified tracking. The book should be sent 1-3 days after purchase domestically, but international shipments vary depending on customs and location.
Due to customs regulations from the U.S. to Norway, there have been experiences of empty envelopes arriving or shipments lost. Please let the author know if this happens to you.
The author handles distribution personally. There are no straight-out-of-the-box solutions for paying VAT to the buyer's local country. This is highlighted during the purchase process.
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Available as paperback and personalised PDF, shipped from Oslo, Norway.
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