This document defines the Core of SHACL, the Shapes Constraint Language, which is used for describing the structure of RDF graphs. SHACL can formally specify constraints on RDF nodes and edges through shapes represented in RDF graphs called shapes graphs. SHACL may be used for validation, inferencing, modeling domains, generating ontologies, building user interfaces, generating code, and integrating data.
Year published: 2026
URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/shacl12-core/