Object types

The typed entities at the heart of the ontology — properties, identity, classifications, searchability.

An object type is the typed view of an entity in your domain. Define it once, bind it to a real source, and the rest of the platform reasons about it as a first-class type.

Anatomy

Field	Purpose
`id`	The stable identifier of the type (e.g. `RegulatedEntity`). Cannot be renamed.
`title`	Human-readable name shown in the UI (e.g. "Regulated Entity").
`description`	Free-text description shown in the workbench and exported to LLM tools.
`icon`	Emoji or icon key shown in the graph view.
`properties`	The list of typed properties.
`identity`	The rule for deriving a stable instance ID. See Concepts → Identity rules.
`dlpLabels`	Optional default DLP labels applied to every instance.

Properties

Each property declares a name, type, and optional flags:

Flag	Effect
`required`	Instances missing this property are rejected.
`searchable`	The property is indexed for retrieval — searchable in the analyst, used in semantic queries.
`pii`	The property is treated as PII — automatic masking applies for callers without clearance.
`classification`	One of `public`, `internal`, `confidential`, `restricted` — drives the column-level masking.
`link`	The property is a reference to another typed Object.

Example

defineObjectType({
  id: "RegulatedEntity",
  title: "Regulated Entity",
  icon: "🏛️",
  description: "A legal entity subject to a regulator's oversight.",
  properties: {
    id: { type: "string", required: true },
    legalName: { type: "string", required: true, searchable: true },
    riskClassification: {
      type: "enum",
      values: ["low", "medium", "high", "critical"],
      required: true,
    },
    headquartersCountry: { type: "string" },
    primaryRegulator: { type: "link", target: "Regulator" },
    annualSARVolume: {
      type: "number",
      classification: "confidential",
    },
  },
  identity: { columns: ["id"] },
});

What you can do with one

Once an object type is defined and bound:

Read instances from a workflow with the Get Object block.
Search by searchable properties through the context engine.
Traverse to linked objects (e.g. from a RegulatedEntity to its Regulator).
Visualise in the graph view.
Dispatch actions that operate on instances of this type.
Bind to real data via Bindings.

Renaming and breaking changes

Once published on main, an object type's id is immutable. To rename, you have to:

Create a new object type with the new id.
Migrate bindings, actions, and workflows.
Archive the old type.

Changing a property's type or removing a property is similarly a breaking change. Both happen through a proposal branch so reviewers can see the impact before publishing.

Bindings — connect an object type to a real source.
Link types — define the edges between objects.
Concepts → Property types — the full type system.
Authoring SDK → Ontologies — define object types in TypeScript.