Parliament

What Parliament is

Parliament is a self-hosted triple store and reasoner for Semantic Web data. The project describes it as standards-compliant for RDF, OWL, and SPARQL, with reasoning support. It is distributed under the BSD 3-Clause License, and its listed plan costs nothing. It supports Linux, macOS, and Windows. Version 2.8.1, released June 9, 2022, included a Docker Hub image named idemmons/parliament:2.8.1. That release separates software and data files; the data directory can be configured through kbDirectoryPath in ParliamentKbConfig.txt. Deployment documentation describes systemd service installation on Linux and UNIX, and a PowerShell startup script for Windows. Release notes say long-running queries time out and that a SWRL rules engine was added in 2019. The 2.8.1 notes also added a section on securing an instance. Parliament began in 2009, with initial development funded by DARPA through the DAML program; Raytheon BBN Technologies later extended it for internal R&D use. Its license provides the software “AS IS” and disclaims warranties.

Who it suits

Parliament suits teams or developers seeking a free, self-hosted store and reasoner for RDF, OWL, or SPARQL data. Its documented deployment options cover Linux/UNIX and Windows.

Getting started

1. Open the Parliament project website on GitHub.
2. Choose a self-hosted deployment for Linux, macOS, or Windows.
3. For Linux or UNIX, follow the documented systemd service installation route.
4. For Windows, use the documented PowerShell startup script.
5. For version 2.8.1, use the idemmons/parliament:2.8.1 Docker Hub image if appropriate.
6. Set the data location through kbDirectoryPath in ParliamentKbConfig.txt.

Verdict

Parliament brings triple storage and reasoning together under a free BSD license, with deployment guidance for multiple operating systems. The license disclaims warranties, and the listed 2.8.1 release dates to 2022.