OQL grammar

Note: The OpenAlex Query Language is in alpha. It may change without warning — build against it at your own risk, and tell us what you think.

The grammar below is derived from the OQL implementation in W3C-EBNF notation, so it can’t drift from what the engine actually parses. A visual railroad-diagram rendering of the same grammar is also available.

/* OQL (OpenAlex Query Language) v2.2 -- derived reference grammar (W3C-EBNF). */
/* Hand-written from the spec/parser; NOT generated, NOT the parser itself. */
/* Single source of truth = query_translation/oql_lang.py + docs/oql/corpus.yaml. */
/* No-drift gate: tests/oql/test_grammar_ebnf.py (oxjob #361). */
/* Renders to a railroad diagram via the rr tool (oxjob #386 recipe). */

query        ::= entity ( 'where' conditions )? directive*

entity       ::= word

directive    ::= groupBy | sample | ';'

groupBy      ::= 'group' 'by' word ( ',' word )*

sample       ::= 'sample' NUMBER ( 'seed' NUMBER )?

/* The `where` body is a boolean of clauses joined by infix `and`/`or`; a 2+
   body renders as the implicit-AND list `a and b`, and explicit groups use
   bare parens `(a or b)` / `(a and b)`. */
conditions   ::= operand ( connective operand )*

connective   ::= 'and' | '&' | 'or'   /* '&' is an input synonym for 'and'; canonical render is always 'and' */

operand      ::= 'not' operand
               | '(' conditions ')'
               | clause

clause       ::= determiner? ( valueClause | searchClause )

/* An optional leading determiner 'the' is ignorable input sugar before a
   field name (`the title is foo`), so a clause can read like a sentence. It is
   dropped at parse and never round-trips (the canonical render omits it). It is
   only swallowed when a known field follows -- a semantic guard, not
   grammatical -- so a search value that opens with "the"
   (`title has (the great gatsby)`) keeps it. */
determiner   ::= 'the'

valueClause  ::= field operator value

field        ::= word+

operator     ::= 'is' 'not'? 'in' 'collection'
               | 'is' 'not'?
               | 'is' 'similar' 'to'
               | 'has'
               | ( 'does' 'not' | "doesn't" | 'doesnt' ) 'have'
               | '>=' | '<=' | '>' | '<'

/* The CANONICAL value form is always the parenthesized group (oxjob #554,
   spec v2.2) -- `type is (article)`, `year >= (2019)`; the bare scalar /
   bare 'unknown' alternatives are the accepted-input (lenient) layer only.
   Scalar-domain operators (comparisons, booleans, collection, similar-to)
   take exactly ONE item in their group -- a semantic rule, not grammatical. */
value        ::= valueGroup | 'unknown' | 'null' | scalar   /* a boolean's value is 'true' or 'false' (oxjob #363) */

/* A value group is a parenthesized boolean of values: `(a or b)` / `(a and b)`,
   nesting freely. Items are joined by infix 'or'/'and' (one separator per
   level); bare adjacency between value items is a loud error (#554), never an
   implicit AND. 'unknown'/'null' inside a group is the null sentinel (#554). */
valueGroup   ::= '(' valueExpr ')'

valueExpr    ::= valueItem ( connective valueItem )*

valueItem    ::= 'not'? ( valueGroup | 'unknown' | 'null' | scalar )

scalar       ::= ( WORD | NUMBER | STRING ) ANNOT?

searchClause ::= searchField ( 'has' | ( 'does' 'not' | "doesn't" | 'doesnt' ) 'have' ) searchExpr
               | searchField 'is' 'similar' 'to' ( '(' STRING ')' | STRING )

searchField  ::= word ( ( '&' | 'and' ) word )*

searchExpr   ::= termRun ( connective termRun )*

termRun      ::= searchOperand+

searchOperand ::= 'not' searchOperand
               | proximity
               | '(' searchExpr ')'
               | searchAtom

/* Proximity is one leading list operator: K (2+) operands within an N-word
   window of each other, unordered (oxjob #514). Quotes freeze an operand into
   an adjacent phrase; bare operands stem. (The legacy `within N words` suffix
   and `within N words of` binary forms were removed from the OQL surface; the
   OXURL `~` notation keeps single/binary proximity unchanged.) */
proximity    ::= 'within' NUMBER '(' term ( ',' term )+ ')'

searchAtom   ::= 'stemmed'? term

term         ::= STRING | word

word         ::= WORD | NUMBER

WORD         ::= wordChar+

NUMBER       ::= [0-9]+

STRING       ::= '"' [#x20-#x10FFFF]* '"'

ANNOT        ::= '[' [#x20-#x10FFFF]* ']'

wordChar     ::= [#x21-#x10FFFF]

See the OQL specification for the normative prose and the cheat sheet for examples.