Ontologies

Generate descriptions for an ontology

A description tells people, and AI agents, what a class, relationship, or attribute means. Kenseme can write them for you at three levels: one item, the members of one class, or everything in the ontology. Descriptions are ordinary text; you can edit any of them afterwards.

In the app: Data Context › Ontologies › your ontology › More › Add Descriptions

Before you start

  • You need write access to the organization.
  • Each description uses your organization’s AI allowance. See AI token allowance and usage.
  • Instances don’t get generated descriptions. Write those by hand in Basics.

Describe one item

  1. Select a class, relationship, or attribute in the workbench.
  2. In Basics, click the wand next to Description (tooltip: Auto Generate Description).

The description is written and saved straight away. There is no confirmation step. If you don’t like it, edit the text or undo it from More › Recent changes.

[screenshot]
The Basics section with the Auto Generate Description wand next to Description.

Describe the relationships or attributes of a class

  1. Select a class.
  2. In Relationships & attributes, click Generate Descriptions next to the Relationships heading or the Attributes heading.

  3. If some of them already have descriptions, choose:

    • Only empty to describe only the ones without a description.
    • Overwrite all to replace every description.

    If none of them has a description yet, this choice is skipped.

Only the class’s own relationships and attributes are included. Ones it inherits from a parent class are left alone.

Describe the whole ontology

  1. Click More › Add Descriptions.
  2. The dialog counts, for classes, relationships, and attributes, how many are Missing a description and how many are already Described.
  3. Choose one:
    • Generate N Descriptions when nothing is described yet.
    • Only Missing (N) to fill in the gaps and keep existing descriptions.
    • Overwrite All (N) to replace every description.

If the ontology has nothing to describe yet, a message says so and no dialog opens.

[screenshot]
The Add Descriptions dialog with Missing and Described counts and the Only Missing and Overwrite All buttons.

What happens next

The class-level and ontology-wide options run in the background. A message confirms: “Description generation queued. Check background jobs for progress.” Follow the job on the background jobs page. It is named Generate Descriptions — followed by the ontology’s name (or the class’s name, for a class-level run). It reports each item as it goes and finishes with a count such as “Generated 42 of 45 descriptions (3 failed).”

  • If your AI allowance runs out partway, the job stops and says how many it finished. The descriptions already written are kept.
  • Reload the ontology page to see the new descriptions in the workbench.

Tip: Descriptions help people and AI agents understand what each item means. Run Only Missing after a large import or generation.