tonto-cli

Tonto CLI And Language Package

packages/tonto contains the Tonto grammar, generated language services, validation rules, diagram model generation, and the tonto-cli command-line interface.

This is the core package used by the VS Code extension, the webview, TPM, tests, and external users that install tonto-cli from npm.

Responsibilities

• Define the Tonto grammar with Langium.
• Provide language services for parsing, validation, formatting, references, completion, hover information, and semantic tokens.
• Convert Tonto projects to OntoUML JSON.
• Import OntoUML JSON back into Tonto source files.
• Validate projects locally, with optional OntoUML API validation.
• Transform models to gUFO/Turtle through the OntoUML toolchain.
• Generate PlantUML diagram source from a Tonto project.
• Initialize new Tonto projects and optional guidance files for agentic IDE workflows.

Command Flow

flowchart LR
    Project["Tonto project<br/>tonto.json + src/*.tonto"] --> Parser["Langium parser<br/>workspace documents"]
    Parser --> Validation["Local validators"]
    Parser --> JSON["OntoUML JSON<br/>generate"]
    JSON --> Import["Tonto source<br/>import"]
    JSON --> GUFO["gUFO Turtle<br/>transform"]
    Parser --> PlantUML["PlantUML source<br/>plantuml"]
    Init["init"] --> Project

Install

From npm:

npm install -g tonto-cli

From this repository:

npm install
npm run build --workspace=tonto-cli

CLI Commands

Command	Purpose
tonto-cli init	Initialize a new Tonto project. Use --destination <dir>, `--template <blank
tonto-cli generate <dir>	Generate OntoUML JSON from a project. Use --destination <dir> to choose the output folder.
tonto-cli generateSingle <file>	Generate JSON from a single .tonto file.
tonto-cli import <file>	Generate a Tonto project from an OntoUML JSON file.
tonto-cli importSingle <file>	Generate a single Tonto output from an OntoUML JSON file.
tonto-cli validate <dir>	Validate a project locally. Add --with-api to also call the OntoUML API.
tonto-cli transform <dir>	Transform a Tonto project to gUFO/Turtle through the OntoUML toolchain.
tonto-cli plantuml <dir>	Generate PlantUML diagram source. Supports --destination, --per-package, --no-external-references, and --layout.
tonto-cli add-skill	Add the Tonto ontology skill files for supported editor and agentic IDE targets.

Examples:

tonto-cli init --destination my-ontology
tonto-cli generate my-ontology --destination generated
tonto-cli validate my-ontology --with-api
tonto-cli plantuml my-ontology --per-package --layout left-to-right

Language Overview

Every .tonto file declares one package:

package university

Tonto supports OntoUML/UFO stereotypes for sortals, non-sortals, relators, qualities, perdurants, higher-order types, and neutral classes.

package university

kind Person {
    name: string
    birthDate: date [0..1]
}

role Student specializes Person
role Professor specializes Person

kind Course {
    code: string
    title: string
}

relator Enrollment {
    @mediation [1] -- [1] Student
    @mediation [1] -- [1] Course
}

@material relation Student [0..*] -- enrollsIn -- [0..*] Course

Common Declarations

Classes

kind Person
subkind Employee specializes Person
phase Child specializes Person
role Student specializes Person
relator Employment

Datatypes And Enumerations

datatype Address {
    street: string
    city: string
}

enum EyeColor { Blue, Green, Brown, Black }

Built-in datatypes include string, number, boolean, date, time, and datetime.

Attributes

kind Person {
    name: string [1]
    nicknames: string [*] { ordered }
    nationalId: string [0..1] { const }
}

Relations

kind University {
    @componentOf [1] <>-- hasDepartments -- [1..*] Department
}

@mediation relation Employment [1] -- [1] Employee

Generalization Sets

disjoint complete genset PersonLifePhase where Child, Adult specializes Person

genset PersonRoles {
    general Person
    specifics Student, Professor
}

Development

From the repository root:

npm run langium:generate
npm run build --workspace=tonto-cli
npm run test --workspace=tonto-cli
npm run watch --workspace=tonto-cli

The grammar entry point is src/language/tonto.langium. Generated language files are checked in under src/language/generated.

License

Distributed under the MIT License. See the repository root LICENSE file for more information.