[data-shapes] Add sh:rootClass (similar to sh:class but without being an instance) (#792)

smessie has just created a new issue for https://github.com/w3c/data-shapes:

== Add sh:rootClass (similar to sh:class but without being an instance) ==
While we have `sh:class` which is an equivalent of `ASK { $value rdf:type/rdfs:subClassOf* $class . }`, I believe it is interesting to also support a similar property `sh:rootClass` which expresses that all value nodes must be subclasses of the specified root class (and not an instance of any of these classes).
This would be the equivalent of `ASK { $value rdfs:subClassOf* $class . }`.

This was originally defined already in DASH: https://datashapes.org/constraints.html#RootClassConstraintComponent

This already has a use case in the SHACL UI for the SubClassEditor, and I believe it could also enhance the completeness of SHACL Core, considering that we already have `sh:class`.

Should SHACL Core include this feature, or should it be scoped to the SHACL UI namespace? Does it add value to include it in SHACL Core?
I'm also open to discuss if this property can already be expressed using different properties.

Please view or discuss this issue at https://github.com/w3c/data-shapes/issues/792 using your GitHub account


-- 
Sent via github-notify-ml as configured in https://github.com/w3c/github-notify-ml-config

Received on Wednesday, 18 February 2026 09:40:52 UTC