Giacomo Veneri

NVIDIA Open-Sources Auto Ontology, a Semantic Layer for AI Agents Your boss asks the AI agent: "What was revenue last quarter?" It answers in 3 seconds. Clean number. Nice chart. But it used the wrong "revenue" column. 𝗡𝗼𝗯𝗼𝗱𝘆 𝗻𝗼𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗲𝘀. That's the problem NVIDIA's new open-source library, Auto Ontology, goes after. Its README puts it plainly: "…𝘢 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘶𝘦 𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘤 𝘢𝘯𝘴𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘧𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘪𝘴 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘩 𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘯𝘶𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳 𝘪𝘴 𝘸𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘨." 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝘁 𝗶𝘀: A "context layer" that sits between an AI agent and your database. It tells the agent where the data lives, what each field means, and whether to use it. 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗶𝘁 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝘀, 𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝗯𝘆 𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗽: • 𝗗𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿: it reads your database metadata and drafts an ontology, a map of business terms like "active customer" • 𝗚𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱: agents use those terms instead of guessing from raw table names • 𝗩𝗮𝗹𝗶𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗲: it checks generated SQL against certified definitions • 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗼𝘀𝗲: agents reach it through MCP, a CLI or an API • 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻: certified corrections go back into the map 𝗙𝗼𝗿 𝘂𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘀: Ask a question, get 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝘀𝘄𝗲𝗿, 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝗤𝗟 𝗶𝘁 𝗿𝗮𝗻, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘀. You can check the work, not just trust it. 𝗙𝗼𝗿 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀: • Apache 2.0, runs with Docker Compose or Helm • Works with Databricks, Postgres, Snowflake and DuckDB • Defaults to NVIDIA's Nemotron models, but 𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝗢𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗔𝗜-𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗽𝗼𝗶𝗻𝘁 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝘀 • The MCP server has 𝟵 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱-𝗼𝗻𝗹𝘆 𝘁𝗼𝗼𝗹𝘀. There is deliberately no tool to browse raw tables, so agents must go through the business terms 𝗜𝘁 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗹𝗶𝗲𝗿 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸: • Cube and dbt MetricFlow: semantic layers you write by hand in code • Wren AI: an open semantic layer for AI agents, with a context layer built partly by agents • Snowflake's Semantic View Autopilot: also drafts semantic models with AI, but only for Snowflake What's different here: 𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗻 𝘀𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗰𝗲, 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝘀 𝗮𝗰𝗿𝗼𝘀𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗮𝘀𝗲𝘀, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝘁 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵 𝗠𝗖𝗣. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗵𝗼𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁: • 𝗧𝗵𝗲 "𝟵𝟬% 𝗳𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿" 𝗰𝗹𝗮𝗶𝗺 𝗶𝘀 𝗡𝗩𝗜𝗗𝗜𝗔'𝘀 𝗼𝘄𝗻 𝘁𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴, with no baseline published • 𝗡𝗼 𝗮𝗰𝗰𝘂𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘆 𝘀𝗰𝗼𝗿𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗽𝘂𝗯𝗹𝗶𝘀𝗵𝗲𝗱. NVIDIA ships an eval harness (BIRD, 1,534 questions) but no results • That harness was tested with 𝗖𝗹𝗮𝘂𝗱𝗲 𝗢𝗽𝘂𝘀 𝟰.𝟴, 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗡𝗲𝗺𝗼𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗻 • 𝗪𝗶𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗛𝗮𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗖𝗼𝗿𝗽 𝗩𝗮𝘂𝗹𝘁, 𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗮𝘀𝗲 𝗽𝗮𝘀𝘀𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗱𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝘂𝗻𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗿𝘆𝗽𝘁𝗲𝗱 in Postgres (per the README) • It's young: 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝟳𝟱𝟬 𝗚𝗶𝘁𝗛𝘂𝗯 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘀, and NVIDIA isn't accepting outside contributions 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗶𝗴𝗴𝗲𝗿 𝗽𝗼𝗶𝗻𝘁: the hard part of AI analytics isn't writing SQL. 𝗜𝘁'𝘀 𝗮𝗴𝗿𝗲𝗲𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝗻 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗱𝘀 𝗺𝗲𝗮𝗻. GitHub: github.com/NVIDIA/auto-ontol… Links in reply 👇