# Implementing Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) for ontology management in Palantir Foundry **URL:** \ **Category:** Product Feedback\ **Tags:** ontology-management, summer-2024-planning\ **Created:** [August 13, 2024, 7:59pm UTC](https://community.palantir.com/t/implementing-infrastructure-as-code-iac-for-ontology-management-in-palantir-foundry/1016 "2024-08-13T19:59:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![nick\_simpson](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/palantir/user_avatar/community.palantir.com/nick_simpson/32/1099_2.png) [@nick\_simpson](https://community.palantir.com/u/nick_simpson)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2024, 7:59pm UTC](https://community.palantir.com/t/implementing-infrastructure-as-code-iac-for-ontology-management-in-palantir-foundry/1016/1 "2024-08-13T19:59:03Z")
# Proposal: Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) for Palantir Foundry Ontology Management Tags: #summer-2024-planning #foundry ## Context and Use Case As organizations increasingly adopt DevOps and automation practices, there’s a growing need for Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) approaches in all aspects of data management and analytics platforms. This proposal suggests implementing an IaC approach for ontology management in Palantir Foundry. The key distinction of IaC is its declarative nature: you define _what_ the final infrastructure (in this case, the ontology) should look like, and the IaC tool figures out _how_ to achieve that state. This is similar to how tools like Terraform or AWS CloudFormation work for cloud infrastructure. The use case involves managing complex, rapidly evolving ontologies across multiple environments (development, staging, production) and potentially across different clients or projects. The aims are to: 1. Define ontologies declaratively, specifying the desired end-state 2. Automate the process of achieving and maintaining that desired state 3. Enhance version control and collaboration using standard DevOps tools and practices 4. Enable rapid, consistent deployment and rollback of ontology changes across environments 5. Integrate ontology management fully into CI/CD pipelines ## Proposed Improvement An IaC approach for ontology management would offer several advantages: 1. Allow defining the desired end-state of the ontology, rather than specifying step-by-step changes. 2. Automatically determine the most efficient way to transition between ontology states. 3. Enhance integration with standard DevOps tools and workflows through a declarative approach. 4. Simplify achieving consistency across environments. 5. Enable seamless automation of ontology management within CI/CD pipelines. ## Impact and Benefits Implementing an IaC approach for ontology management would make a significant difference: 1. **Declarative Definition** : Allows teams to specify the desired ontology structure without worrying about the specific steps to achieve it. 2. **Efficiency** : The IaC tool would automatically determine the most efficient way to transition the ontology to the desired state, potentially reducing update times significantly. 3. **Consistency** : Ensures consistent application of changes across all environments by defining the desired state once and applying it everywhere. 4. **Enhanced Version Control** : Declarative definitions in standard formats (e.g., YAML, JSON) would integrate seamlessly with existing version control systems and DevOps practices. 5. **Collaboration** : Team members can collaborate more effectively using familiar Git workflows, including code reviews for ontology changes. 6. **CI/CD Integration** : Ontology updates can be fully integrated into existing CI/CD pipelines, allowing for automated testing and deployment of changes. 7. **Scalability** : As ontologies grow in complexity, a declarative IaC approach becomes increasingly valuable, allowing for management of even the most intricate data models. 8. **Auditability** : With changes tracked as declarative statements, it becomes even easier to audit and understand ontology evolution over time. 9. **Knowledge Transfer** : Declarative ontology definitions serve as clear, self-documenting representations of the data model. Implementing an IaC approach for ontology management would enhance Palantir Foundry’s already excellent capabilities. This addition would further streamline workflows for organizations with mature automation practices and those dealing with complex, rapidly evolving data models. ---
**Author:** ![alieskovsky](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/palantir/user_avatar/community.palantir.com/alieskovsky/32/831_2.png) [@alieskovsky](https://community.palantir.com/u/alieskovsky)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2024, 4:32pm UTC](https://community.palantir.com/t/implementing-infrastructure-as-code-iac-for-ontology-management-in-palantir-foundry/1016/2 "2024-09-23T16:32:53Z")
Hi, this is a similar FR as [Configure Ontology Property Configuration Through Metadata File](https://community.palantir.com/t/configure-ontology-property-configuration-through-metadata-file/1231). We acknowledge the FR/need here, and we have reasoned through most of impact and benefits you are listing out previously. This led to us prioritizing looking at this topic. We have been internally prototyping early solutions in this space, please stay tuned for more information! (cc @aparson). ---
**Author:** ![nick\_simpson](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/palantir/user_avatar/community.palantir.com/nick_simpson/32/1099_2.png) [@nick\_simpson](https://community.palantir.com/u/nick_simpson)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2024, 7:28am UTC](https://community.palantir.com/t/implementing-infrastructure-as-code-iac-for-ontology-management-in-palantir-foundry/1016/3 "2024-09-24T07:28:10Z")
Thanks for acknowledging my proposal @alieskovsky As a security professional, I’m deeply interested in Palantir’s work and ontology-based approach. I’d be interested in learning more about any relevant openings where I could contribute more directly. ---
**Author:** ![brentshulman-silklin](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/palantir/user_avatar/community.palantir.com/brentshulman-silklin/32/605_2.png) [@brentshulman-silklin](https://community.palantir.com/u/brentshulman-silklin)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2024, 4:55pm UTC](https://community.palantir.com/t/implementing-infrastructure-as-code-iac-for-ontology-management-in-palantir-foundry/1016/4 "2024-10-25T16:55:03Z")
You could _maybe_ use some thing like this to convert the Ontology API to a Terraform/Pulumi provider: https://github.com/dikhan/terraform-provider-openapi ---
**Author:** ![system](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/palantir/user_avatar/community.palantir.com/system/32/3_2.png) [@system](https://community.palantir.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2025, 8:23pm UTC](https://community.palantir.com/t/implementing-infrastructure-as-code-iac-for-ontology-management-in-palantir-foundry/1016/5 "2025-02-02T20:23:52Z")
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**Author:** ![Paul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Paul](https://community.palantir.com/u/Paul)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2025, 7:51am UTC](https://community.palantir.com/t/implementing-infrastructure-as-code-iac-for-ontology-management-in-palantir-foundry/1016/6 "2025-02-25T07:51:14Z")
I was just trying to determine how to programmatically create/import ontologies to Foundry, but looks like the REST API for ontologies is read only. To the Foundry team, can you either: 1. Expose write operations so users can create / modify ontologies via the API or 2. Offer a mechanism for deploying infrastructure as code (including ontologies) like Terraform or Cloud Formation. My use case is to generate my Ontology using my own tools, as well as the integrations for Actions / Functions back to my services. I want to do all this on my end then upload all the configuration to Foundry. This way I can automate the install process and have high confidence all the queries, mutations, etc. against my services will work. Trying to stich all this together in the UI is too brittle and not repeatable. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/palantir/user_avatar/community.palantir.com/system/32/3_2.png) [@system](https://community.palantir.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2025, 11:58am UTC](https://community.palantir.com/t/implementing-infrastructure-as-code-iac-for-ontology-management-in-palantir-foundry/1016/7 "2025-06-13T11:58:48Z")
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**Author:** ![system](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/palantir/user_avatar/community.palantir.com/system/32/3_2.png) [@system](https://community.palantir.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2025, 3:47am UTC](https://community.palantir.com/t/implementing-infrastructure-as-code-iac-for-ontology-management-in-palantir-foundry/1016/8 "2025-10-16T03:47:38Z")
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**Author:** ![system](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/palantir/user_avatar/community.palantir.com/system/32/3_2.png) [@system](https://community.palantir.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2026, 5:07am UTC](https://community.palantir.com/t/implementing-infrastructure-as-code-iac-for-ontology-management-in-palantir-foundry/1016/9 "2026-05-02T05:07:56Z")