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FAQ

Frequently asked questions about Blacklake.

General Questions

What is Blacklake?

Blacklake is a git-like data storage and retrieval system for vendor-agnostic S3/object stores with semantic metadata using JSON-LD, Dublin Core, FOAF, and OWL.

How is Blacklake different from Git?

Blacklake is designed for data storage rather than source code, with features like: - Semantic metadata with JSON-LD - S3-compatible object storage - Full-text search integration - Data validation with SHACL

What object stores are supported?

Blacklake works with any S3-compatible storage: - AWS S3 - MinIO - Google Cloud Storage - DigitalOcean Spaces - And more

Technical Questions

How does content addressing work?

Blacklake uses SHA-256 hashing for content addressing: - Same content = same hash - Immutable objects - Deduplication - Integrity verification

What metadata standards are supported?

  • Dublin Core: Core metadata properties
  • FOAF: People and organizations
  • OWL: Ontology definitions
  • SHACL: Data validation

How does search work?

Blacklake integrates with Apache Solr for: - Full-text search - Semantic field search - Faceted search - Real-time indexing

Usage Questions

How do I get started?

  1. Install Blacklake: uv add blacklake[server]
  2. Initialize repository: blacklake init
  3. Add metadata: blacklake meta add file.csv --title "My Data"
  4. Commit changes: blacklake commit -m "Add data"

How do I add metadata to files?

Use the meta add command: 

blacklake meta add data.csv \
  --title "Sales Data" \
  --creator "Data Team" \
  --description "Q1-Q4 sales data"

How do I search my data?

Use the search command: 

blacklake search "sales data"
blacklake search "2024 revenue"

Troubleshooting

Common Issues

S3 Connection Failed - Check credentials - Verify endpoint URL - Test with curl

Database Connection Issues - Check PostgreSQL status - Verify connection string - Check firewall settings

Search Not Working - Verify Solr is running - Check index status - Re-index data if needed

Getting Help

Next Steps