Question Answering with `HanaSparqlQAChain`

Setup and Installation

To use this feature, install the @sap/hana-langchain package and its peer dependencies:

npm install @sap/hana-langchain @langchain/core@latest @langchain/classic@latest langchain@latest

Create a connection to your SAP HANA Cloud instance.

import * as dotenv from 'dotenv';
// Load environment variables if needed
dotenv.config();

import hanaClient from "@sap/hana-client";

const connectionParams = {
  host: process.env.HANA_DB_ADDRESS,
  port: process.env.HANA_DB_PORT,
  user: process.env.HANA_DB_USER,
  password: process.env.HANA_DB_PASSWORD,
};
const client = hanaClient.createConnection(connectionParams);

// connect to hanaDB
await new Promise<void>((resolve, reject) => {
  client.connect((err: Error) => {
    // Use arrow function here
    if (err) {
      reject(err);
    } else {
      console.log("Connected to SAP HANA successfully.");
      resolve();
    }
  });
});

HanaSparqlQAChain ties together:

Schema-aware SPARQL generation
Query execution against SAP HANA
Natural-language answer formatting

Initialization

An LLM to generate and interpret queries
A HanaRdfGraph (with connection, graph_uri, and ontology)

Follow the steps here HanaRdfGraph to know more about creating a HanaRdfGraph instance. Import the HanaSparqlQAChain

import { HanaSparqlQAChain } from "@sap/hana-langchain";
const qaChain = HanaSparqlQAChain.fromLLM({ llm, graph, allowDangerousRequests: true, verbose: true });

Pipeline Overview

SPARQL Generation
- Uses a SPARQL-generation prompt
- Inputs: schema (Turtle from graph.getSchema()), prompt (user question)
Query Post-processing
- Extract SPARQL from model output
- Inject FROM <graph_uri> if missing
- Ensure common prefixes (rdf:, rdfs:, owl:, xsd:)
Execution
- graph.query(generatedSparql)
Answer Formulation
- Uses a QA prompt with inputs: context (results), prompt (original question)

Prompt templates

”SPARQL Generation” prompt

The sparqlGenerationPrompt is used to guide the LLM in generating a SPARQL query from the user question and the provided schema.

Answering prompt

The qaPrompt instructs the LLM to create a natural language answer based solely on the database results. The default prompts can be found here: prompts.ts

Customizing prompts

You can override the defaults at initialization:

const qaChain = HanaSparqlQAChain.fromLLM({
  llm,
  graph,
  allowDangerousRequests: true,
  verbose: true,
  sparqlGenerationPrompt: YOUR_SPARQL_PROMPT,
  qaPrompt: YOUR_QA_PROMPT,
});

sparql_generation_prompt must have the input variables: ["schema", "prompt"]

qa_prompt must have the input variables: ["context", "prompt"]

Example: Question answering over a “Movies” knowledge graph

Prerequisite: You must have an SAP HANA Cloud instance with the triple store feature enabled. For detailed instructions, refer to: Enable Triple Store
Load the kgdocu_movies example data. See Knowledge Graph Example. Below we’ll:

Instantiate the HanaRdfGraph pointing at our “movies” data graph
Wrap it in a HanaSparqlQAChain powered by an LLM
Ask natural-language questions and print out the chain’s responses

This demonstrates how the LLM generates SPARQL under the hood, executes it against SAP HANA, and returns a human-readable answer. First, create a connection to your SAP HANA Cloud instance.

import * as dotenv from 'dotenv';
// Load environment variables if needed
dotenv.config();

import hanaClient from "@sap/hana-client";

const connectionParams = {
  host: process.env.HANA_DB_ADDRESS,
  port: process.env.HANA_DB_PORT,
  user: process.env.HANA_DB_USER,
  password: process.env.HANA_DB_PASSWORD,
};
const client = hanaClient.createConnection(connectionParams);

// connect to hanaDB
await new Promise<void>((resolve, reject) => {
  client.connect((err: Error) => {
    // Use arrow function here
    if (err) {
      reject(err);
    } else {
      console.log("Connected to SAP HANA successfully.");
      resolve();
    }
  });
});

Then, set up the knowledge graph instance

import { HanaRdfGraph, HanaRdfGraphOptions } from "@sap/hana-langchain";

const graphOptions: HanaRdfGraphOptions = {
  connection: client,
  graphUri: "kgdocu_movies",
  autoExtractOntology: true,
};

// create a Graph instance from a source URI
const graph = new HanaRdfGraph(graphOptions);

// need to initialize once an instance is created.
await graph.initialize(graphOptions);

// Serialise the graph schema (optional)
// Internally, the schema is stored as an N3 Store instance,
// We use the N3 Writer to serialise it to Turtle format for display.
const schemaStore = graph.getSchema();
const writer = new Writer({
  prefixes: {
    rdf: "http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#",
    rdfs: "http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#",
    owl: "http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#",
    xsd: "http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#",
  },
});
schemaStore.forEach((quad) => {
  writer.addQuad(quad);
});
writer.end((error, result) => {
  if (error) {
    console.error("Error serialising schema:", error);
  } else {
    console.log("Graph Schema in Turtle format:\n", result);
  }
});

Graph Schema in Turtle format:
@prefix rdf: <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#>.
@prefix rdfs: <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#>.
@prefix owl: <http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#>.
@prefix xsd: <http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#>.

<http://kg.demo.sap.com/Place> a owl:Class;
    rdfs:label "Place".
rdfs:label a owl:DatatypeProperty;
    rdfs:label "label";
    rdfs:domain <http://kg.demo.sap.com/Place>, <http://kg.demo.sap.com/Actor>, <http://kg.demo.sap.com/Director>, <http://kg.demo.sap.com/Genre>;
    rdfs:range xsd:string.
<http://kg.demo.sap.com/Actor> a owl:Class;
    rdfs:label "Actor".
<http://kg.demo.sap.com/Film> a owl:Class;
    rdfs:label "Film".
<http://kg.demo.sap.com/Director> a owl:Class;
    rdfs:label "Director".
<http://kg.demo.sap.com/Genre> a owl:Class;
    rdfs:label "Genre".
<http://kg.demo.sap.com/dateOfBirth> a owl:DatatypeProperty;
    rdfs:label "dateOfBirth";
    rdfs:domain <http://kg.demo.sap.com/Actor>;
    rdfs:range xsd:dateTime.
<http://kg.demo.sap.com/placeOfBirth> a owl:ObjectProperty;
    rdfs:label "placeOfBirth";
    rdfs:domain <http://kg.demo.sap.com/Actor>;
    rdfs:range <http://kg.demo.sap.com/Place>.
<http://kg.demo.sap.com/title> a owl:DatatypeProperty;
    rdfs:label "title";
    rdfs:domain <http://kg.demo.sap.com/Film>;
    rdfs:range xsd:string.
<http://kg.demo.sap.com/directed> a owl:ObjectProperty;
    rdfs:label "directed";
    rdfs:domain <http://kg.demo.sap.com/Director>;
    rdfs:range <http://kg.demo.sap.com/Film>.
<http://kg.demo.sap.com/acted_in> a owl:ObjectProperty;
    rdfs:label "acted_in";
    rdfs:domain <http://kg.demo.sap.com/Actor>;
    rdfs:range <http://kg.demo.sap.com/Film>.
<http://kg.demo.sap.com/genre> a owl:ObjectProperty;
    rdfs:label "genre";
    rdfs:domain <http://kg.demo.sap.com/Film>;
    rdfs:range <http://kg.demo.sap.com/Genre>.

After that, initialise the LLM.

import { ChatOpenAI } from "@langchain/openai"; // or your chosen LLM
const llm = new ChatOpenAI({ model: "gpt-4o" });

Then, we create a SPARQL QA Chain

import { HanaSparqlQAChain, HanaSparqlQAChainOptions } from "@sap/hana-langchain";

const chainOptions: HanaSparqlQAChainOptions = {
  llm,
  allowDangerousRequests: true,
  graph,
  debug: true,
};

const query = "which actors acted in Blade Runner?";
// const query = "Which movies are in the data?"
// const query = "In which movies did Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss play in together"
// const query = "which movie genres are in the data?"
// const query = "which are the two most assigned movie genres?"
// const query = "where were the actors of 'Blade Runner' born?"
// const query = "which actors acted together in a movie and were born in the same city?"

const response = await chain.invoke({ query });
console.log(response["result"]);

Generated SPARQL:
\`\`\`sparql
PREFIX kg: <http://kg.demo.sap.com/>
PREFIX rdf: <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#>
PREFIX rdfs: <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#>
SELECT ?actor ?actorLabel
WHERE {
    ?movie rdf:type kg:Film .
    ?movie kg:title "Blade Runner" .
    ?actor kg:acted_in ?movie .
    ?actor rdfs:label ?actorLabel .
}
\`\`\`
Final SPARQL:


PREFIX kg: <http://kg.demo.sap.com/>
PREFIX rdf: <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#>
PREFIX rdfs: <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#>
SELECT ?actor ?actorLabel

      FROM <kgdocu_movies>
      WHERE {
    ?movie rdf:type kg:Film .
    ?movie kg:title "Blade Runner" .
    ?actor kg:acted_in ?movie .
    ?actor rdfs:label ?actorLabel .
}


Full Context:
actor,actorLabel
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q1353691,Morgan Paull
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q1372770,William Sanderson
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q358990,James Hong
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q723780,Brion James
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q81328,Q81328
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q498420,M. Emmet Walsh
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q1691628,Joe Turkel
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q207596,Daryl Hannah
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q236702,Joanna Cassidy
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q213574,Rutger Hauer
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q3143555,Hy Pyke
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q230736,Sean Young
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q211415,Edward James Olmos

The actors who acted in Blade Runner include Morgan Paull, William Sanderson, James Hong, Brion James, M. Emmet Walsh, Joe Turkel, Daryl Hannah, Joanna Cassidy, Rutger Hauer, Hy Pyke, Sean Young, and Edward James Olmos.

What’s happening under the hood?

SPARQL Generation The chain invokes the LLM with your Turtle-formatted ontology (graph.getSchema()) and the user’s question using the SPARQL_GENERATION_SELECT_PROMPT. The LLM then emits a valid SELECT query tailored to your schema.
Pre-processing & Execution
- Extract & clean: Pull the raw SPARQL text out of the LLM’s response.
- Inject graph context: Add FROM <graph_uri> if it’s missing and ensure common prefixes (rdf:, rdfs:, owl:, xsd:) are declared.
- Run on HANA: Execute the finalized query via HanaRdfGraph.query() over your named graph.
Answer Formulation The returned CSV (or Turtle) results feed into the LLM again—this time with the SPARQL_QA_PROMPT. The LLM produces a concise, human-readable answer strictly based on the retrieved data, without hallucination.

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Question Answering with `HanaSparqlQAChain`

Setup and Installation

Initialization

Pipeline Overview

Prompt templates

”SPARQL Generation” prompt

Answering prompt

Customizing prompts

Example: Question answering over a “Movies” knowledge graph

What’s happening under the hood?

​Setup and Installation

​Initialization

​Pipeline Overview

​Prompt templates

​”SPARQL Generation” prompt

​Answering prompt

​Customizing prompts

​Example: Question answering over a “Movies” knowledge graph

​What’s happening under the hood?

Setup and Installation

Initialization

Pipeline Overview

Prompt templates

”SPARQL Generation” prompt

Answering prompt

Customizing prompts

Example: Question answering over a “Movies” knowledge graph

What’s happening under the hood?