openCypher

openCypher is an open source specification of Cypher® - the most widely adopted query language for property graph databases. Cypher was developed by Neo4j®. Today, the specification of openCypher evolves towards ISO/IEC 39075 GQL — the property graph query language standard developed by ISO/IEC JTC1 SC32 WG3.

With ISO/IEC 39075 GQL, the purpose of openCypher is to pave the road to GQL for openCypher implementers. Changes to openCypher are made by adding GQL features to openCypher.

Prior to ISO/IEC 39075 GQL, the purpose of openCypher was to define a common language for property graphs, and the evolution of the Cypher® language was driven by the openCypher Implementers Group. Documentation of that time can be found here.

• Provides access to the latest language resources required to implement openCypher
• Allows for the raising of issues around openCypher

• openCypher is an open-source project that helps to implement the openCypher language in graph database or graph processing tools.
• Easy-to-learn and human-readable, openCypher is suitable for developers, data scientists and operations professionals alike.
• openCypher lets users simply express what data to retrieve (declarative) while the underlying engine completes the task without requiring that they understand implementation details.
• Cypher is implemented by various product and open source projects and is used by a large and growing community of developers on a daily basis.
• openCypher was a key inspiration for the ISO/IEC 39075 GQL project.
• With ISO/IEC 39075 GQL published (April 11, 2024), the mission of openCypher is to help implementors to evolve their implementation towards GQL.
• The openCypher project will continue integrating GQL features into its specification incrementally, so that over time the openCypher specification evolves to become GQL conformant.