nlweb-schema-org-grounding

name

nlweb-schema-org-grounding

description

Prepare and structure site content as Schema.org JSON-LD for NLWeb ingestion — covers the supported types (Recipe, Product, Movie, Event, Article, RealEstate, Course, etc.), per-type behavior in NLWeb's tool routing, JSON-LD embedding patterns in HTML, sites.xml registration, and how the `schema_object` flows through ranking back to agent results. Use when authoring or auditing the structured data on a site that will be exposed via NLWeb.

NLWeb Schema.org Grounding

Before writing code

Fetch live references:

1. Fetch https://schema.org/ for the canonical Schema.org vocabulary.
2. Fetch https://github.com/nlweb-ai/NLWeb/blob/main/config/site_types.xml in the live repo for the exact list of supported Schema.org types and the tool inheritance tree per type.
3. Fetch https://github.com/nlweb-ai/NLWeb/blob/main/docs/nlweb-prompts.md for how per-type prompts and <returnStruc> shapes work.
4. Web-search schema.org JSON-LD validator — Google's Rich Results Test is a quick way to validate before ingest.
5. Check AskAgent/python/methods/recipe_substitution.py, accompaniment.py, compare_items.py for examples of how type-specific tools consume the schema_object.

Conceptual Architecture

Why Schema.org Matters to NLWeb

NLWeb's defining design choice: results carry their full Schema.org object back to the agent. Unlike a generic RAG system that returns text chunks, NLWeb returns structured JSON-LD — so an agent receiving a Recipe result gets ingredients, cookTime, nutrition, recipeYield, not just a paragraph of text. This is what makes NLWeb results agent-actionable.

R.V. Guha (NLWeb's author) co-created Schema.org for exactly this reason — the data was already structured; NLWeb finally exposes it to agents.

Schema.org Types NLWeb Knows About

site_types.xml enumerates the types with per-type tool / prompt overrides. Common types (verify the live file):

Type	Use Case	Type-Specific Tools
Recipe	Cooking sites	recipe_substitution, accompaniment
Product	E-commerce	compare_items, item_details
Movie / TVSeries	Streaming/reviews	compare_items
Event	Calendars, ticketing	item_details
Article / NewsArticle / BlogPosting	News, blogs	summarize-mode default
RealEstate / Apartment / House	Listings	item_details, compare
Course	EdTech	item_details
Restaurant / LocalBusiness	Maps, directories	accompaniment, item_details
Book	Catalogs	compare, item_details
Person / Organization	Profiles	item_details

NLWeb falls back to a default tool set for any Schema.org type not explicitly enumerated.

JSON-LD Embedding Patterns

Schema.org JSON-LD is typically embedded in HTML via a <script type="application/ld+json"> tag:

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Recipe",
  "name": "Classic Tomato Soup",
  "url": "https://example.com/recipes/tomato-soup",
  "image": "https://example.com/images/tomato-soup.jpg",
  "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Jane Doe" },
  "datePublished": "2025-09-12",
  "description": "A simple weeknight tomato soup.",
  "recipeIngredient": ["6 ripe tomatoes", "1 onion", "..."],
  "recipeInstructions": [...],
  "nutrition": { "@type": "NutritionInformation", "calories": "200" },
  "cookTime": "PT30M",
  "recipeYield": "4 servings"
}
</script>

NLWeb's URL-list ingest path extracts this directly. The richer the JSON-LD, the more useful the result.

The schema_object Field in Responses

Every NLWeb result contains:

{
  "url": "...",
  "name": "...",
  "site": "...",
  "score": 0.87,
  "description": "...",
  "schema_object": { /* the full JSON-LD as ingested */ }
}

Agents can pattern-match on schema_object.@type to render appropriately, extract specific properties (e.g., offers.price for products), or chain to a follow-up tool call.

sites.xml and Per-Site Registration

In addition to config_nlweb.yaml's sites: allowlist, the demo data ships with a sites.xml-style registry tying site names to crawl sources and Schema.org type defaults. Check the live repo for the current registration convention — this is an area that's been evolving.

Schema.org Required Fields by Type (high-signal subset)

Type	Always include
Recipe	name, url, image, recipeIngredient, recipeInstructions, cookTime, recipeYield
Product	name, url, image, description, offers (price, priceCurrency, availability)
Article	headline, url, image, author, datePublished, description, articleBody (or summary)
Event	name, url, startDate, location, description
Movie	name, url, image, director, datePublished, genre, description
RealEstate	name, url, image, address, numberOfRooms, floorSize, price

The fewer fields populated, the worse the result quality — especially for mode=generate answers.

Per-Type Prompt and Tool Inheritance

site_types.xml defines a tree:

• Root prompts apply to all types
• Per-type overrides specialize ranking, summarization, and tool selection

This is mixed-mode programming in action — small, type-aware LLM calls drive the response.

Implementation Guidance

Auditing an Existing Site

Before ingest:

1. Visit a representative page and view source — look for <script type="application/ld+json">.
2. Validate with Google's Rich Results Test or Schema.org validator.
3. Confirm the @type is one NLWeb's site_types.xml knows about — if not, results still work but use default prompts.

Authoring JSON-LD for NLWeb

• Always set @context: "https://schema.org" — NLWeb's parser keys off this.
• Always include url — it's the deduplication key across retrieval backends.
• Use specific subtypes (e.g., Recipe not CreativeWork) so type-specific tools activate.
• Embed images and dates — agents use them for rendering and freshness checks.
• Nest related objects with @type discriminators (e.g., author as Person, offers as Offer).

Validating Schema Quality Post-Ingest

After loading, hit a result and inspect schema_object:

curl 'http://localhost:8000/ask?query=quick+dinners&site=recipes&streaming=false&mode=list' | jq '.results[0].schema_object'

If schema_object is missing key fields, fix the source HTML — not NLWeb's config.

Adding a New Schema.org Type

If you want a custom domain (say, Podcast episodes) with type-specific tools:

1. Add a <site_type> entry in site_types.xml referencing your @type value.
2. Define type-specific prompts in prompts.xml (or inherit defaults).
3. Optionally write a handler in methods/ (see nlweb-tools-framework).
4. Reload and re-test.

Mapping Non-Schema.org Sources

If your source isn't JSON-LD (CSV, proprietary API), map fields to Schema.org at ingest time, not query time. Update rss2schema.py or write a small adapter that emits Schema.org JSON before calling db_load. The richer the mapping, the better the agent experience.

Common Pitfalls

• @type is missing or non-Schema.org — results work but type-specific tools never fire.
• url is relative — breaks deduplication; always emit absolute URLs.
• Date format is non-ISO — datePublished: "2025-09-12" works; "Sept 12, 2025" does not.
• offers is a bare string instead of an Offer object — agents lose the price field.
• Description is too short / too generic — ranking suffers because retrieval relies on description embeddings.

Always validate JSON-LD with an external tool before assuming ingest will work — silent parser failures are common.