Visualizing Your Knowledge Graph

You've ingested content. You've got concepts and edges in a database. Now you want to see it.

Memgraph Lab is a browser-based graph visualization tool that ships with the qortex Docker setup. One command gets you there.

Quick Start

# Start Memgraph + Lab
qortex infra up

# Open the visualization UI
qortex viz open

Your browser opens to Memgraph Lab at http://localhost:3000. You're looking at an empty canvas. Time to query.

See Everything You Ingested

Click Query Execution in the left sidebar (or press Ctrl+Enter in the query box).

View all concepts

MATCH (c:Concept)
RETURN c
LIMIT 50

Nodes appear as circles. Each one is a concept from your ingested content. Hover to see properties (name, description, domain).

View all relationships

MATCH (a:Concept)-[r]->(b:Concept)
RETURN a, r, b
LIMIT 100

Now you see the edges. The graph structure is visible. Concepts cluster around shared relationships.

View a specific domain

MATCH (c:Concept {domain: "error_handling"})
RETURN c

Or with relationships:

MATCH (a:Concept {domain: "error_handling"})-[r]->(b:Concept)
RETURN a, r, b

Useful Queries

What domains exist?

MATCH (d:Domain)
RETURN d.name, d.description

How many concepts per domain?

MATCH (c:Concept)
RETURN c.domain, count(c) as concept_count
ORDER BY concept_count DESC

What relationships connect two concepts?

MATCH (a:Concept {name: "Circuit Breaker"})-[r]->(b:Concept)
RETURN a.name, type(r), b.name

Find paths between concepts

MATCH path = shortestPath(
  (a:Concept {name: "Retry"})-[*]-(b:Concept {name: "Timeout"})
)
RETURN path

This visualizes the shortest connection between two concepts. Powerful for understanding how ideas relate.

View rules and their source concepts

MATCH (r:Rule)-[:REFERENCES]->(c:Concept)
RETURN r.text, collect(c.name) as concepts
LIMIT 20

From the CLI

Don't want to open the browser? Run queries directly:

# Count all nodes
qortex viz query "MATCH (n) RETURN count(n)"

# List domains
qortex viz query "MATCH (d:Domain) RETURN d.name"

# Find concepts by pattern
qortex viz query "MATCH (c:Concept) WHERE c.name CONTAINS 'error' RETURN c.name"

Output prints to terminal. Good for scripts and quick checks.

Tips for Exploration

Zoom and pan: Scroll to zoom, drag to pan. Large graphs need navigation.

Click nodes: Selecting a node shows its properties in the sidebar.

Expand neighbors: Right-click a node → "Expand" to fetch connected nodes without rerunning the query.

Layout options: Memgraph Lab has force-directed, hierarchical, and circular layouts. Experiment to find what makes your graph readable.

Export: You can export query results as CSV or JSON for further analysis.

The "Aha" Moment

Run this after ingesting a book chapter:

MATCH (a:Concept)-[r]->(b:Concept)
WHERE a.domain = "your_domain"
RETURN a, r, b

Watch the graph render. Those aren't just database rows. That's the structure of the knowledge you ingested. Concepts you authored are now nodes. Relationships you defined (or that qortex derived) are visible edges.

This is what qortex builds. The visualization is just the proof.

Next Steps