# Apache Ossie (formerly Open Semantic Interchange) OSI

[4 · Read](/category/read/)

| Apache Ossie (formerly Open Semantic Interchange) |
| --- |
| Category | [Read](/category/read/) |
| Governed by | Apache Software Foundation, Apache Incubator (Ossie Podling Project Management Committee); formerly a Snowflake-led multi-vendor working group |
| Status | Undergoing incubation at the Apache Software Foundation ('Apache Ossie (incubating)'); not yet a top-level ASF project. Core spec is marked DRAFT. |
| Phase | draft |
| Implementation | prototype |
| Adoption | unmeasured |
| Version | 0.2.0.dev0 (draft, in development); last tagged pre-release osi-0.1.1-rc1 |
| Specification | [https://github.com/apache/ossie](https://github.com/apache/ossie) |
| Found at | none |
| Acronym collisions | Open Source Initiative (osi.org) |
| Last checked | 2026-09-06 |

[Read](/category/read/) OSI/Apache Ossie is a JSON- and YAML-based specification for representing semantic-layer objects (datasets, metrics, dimensions, relationships) so that BI tools, data catalogs and AI/agentic applications compute a term like "churn rate" the same way regardless of which vendor's tool wrote the definition [[1]](#ref-1). It is a document/interchange format, not a network protocol: there is no discovery endpoint or well-known path, and no runtime negotiation. Consumption happens by reading (or generating) a semantic-model file against the published JSON Schema -- which is why this record has been moved from the site's original 'account' placement to 'read': OSI is squarely about machine-readable representations of content (metric/data definitions) for consumption by BI and agent tooling, not about recording or attributing actions after the fact.

## Overview
What it does not do: OSI/Ossie does not define an API, an audit trail, an authentication scheme, or a discovery mechanism. It says nothing about who is allowed to read or write a given semantic model, and it does not itself measure or certify adoption.

Current state. Snowflake announced OSI on 2025-09-23 with Salesforce, BlackRock, dbt Labs and RelationalAI as co-leads, alongside a larger coalition of BI/data vendors [[1]](#ref-1). On 2026-01-27 Snowflake published "the first version of the OSI specification" as an Apache-2.0 repository and said governance would eventually move to a neutral foundation [[2]](#ref-2). That move happened on 2026-06-22, when the project entered the Apache Incubator as "Apache Ossie (incubating)"; the original open-semantic-interchange GitHub organization now has zero public repositories, and its old repo URL redirects to github.com/apache/ossie [[3]](#ref-3). As of this verification, the live core specification is versioned 0.2.0.dev0 and is explicitly marked DRAFT -- "schema may change before 0.2.0 is released" -- and the only Git tag in the history is a release-candidate, osi-0.1.1-rc1, not a 1.0 [[4]](#ref-4). This means the January 2026 "specification finalized" headline describes the spec's first public release, not a stable/versioned final; readers should not assume OSI has reached a frozen v1.0.

Who implements it. The repository ships reference converters for a dozen vendor ecosystems -- Snowflake, Databricks, Salesforce, dbt, GoodData, NVIDIA, Omni, Polaris, Honeydew, Wisdom, OrionBelt and an ontology bridge -- but these live in a converters/ directory of a repo whose core spec is still draft, so they read as reference/example integrations rather than confirmed production deployments; this record conservatively marks implementation as 'prototype' rather than 'multi-implementation.'

Disputed / unknown. Whether OSI's broad vendor coalition (dbt Labs, Salesforce, BlackRock, Databricks, Mistral AI and ~30 others) reflects production adoption of the spec itself, or membership in a working group around a still-drafting spec, is not independently measurable from public sources. No probe has been run; adoption is marked unmeasured rather than claimed, because no single party made a countable claim we could cite. The vocabulary used by this site for 'track' does not have a category for an ASF Incubator podling, which is a materially different governance state from an informal community project.

## Discovery and probe

none

```
GET https://raw.githubusercontent.com/apache/ossie/main/core-spec/ossie-schema.json
parse:     Fetch the JSON Schema, then validate a candidate semantic-model file (dataset/metric/dimension document) against it; a pass confirms the file is Ossie/OSI-conformant. There is no fixed well-known path or origin endpoint — OSI/Ossie is an exchanged document format, not a runtime discovery protocol.
on absent: If a tool claims 'OSI' or 'Ossie compatibility' but cannot produce a document that validates against this schema, the claim cannot be confirmed.
```

Not probed live: no-fixed-path. OSI is a schema for semantic models exchanged between tools, not an origin artefact.

## History
- 2026-09-05 — seeded from Exa Agent research run
- 2026-09-06 — verified against github.com/apache/ossie (README, core-spec/spec.md), incubator.apache.org/projects/ossie.html, and Snowflake's 2025-09-23 and 2026-01-27 posts; moved step from 'account' to 'read', corrected spec_url, name, governance, and version; flagged draft-vs-finalized dispute

## Instances

- [Ossie converters: Snowflake](https://github.com/apache/ossie/tree/main/converters/snowflake) · Observed 2026-09-05 · service
- [Ossie converters: Salesforce](https://github.com/apache/ossie/tree/main/converters/salesforce) · Observed 2026-09-05 · service
- [Ossie converters: GoodData](https://github.com/apache/ossie/tree/main/converters/gooddata) · Observed 2026-09-05 · service
- [Ossie converters: dbt](https://github.com/apache/ossie/tree/main/converters/dbt) · Observed 2026-09-05 · service
- [Ossie converters: Databricks](https://github.com/apache/ossie/tree/main/converters/databricks) · Observed 2026-09-05 · service
- [dbt Labs (MetricFlow)](https://www.getdbt.com) · Observed 2026-08-22 · business
- [Kyvos](https://www.kyvosinsights.com) · Observed 2026-08-12 · business
- [AtScale](https://www.atscale.com) · Observed 2026-08-06 · business
- [Snowflake, Salesforce, dbt Labs, BlackRock, RelationalAI (co-leading partners)](https://www.snowflake.com/en/news/press-releases/snowflake-salesforce-dbt-labs-and-more-revolutionize-data-readiness-for-ai-with-open-semantic-interchange-initiative/) · Observed 2025-09-23 · business

Every instance with its source is listed on the [instances page](/instances/).

## See also

- Not to be confused with: Open Source Initiative (osi.org)

## References

- Snowflake announced the Open Semantic Interchange initiative on 2025-09-23 with Salesforce, BlackRock, dbt Labs and RelationalAI as co-leading partners, plus a wider coalition (Alation, Atlan, Tableau, ThoughtSpot, Sigma, Omni and others). — [https://www.snowflake.com/en/news/press-releases/snowflake-salesforce-dbt-labs-and-more-revolutionize-data-readiness-for-ai-with-open-semantic-interchange-initiative/](https://www.snowflake.com/en/news/press-releases/snowflake-salesforce-dbt-labs-and-more-revolutionize-data-readiness-for-ai-with-open-semantic-interchange-initiative/) (2025-09-23) VERIFIED
- Snowflake's 2026-01-27 post says 'the first version of the OSI specification is now available' via an Apache-2.0 licensed repo at github.com/open-semantic-interchange/OSI, and that OSI would later move to 'a neutral, foundation-led governance model.' — [https://www.snowflake.com/en/blog/open-semantic-interchanges-specs-finalized/](https://www.snowflake.com/en/blog/open-semantic-interchanges-specs-finalized/) (2026-01-27) VERIFIED
- The project entered the Apache Incubator on 2026-06-22 as 'Apache Ossie (incubating)'; the original open-semantic-interchange GitHub org now shows 0 public repositories and github.com/open-semantic-interchange/OSI redirects to github.com/apache/ossie. — [https://incubator.apache.org/projects/ossie.html](https://incubator.apache.org/projects/ossie.html) (2026-06-22) VERIFIED
- The current core specification file (core-spec/spec.md) is headed 'DRAFT version -- in development, schema may change before 0.2.0 is released' and labelled Version 0.2.0.dev0; the repository's only Git tag is osi-0.1.1-rc1, not a v1.0 -- contradicting the 'specification finalized' framing of the January 2026 announcement. — [https://raw.githubusercontent.com/apache/ossie/main/core-spec/spec.md](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/apache/ossie/main/core-spec/spec.md) (2026-09-05) VERIFIED

Disputed: Snowflake's January 2026 post is titled 'OSI Specification Finalized,' but the specification text in the repository is versioned 0.2.0.dev0 and explicitly marked DRAFT, with the only tagged release a release-candidate (osi-0.1.1-rc1). 'Finalized' appears to describe the *initial publication* of a spec document, not a stable/final version number. Separately, vocab.json has no track value for 'Apache Software Foundation incubator project' distinct from 'linux-foundation' (LF-specific) or 'industry-body' (trade association); 'community' was chosen as the least-wrong fit but understates that Ossie now has ASF Incubator governance (mentors, PPMC, a defined graduation process) rather than no formal governance.

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