WHAT IS THE PALANTIR ONTOLOGY?
A Field Guide for Government Teams on Vantage, Maven, and Foundry
The practitioner-level platform guide built for government commands on Army Vantage, Maven Smart System, and every Foundry-based deployment. If you've been handed a license and told to use it — start here.
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PALANTIR USERS SUPPORTED
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INVESTIGATIONS SUPPORTED
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AGENCIES CONNECTED
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ONLY SMALL SERVICES BUSINESS IN PALANTIR'S USG VANGUARD
01
THE MARKET MOMENT
Army Vantage's mandatory migration deadline. Maven Smart System's designation as a Program of Record. Two mandates, one playbook — why commands are in motion right now.
02
THE PLATFORM
Foundry's four-layer architecture. The six core ontology primitives. Why the ontology is the abstraction boundary — and what goes wrong when you get it wrong.
03
INTEGRATION PATTERNS
The four ways systems connect to the ontology: Workshop, ML Models, AIP Agents, and OSDK. How legacy C2 systems become ontology-aware without re-architecture.
04
WHAT COMES NEXT
The governance decisions every command must make: ontology ownership, schema control, enterprise fit. Real-world walkthrough of a C2 system connecting to Foundry.
KEY CONCEPTS EXPLAINED
THE SIX PRIMITIVES THAT RUN EVERYTHING
OBJECT TYPE
Schema for a real-world entity. Track, Ship, SensorReport. Backed by a Foundry dataset — each row becomes a navigable object instance with properties and linked behaviors.
OBJECT TYPE
Schema for a real-world entity. Track, Ship, SensorReport. Backed by a Foundry dataset — each row becomes a navigable object instance with properties and linked behaviors.
PROPERTY
A characteristic of an object type. Maps to a column but carries display names, rich types (GeoPoint, Struct), and units. fuelLevel is meaningful; fuel_lbs_total is not.
PROPERTY
A characteristic of an object type. Maps to a column but carries display names, rich types (GeoPoint, Struct), and units. fuelLevel is meaningful; fuel_lbs_total is not.
LINK TYPE
Relationship between two object types. Bidirectional, navigable, business-named. Ship hasMany Deployments — no SQL joins needed.
LINK TYPE
Relationship between two object types. Bidirectional, navigable, business-named. Ship hasMany Deployments — no SQL joins needed.
ACTION TYPE
Schema for a change. Think of it as an ICD for data entering the Ontology: exact parameters, validation rules, and audit trail. Example: ReclassifyTrack(trackId, newClassification, confidence).
ACTION TYPE
Schema for a change. Think of it as an ICD for data entering the Ontology: exact parameters, validation rules, and audit trail. Example: ReclassifyTrack(trackId, newClassification, confidence).
FUNCTION
TypeScript or Python code integrated with the ontology. Takes typed inputs, returns computed values. Called from actions, Workshop, OSDK, and AIP agents.
FUNCTION
TypeScript or Python code integrated with the ontology. Takes typed inputs, returns computed values. Called from actions, Workshop, OSDK, and AIP agents.
INTERFACE
Object type polymorphism. SurfaceTrack and AirTrack share properties via a Track interface. Critical for joint interoperability across domains.
INTERFACE
Object type polymorphism. SurfaceTrack and AirTrack share properties via a Track interface. Critical for joint interoperability across domains.
WHO NEEDS THIS
BUILT FOR THREE TYPES OF READERS
01
COMMAND LEADERSHIP
Your unit received platform access and was told to produce results. This guide gives you the architectural vocabulary to direct your technical teams, evaluate use cases, and ask the right governance questions.
02
ENGINEERS & DATA TEAMS
New to Foundry or coming from a traditional data engineering background. This covers the conceptual shift — why the ontology is not a database, how transforms work, and what the four integration patterns actually mean for your implementation.
03
MIGRATION TEAMS
You've been told to migrate and don't know where to start. This guide covers the foundation: the layer model, what lives north and south of the ontology, and how legacy C2 systems connect without re-architecture.
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Enter your details and we'll send the PDF directly to your inbox. This is the same material PVM uses in its enablement bootcamps.