Catechism Knowledge Graph

Interactive visualization of the Catechism of the Catholic Church — 2,865 paragraphs connected by cross-references, rendered as a navigable knowledge graph.

Architecture

• Data pipeline (pipeline/): Python + Pydantic + NetworkX. Downloads CCC data, extracts cross-references from shared footnote citations, computes ForceAtlas2 layout, exports to static JSON.
• Web app (web/): Next.js 15 (static export) + Sigma.js (WebGL graph rendering) + Tailwind CSS. Deploys to GitHub Pages.

Development

Prerequisites

• Node.js 22+
• Python 3.11+

Run the data pipeline

cd pipeline
python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -e ".[dev]"
cd ..
python3 pipeline/scripts/run_pipeline.py

This downloads the CCC data, builds the graph, computes layout, and outputs JSON files to web/public/data/.

Run the web app

cd web
npm install
npm run dev

Open http://localhost:3000 to see the app. The graph explorer is at /graph.

Build for production

cd web
npm run build
npx serve out

Pages

• / — Landing page with stats
• /graph — Full graph explorer (Sigma.js WebGL)
• /paragraph/[id] — Paragraph detail (2,865 pages)
• /structure — Hierarchical CCC browser

Data source

nossbigg/catechism-ccc-json v0.0.2 — scraped from Vatican.va.