Rename 'interfaces' to 'capabilities' in TypeQL reference#1060
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alexjpwalker wants to merge 1 commit into
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Rename 'interfaces' to 'capabilities' in TypeQL reference#1060alexjpwalker wants to merge 1 commit into
alexjpwalker wants to merge 1 commit into
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alexjpwalker
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July 8, 2026 13:36
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| Throughout the Academy we use the term *interface*, borrowed from object-oriented programming, to describe how one type connects to another. If you spend time in the xref:{page-version}@typeql-reference::index.adoc[TypeQL reference], you'll see these same constructs called *capabilities*. The two terms refer to the same thing — we favour "interface" here because it makes the modeling concepts easier to reason about. |
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I think here you could formally define 'interface' as the things that can be 'owned' or 'played' (eg. role and attribute types provide interfaces). Capabilities more generally encompass 'plays', 'relates', and 'owns' that are defined on a type, as is a more generally useful term while describing schemas
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Goal
As part of an overall goal of making TypeQL reference more accessible by using simpler English, we would like to make a clean break from the terminology "interface" (borrowed from OOP), in favour of "capability": while still not being the simplest English word ever, it at least very clearly describes the thing it is talking about without requiring technical knowledge of OOP principles.
Implementation
NOTE: We maintain the term "interface" in TypeDB Academy, which intentionally is more academic and founded strictly on the PERA model, while we would like our mainline docs to be more generally accessible. We add a disclaimer to the Academy noting this discrepancy. This also minimises the delta of this PR.