Definition
Plain language
The query language used to ask questions of graph databases like Neo4j.
As stated in the literature
A declarative graph query language, originally developed for Neo4j, used to query knowledge graphs and other graph data stores.
Why it matters: It's the dominant query language for graph databases, which AI systems increasingly use to store and reason over structured knowledge.
For example, 'MATCH (p:Person)-[:WORKS_AT]->(c:Company {name:"Acme"}) RETURN p.name' is a Cypher query that lists everyone working at Acme.
Heard on the show
“We don't know whether a human security analyst staring at the same Cypher query results, seeing the fake sanitizer node with its plausible name and OWASP annotations, would also accept it.”Episode 039 — When Smarter Agents Get Fooled by Three Extra Nodes in a Database