Installation and Quickstart

Plugin Installation & Quickstart #

We refer to a Neo4j server instance as a Neo4j DBMS (Database Management System).

Standard Installation #

System Requirements #

  • A Neo4j DBMS version 5 or later in Neo4j Desktop or on a self-managed Neo4j community or enterprise server (SemSpect can unfortunately not be installed on Neo4j Aura - see FAQ). The current plugin release was tested with Neo4j 5.26.LTS and Neo4j 2025.X
  • A recent web browser

Installation in Neo4j Desktop #

Neo4j Desktop allows you to manage multiple DBMS. You have to install and configure the plugin for each DBMS:

  • Download the latest version of the SemSpect plugin: semspect_neo4j_plugin.jar
  • Delete any old SemSpect plugin from your plugins directory of the DBMS (see FAQ).
  • Copy the jar file into the plugins directory of the DBMS (see FAQ).
  • If you acquired a license, copy the semspect.lic file into the plugins directory of the DBMS (see FAQ).
  • Open the DBMS settings (see FAQ) and proceed to HTTP(S) Server Configuration

Manual installation #

This section assumes an already deployed Neo4j DBMS (enterprise or community edition).

  • Download the latest version of the SemSpect plugin: semspect_neo4j_plugin.jar
  • Locate your DBMS_HOME directory. The directory usually looks sth like neo4j-enterprise-5.26.2/
  • Delete any old SemSpect plugin from the <DBMS_HOME>/plugins directory.
  • Copy the semspect_neo4j_plugin.jar into the <DBMS_HOME>/plugins directory.
  • If you acquired a license, copy the semspect.lic file into the <DBMS_HOME>/plugins directory.
  • Open your neo4j’s configuration <DBMS_HOME>/conf/neo4j.conf and proceed to HTTP(S) Server Configuration

Uninstallation #

Removal of All User Provided Data #

Before uninstalling the plugin, you should delete all SemSpect data (local as well as in Neo4j) as listed below. You should do this before you uninstall the Web App as well .

  1. Open the Settings window:
    Open Settings
  2. Select both of the following buttons one after the other, “Reset local data” and “Reset graph data”:
    Uninstall SemSpect

Uninstallation of the SemSpect Plugin #

To uninstall the SemSpect plugin with its related data remove following files/directories:

  • <DBMS_HOME>/plugins/semspect_neo4j_plugin.jar
  • <DBMS_HOME>/plugins/semspect_data
  • <DBMS_HOME>/plugins/semspect_config.yaml
  • <DBMS_HOME>/plugins/semspect_facets_config.yaml
  • <DBMS_HOME>/plugins/semspect_dossier_config.yaml