ModeShape is a hierarchical, transactional, and consistent data store with support for queries, full-text search, events, versioning, references, and flexible and dynamic schemas. It is very fast, highly available, extremely scalable, and it is 100% open source and written in Java. Clients use the (JSR-283) standard Java API for content repositories (aka, JCR) or ModeShape's REST API, and can query content through JDBC and SQL.

ModeShape is perfect for data that is organized in a tree-like hierarchical structure where related data is stored close together, where navigation to related content is just as common and important as fast key-based lookups or queries. The hierarchical organization is similar to a file system, making ModeShape a natural for storing files annotated with metadata. ModeShape can even automatically extract the structured information within the files so that clients can navigate or use typed queries to find files satisfying complex, structurally-oriented criteria. ModeShape is an excellent store for data with a complex schema, since the schema can vary over the database and evolve over time. ModeShape is the perfect data store for all kinds of applications, including repositories, content management systems, historical data services, provisioning and governance systems, and metadata management systems.

ModeShape supports all JCR 2.0 required features:

• repository acquisition
• authentication
• reading/navigating
• query
• export
• node type discovery
• permissions and capability checking

and most of the JCR 2.0 optional features:

• writing
• import
• observation
• workspace management
• access control management
• versioning
• locking
• node type management
• same-name siblings
• orderable child nodes
• shareable nodes
• mix:etag, mix:created and mix:lastModified mixins with autocreated properties
• event journal

ModeShape supports five query languages: the JCR-SQL2 and JCR-JQOM query languages defined in JSR-283, the XPath, JCR-SQL query languages defined in JCR 1.0 (JSR-170), and a full-text search-engine-like language.