nLab
sketch

Contents

Definition

A sketch is a small category with specified limits and colimits.

A model of a sketch is a Set-valued functor preserving the specified limits and colimits.

A category is called sketchable if it is the category of models of a sketch.

The categories of models of sketches are precisely the accessible categories.

A limit-sketch is a sketch with just limits and no colimits specified.

The categories of models of limit-sketches are the locally presentable categories.

References

An overview of the theory is given in

An extensive treatment of the links between theories, sketches and models can be found in

  • Makkai, Paré, Accessible categories: The foundations of categorical model theory Contemporary Mathematics 104. American Mathematical Society, Rhode Island, 1989.1989.

  • Michael Barr and Charles Wells, Toposes, Triples and Theories?, Originally published by: Springer-Verlag, New York, 1985, republished in: Reprints? in Theory and Applications of Categories, No. 12 (2005) pp. 1-287

That not only every sketchable category is accessible but that conversely every accessible category is sketchable is due to

  • Christian Lair, Catégories modelables et catégories esquissables, Diagrammes (1981).