Copying an ontology allows you to make changes to the structure without affecting the projects that the original ontology is attached to.
from encord import EncordUserClient
user_client: EncordUserClient = EncordUserClient.create_with_ssh_private_key(
"<your_private_key>"
)
ontology = user_client.get_ontology("<ontology_hash>")
new_ontology = user_client.create_ontology(
"copy ontology",
description="<my ontology description>",
structure=ontology.structure,
)