TAML

Specification

Version 1.0

TAML attempts to provide a very simple message format that can be used for network communications or hierarchical configuration storage on disk. It is defined by these 5 simple rules:

  1. New entries are separated by carriage returns (CR / CRLF)
  2. Keys and values are separated by 1+ tab characters (\t)
  3. Subkeys are defined on a line starting with 1+ tab characters (\t)
  4. An array is a key with multiple child values
  5. Presence of space characters are illegal

A test suite of documents is available at the root of the GitHub repository and more information is provided in the Test Suite documentation topic.

Version 1.1

The 1.1 specification for TAML adds support for Processor Directives and comments in the file format. In keeping with the spirit of each line in a file is a distinct record, only single-line comments are supported and directives appear on a single line with a namespaced directive, at least one tab, and then the value assigned.

# This is a TAML comment
! TAML.EmptyArraySupported		FALSE

Additionally, we introducing the ! escape character to help indicate empty values and empty arrays.

  • Key value pairs without an associated value use !"" to indicate an empty string.
  • Empty Arrays are indicated with a ![] on the same line as the array key.
# This is a key with an empty value
key			!""

# This is an empty array defined by arrayKey
arrayKey
	![]

# This is an array with one empty value
myArray
	!""

Available Interpreters

Mockups of Well-Known Documents as TAML

  • Package.JSON -- Node Package Format
  • Appsettings.JSON -- .NET Configuration Format
  • kubernetes configuration.yml
  • workflow.yml -- GitHub Action specification in YAML