TOON Validator & Linter
What is TOON Validation?
TOON validation verifies that data conforms to the TOON (Token-Oriented Object Notation) format specification. It checks syntax correctness, structural integrity, proper encoding, and compliance with TOON rules. Validation catches errors before sending data to LLMs, preventing parsing failures and ensuring optimal token efficiency.
- Verify TOON format syntax correctness
- Check structural integrity and nesting
- Validate tabular array row and header consistency
- Ensure proper character encoding and escaping
- Detect malformed objects and arrays
- Identify token optimization issues
- Provide detailed error messages with line numbers
- Suggest corrections for common mistakes
- 100% Client-side validation: Data never sent to server
Why Validate TOON Format?
Invalid TOON data can cause LLM parsing errors, wasted tokens, or incorrect processing. Validation ensures data integrity before expensive LLM operations, catches serialization bugs early in development, and verifies that token optimizations haven't introduced errors. It's essential for reliable LLM workflows and debugging TOON generation processes.
What gets checked
What gets checked
- Syntax validation: Indentation, delimiters, and array length declarations
- Structural checks: Proper nesting and closure of objects and arrays
- Line-level error messages: Points to the exact line/position where validation fails
How to Use
- Paste TOON-formatted text into validation input
- Tool performs multi-level validation checks
- Review error messages with specific line/position indicators
- Fix syntax errors (missing braces, quotes, commas)
- Correct structural issues (improper nesting, malformed keys)
- Address warnings about suboptimal token usage
- Re-validate after each fix iteration
- Confirm "Valid TOON" status before using data
TOON Format Validation Glossary
- TOON Format
- Token-Oriented Object Notation—a compact, lossless JSON encoding optimized for LLM token efficiency, using tabular rows for uniform arrays.
- Syntax Validation
- Checking that data adheres to proper format rules, including consistent indentation, delimiters, and array/row length declarations.
- Structural Integrity
- Verification that objects and arrays are properly nested, closed, and follow hierarchical rules.
- Format Compliance
- Conforming to all specifications and conventions defined for the TOON format.
- Error Localization
- Identifying the specific line, position, or element where a validation error occurs for easier debugging.
- Token Efficiency
- Minimizing the number of tokens required to represent data, crucial for LLM context window management.
- Linter
- A tool that analyzes code or data for potential errors, style violations, and optimization opportunities.
- Validation Report
- Detailed output listing all errors, warnings, and suggestions found during validation checks.
Sources
- Measured TOON vs. JSON token benchmark — 20-33% measured savings on uniform arrays, including a documented loss case