| name | toon-format |
| description | This skill should be used when writing or parsing TOON (Token-Oriented Object Notation) files. Triggers on .toon file operations, org-patterns.toon generation, or when converting between JSON and TOON formats. Provides syntax rules, quoting conventions, and examples for LLM-optimized data serialization. |
TOON Format (Token-Oriented Object Notation)
TOON is a compact, human-readable encoding of the JSON data model optimized for LLM prompts. It achieves ~40% token reduction compared to JSON while maintaining lossless round-trip compatibility.
Core Syntax Rules
Array Declaration
Arrays use bracketed headers with mandatory length count:
tags[3]: admin,ops,dev
Tabular Arrays (Uniform Object Arrays)
For arrays of objects with identical structure, use field headers in braces:
patterns[2]{id,category,summary}:
P-001,pattern,"Use tokens for colors"
P-002,mistake,"Check auth before routes"
- Field names declared once in
{...} after the count
- Each row contains values in declared field order
- Rows indented with 2 spaces (NEVER tabs)
Objects
Objects use indentation-based nesting (2 spaces per level):
user:
id: 123
name: Ada
Quoting Rules (Critical)
Strings MUST be quoted if they contain:
- The active delimiter (comma by default)
- Empty string, leading/trailing whitespace
- Reserved literals (
true, false, null)
- Numeric-like patterns
- Colons, quotes, backslashes, brackets, braces
- Control characters or leading hyphens
Escape sequences: \\, \", \n, \r, \t
org-patterns.toon Format
Standard format for ClosedLoop organization learnings:
patterns[N]{id,category,summary,confidence,seen_count,success_rate,flags,applies_to,context,repo}:
P-001,pattern,"Summary here",high,5,0.85,,implementation-subagent,UI|styling,*
P-002,mistake,"Check auth before routes",medium,3,0.60,[REVIEW],*,auth|routes,astoria-frontend
Field notes:
summary - Always quoted (contains natural language with commas)flags - [REVIEW], [STALE], [UNTESTED], [PRUNE], or emptyapplies_to - Pipe-separated agent names or * for allcontext - Pipe-separated tagsrepo - Repository name (derived from git remote basename) or * for all repos
Validation Checklist
- Count matches actual rows/items
- Field count in rows matches declaration
- Strings needing quotes are quoted
- 2-space indentation (no tabs)
- No blank lines within array blocks
References
