ToonEx

TOON (Token-Oriented Object Notation) high performance encoder and decoder for Elixir and Phoenix Channels.

TOON is a compact data format optimized for LLM token efficiency.

The library is supported for Phoenix Channels. Guide in ToonEx.Phoenix.Serializer module.

Completed with support from AI.

Features

• 🎯 Token Efficient: 30-60% fewer tokens than JSON
• 📖 Human Readable: Indentation-based structure like YAML
• ✅ Spec Compliant: Tested against official TOON v1.3 specification
• 🔌 Protocol Support: Custom encoding via ToonEx.Encoder protocol
• 🛠️ Convertor: Support convert between JSON & TOON
• 💻 Phoenix Channels: Support for serializer/parser

Installation

Add toon_ex to your list of dependencies in mix.exs:

def deps do
  [
    {:toon_ex, "~> 0.3.4"}
  ]
end

Quick Start

Encoding

# Simple object
ToonEx.encode!(%{"name" => "Alice", "age" => 30})
# => "age: 30\\nname: Alice"

# Nested object
ToonEx.encode!(%{"user" => %{"name" => "Bob"}})
# => "user:\\n  name: Bob"

# Arrays
ToonEx.encode!(%{"tags" => ["elixir", "toon"]})
# => "tags[2]: elixir,toon"

Decoding

ToonEx.decode!("name: Alice\\nage: 30")
# => %{"name" => "Alice", "age" => 30}

ToonEx.decode!("tags[2]: a,b")
# => %{"tags" => ["a", "b"]}

# With options
ToonEx.decode!("user:\\n    name: Alice", indent_size: 4)
# => %{"user" => %{"name" => "Alice"}}

Comprehensive Examples

Primitives

ToonEx.encode!(nil)            # => "null"
ToonEx.encode!(true)           # => "true"
ToonEx.encode!(42)             # => "42"
ToonEx.encode!(3.14)           # => "3.14"
ToonEx.encode!("hello")        # => "hello"
ToonEx.encode!("hello world")  # => "\\"hello world\\"" (auto-quoted)

Objects

# Simple objects
ToonEx.encode!(%{"name" => "Alice", "age" => 30})
# =>
# age: 30
# name: Alice

# Nested objects
ToonEx.encode!(%{
  "user" => %{
    "name" => "Bob",
    "email" => "bob@example.com"
  }
})
# =>
# user:
#   email: bob@example.com
#   name: Bob

Arrays

# Inline arrays (primitives)
ToonEx.encode!(%{"tags" => ["elixir", "toon", "llm"]})
# => "tags[3]: elixir,toon,llm"

# Tabular arrays (uniform objects)
ToonEx.encode!(%{
  "users" => [
    %{"name" => "Alice", "age" => 30},
    %{"name" => "Bob", "age" => 25}
  ]
})
# => "users[2]{age,name}:\\n  30,Alice\\n  25,Bob"

# List-style arrays (mixed or nested)
ToonEx.encode!(%{
  "items" => [
    %{"type" => "book", "title" => "Elixir Guide"},
    %{"type" => "video", "duration" => 120}
  ]
})
# => "items[2]:\\n  - duration: 120\\n    type: video\\n  - title: \\"Elixir Guide\\"\\n    type: book"

Encoding Options

# Custom delimiters
ToonEx.encode!(%{"tags" => ["a", "b", "c"]}, delimiter: "\\t")
# => "tags[3\\t]: a\\tb\\tc"

ToonEx.encode!(%{"values" => [1, 2, 3]}, delimiter: "|")
# => "values[3|]: 1|2|3"

# Length markers
ToonEx.encode!(%{"tags" => ["a", "b", "c"]}, length_marker: "#")
# => "tags[#3]: a,b,c"

# Custom indentation
ToonEx.encode!(%{"user" => %{"name" => "Alice"}}, indent: 4)
# => "user:\\n    name: Alice"

Decoding Options

# Atom keys
ToonEx.decode!("name: Alice", keys: :atoms)
# => %{name: "Alice"}

# Custom indent size
ToonEx.decode!("user:\\n    name: Alice", indent_size: 4)
# => %{"user" => %{"name" => "Alice"}}

# Strict mode (default: true)
ToonEx.decode!("  name: Alice", strict: false)  # Accepts non-standard indentation
# => %{"name" => "Alice"}

Specification Compliance

This implementation is tested against the official TOON specification v1.3.

Limitation

Not support for validated TOON in current version.

Not optimized for high traffic application yet.

Testing

The test suite uses official TOON specification fixtures:

# Run all tests against official spec fixtures
mix test

# Run only fixture-based tests
mix test test/toon_ex/fixtures_test.exs

Test fixtures are loaded from the toon-format/spec repository via git submodule.

TOON Specification

This implementation follows TOON Specification v1.3.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome!

Author

Created by Kentaro Kuribayashi

Maintained and optimized by Manh Vu

License

MIT License - see LICENSE.