Getting Started

A short, language-agnostic tour of Internet Object in pure IO.

This is a five-minute tour of Internet Object (IO) using the format itself — no programming language required.

1. A single object

The simplest document is one object. Fields are comma-separated; the header line names them:

name: string, age: int, email: email
---
John Doe, 30, [e-mail]

Above the --- is the header (here, the schema); below it is the data. Because the schema fixes the field order, the data is just values — no repeated keys.

2. A schema and a collection

Define the schema once in the header with $schema, then stream many records, each beginning with ~:

~ $schema: { name: string, age: int, email: email, active: bool }
---
~ John Doe, 30, [e-mail], T
~ Jane Doe, 25, [e-mail], F

T/F are booleans. A collection of records shares one schema — compact and validated.

3. Constraints

Fields can carry constraints. Invalid data is reported, not silently accepted:

~ $schema: { name: string, age: { int, min: 0, max: 120 } }
---
~ John, 30      # ✓
~ Mary, 200     # ✗ mismatched-max

4. Nesting and reuse

Define a shape once and reference it with $:

~ $address: { street, city }
~ $schema: { name: string, address: $address }
---
~ John, { Main St, NYC }

5. Metadata

Header keys without a prefix carry document metadata, kept separate from the data:

~ count: 2
~ $schema: { name, age: int }
---
~ John, 30
~ Jane, 25

Where to next

• Why Internet Object? — how it compares to JSON and others

• Internet Object Document — header and data in depth

• Internet Object Schema — the schema language

• Collections — records and streaming