# Internet Object

## Internet Object

- [Internet Object 1.0](https://docs.internetobject.org/readme.md): Thin, schema-first and robust data-interchange object format for Internet
- [Manifesto](https://docs.internetobject.org/internet-object/manifesto.md): A declaration of the convictions behind Internet Object — why it exists and what it refuses to compromise.
- [Abstract](https://docs.internetobject.org/internet-object/abstract.md): A text-based, schema-first, document-oriented, streamable data interchange format.
- [The Poetic Principles](https://docs.internetobject.org/internet-object/the-zen-of-internet-object.md): This poem encapsulates the core guiding principles that shape the design and objectives of the Internet Object format.
- [Objectives](https://docs.internetobject.org/internet-object/objectives.md): The design goals that shape the Internet Object format.
- [Introducing Internet Object](https://docs.internetobject.org/internet-object/introduction.md): A guided walkthrough of Internet Object and how it compares to JSON.
- [Why Internet Object?](https://docs.internetobject.org/internet-object/why-internet-object.md): Why choose Internet Object over JSON, CSV, YAML, and binary formats.
- [Getting Started](https://docs.internetobject.org/internet-object/getting-started.md): A short, language-agnostic tour of Internet Object in pure IO.
- [Document-Oriented Nature](https://docs.internetobject.org/core-concepts/document-oriented.md): The document as the unit of exchange — header, data, and sections.
- [Schema-First Design](https://docs.internetobject.org/core-concepts/schema-first.md): The schema-first philosophy — same-syntax schemas, progressive typing, and reuse.
- [Internet Object Document](https://docs.internetobject.org/structure-and-syntax/introduction.md): The two-part structure of an Internet Object document — header and data.
- [Header](https://docs.internetobject.org/structure-and-syntax/introduction/header.md): The header section — schemas, definitions, variables, and metadata.
- [Data Sections](https://docs.internetobject.org/structure-and-syntax/introduction/data.md): The data section — section separators, objects, and collections.
- [Structural Elements](https://docs.internetobject.org/structure-and-syntax/structural-elements.md): The characters and tokens that structure and delimit an Internet Object document.
- [Structural Characters & Separators](https://docs.internetobject.org/structure-and-syntax/structural-elements/structural-characters-n-keywords.md): The core characters that organize and delimit data in an Internet Object document.
- [Literals](https://docs.internetobject.org/structure-and-syntax/structural-elements/literals.md): Predefined constant values — booleans, null, and special numbers.
- [Other Special Characters](https://docs.internetobject.org/structure-and-syntax/structural-elements/other-special-characters.md): Functional modifiers — variable, schema, optional, nullable, and sign characters.
- [Whitespace & Indentation](https://docs.internetobject.org/structure-and-syntax/structural-elements/whitespaces.md): Recognized whitespace characters and how the parser treats them.
- [Value Representations](https://docs.internetobject.org/structure-and-syntax/values.md): Overview of the value types Internet Object can represent.
- [Objects](https://docs.internetobject.org/structure-and-syntax/values/object.md): Object value syntax — open and closed objects, keyed and unkeyed values.
- [Arrays](https://docs.internetobject.org/structure-and-syntax/values/array.md): Array value syntax — ordered, comma-separated collections of values.
- [Strings](https://docs.internetobject.org/structure-and-syntax/values/string.md): The three string forms — open, regular, and raw.
- [Open Strings](https://docs.internetobject.org/structure-and-syntax/values/string/open-strings.md): Open strings — the unquoted string form.
- [Regular Strings](https://docs.internetobject.org/structure-and-syntax/values/string/regular-strings.md): Regular strings — quoted strings with escape sequences.
- [Raw Strings](https://docs.internetobject.org/structure-and-syntax/values/string/raw-strings.md): Raw strings — literal strings where backslashes are not escapes.
- [Numeric Values](https://docs.internetobject.org/structure-and-syntax/values/number.md): The numeric value forms — Number, BigInt, and Decimal.
- [Number](https://docs.internetobject.org/structure-and-syntax/values/number/number.md): Standard 64-bit IEEE 754 floating-point numbers.
- [BigInt](https://docs.internetobject.org/structure-and-syntax/values/number/bigint.md): Arbitrary-precision integer values for very large whole numbers.
- [Decimal](https://docs.internetobject.org/structure-and-syntax/values/number/decimal.md): Fixed-precision decimal values for exact, financial-grade arithmetic.
- [Special Numeric Formats](https://docs.internetobject.org/structure-and-syntax/values/number/special-formats.md): Hexadecimal, octal, binary, and scientific numeric literals.
- [NaN and Infinity](https://docs.internetobject.org/structure-and-syntax/values/number/nan-and-infinity.md): The special numeric values NaN and Infinity.
- [Binary](https://docs.internetobject.org/structure-and-syntax/values/binary.md): Binary values written as Base64 byte strings.
- [Date and Time](https://docs.internetobject.org/structure-and-syntax/values/date-and-time.md): Temporal values — dates, times, and date-times as annotated strings.
- [Booleans](https://docs.internetobject.org/structure-and-syntax/values/booleans.md): Boolean values — true and false, in compact and verbose forms.
- [Nulls](https://docs.internetobject.org/structure-and-syntax/values/null.md): The null value — an explicit absence of a value.
- [Case Sensitivity Rules](https://docs.internetobject.org/structure-and-syntax/case-sensitivity.md): Case sensitivity for keys, keywords, and type names.
- [Comments](https://docs.internetobject.org/structure-and-syntax/comments.md): Single-line comments for annotating documents.
- [Encoding](https://docs.internetobject.org/structure-and-syntax/encoding.md): Character encoding — UTF-8 is mandatory; Unicode, BOM, and line endings.
- [Syntax Errors](https://docs.internetobject.org/structure-and-syntax/syntax-errors.md): Common syntax errors and how the parser recovers.
- [Definitions](https://docs.internetobject.org/definitions/definitions.md): The header's definition section — metadata, variables, and references.
- [Variables](https://docs.internetobject.org/definitions/variables.md): Value variables — reusable values referenced with @.
- [Schema References](https://docs.internetobject.org/definitions/schema-references.md): Reusable schemas and types referenced with $.
- [Error Handling in Definitions](https://docs.internetobject.org/definitions/error-handling.md): Errors that arise from header definitions and references.
- [Collection](https://docs.internetobject.org/collections/collection.md): The structure of a collection — an ordered sequence of records in a data section.
- [Creating Collections](https://docs.internetobject.org/collections/creating-collection.md): Creating collections, with or without a schema.
- [Collection Rules](https://docs.internetobject.org/collections/collection-rules.md): Validation rules for collections — schema-less records, empty records, errors.
- [Data Streaming](https://docs.internetobject.org/collections/data-streaming.md): How collections enable streaming of records.
- [Overview](https://docs.internetobject.org/schema-definition-language/internet-object-schema.md): How Internet Object schemas describe the shape of data, and the pieces that make them up.
- [Schema Representation](https://docs.internetobject.org/schema-definition-language/schema-representation.md): How a schema is written and how data is mapped to it — open/closed, positional/keyed, and the default schema.
- [Schema Data Types](https://docs.internetobject.org/schema-definition-language/data-types.md): The Internet Object schema type system — base types, shortcuts, and TypeDefs.
- [Any](https://docs.internetobject.org/schema-definition-language/data-types/any.md): The any type — accepts any value, optionally constrained by anyOf or choices.
- [String Types](https://docs.internetobject.org/schema-definition-language/data-types/string.md): The string type and its email and url shortcuts.
- [Email](https://docs.internetobject.org/schema-definition-language/data-types/string/email.md): The email type — a string validated as an email address.
- [URL](https://docs.internetobject.org/schema-definition-language/data-types/string/url.md): The url type — a string validated as a URL.
- [Numeric Types](https://docs.internetobject.org/schema-definition-language/data-types/number.md): The number type and its family of integer, unsigned, and float shortcuts.
- [BigInt](https://docs.internetobject.org/schema-definition-language/data-types/bigint.md): The bigint type — arbitrary-precision integers.
- [Decimal](https://docs.internetobject.org/schema-definition-language/data-types/decimal.md): The decimal type — fixed-precision decimal numbers.
- [Date and Time](https://docs.internetobject.org/schema-definition-language/data-types/date-and-time.md): The datetime, date, and time types.
- [Binary](https://docs.internetobject.org/schema-definition-language/data-types/binary.md): The binary type — byte data written as base64.
- [Object (SchemaDef)](https://docs.internetobject.org/schema-definition-language/data-types/object.md): The object type — structured key/value data described by a SchemaDef.
- [Array](https://docs.internetobject.org/schema-definition-language/data-types/array.md): The array type — ordered, typed collections of values.
- [Bool](https://docs.internetobject.org/schema-definition-language/data-types/bool.md): The bool type — true/false values.
- [Advanced Schema Concepts](https://docs.internetobject.org/schema-definition-language/advanced-schema-concepts.md)
- [TypeDef](https://docs.internetobject.org/schema-definition-language/advanced-schema-concepts/typedef.md): TypeDef — the fixed option contract that every MemberDef of a type is validated against.
- [MemberDef](https://docs.internetobject.org/schema-definition-language/advanced-schema-concepts/memberdef.md): MemberDef — defining one member's type, constraints, and optional/nullable/default behavior.
- [Open & Dynamic Schemas](https://docs.internetobject.org/schema-definition-language/advanced-schema-concepts/dynamic-schema.md): Open and dynamic schemas — accepting extra fields with the \* marker.
- [Union Types (anyOf)](https://docs.internetobject.org/schema-definition-language/advanced-schema-concepts/union-types.md): Members that accept more than one type, via anyOf.
- [Composition & Reuse](https://docs.internetobject.org/schema-definition-language/advanced-schema-concepts/composition.md): Composing and reusing schemas through references.
- [Overview](https://docs.internetobject.org/streaming/streaming.md): Streaming — an incremental, record-oriented transport over the Internet Object data model.
- [Wire Format & Framing](https://docs.internetobject.org/streaming/wire-format.md): The on-the-wire framing of a streamed document — the mandatory terminator, control frames, and encoding.
- [Stream Items](https://docs.internetobject.org/streaming/stream-items.md): The two-kind stream-item model the reader emits, record indexing rules, and degenerate inputs.
- [Schema & State](https://docs.internetobject.org/streaming/schema-and-state.md): How a stream resolves definitions atomically, selects schemas, and applies precedence with preloaded state.
- [Streaming Error Model](https://docs.internetobject.org/streaming/error-model.md): The streaming error model — error categories, recoverable-versus-fatal disposition, and stream-absolute positions.
- [Readers & Writers](https://docs.internetobject.org/streaming/readers-and-writers.md): Obligations of the reader and writer roles, plus adapters, transports, backpressure, and conformance.
- [Overview](https://docs.internetobject.org/parsing-and-errors/parsing-and-errors.md): Overview of the parsing pipeline and the two error classes.
- [Error Model](https://docs.internetobject.org/parsing-and-errors/error-model.md): Syntax vs validation errors; categories, codes, and conditions.
- [Parser Behavior & Recovery](https://docs.internetobject.org/parsing-and-errors/parser-behavior.md): Boundary-bounded syntax-error recovery and processing options.
- [Error Accumulation](https://docs.internetobject.org/parsing-and-errors/error-accumulation.md): Accumulating per-object validation errors and per-region syntax errors.
- [Validation Model](https://docs.internetobject.org/conformance/validation-model.md): The parse, validate, load, and stringify pipeline.
- [Conformance Requirements](https://docs.internetobject.org/conformance/requirements.md): MUST/SHOULD/MAY duties of parsers, validators, and serializers.
- [Versioning Policy](https://docs.internetobject.org/versioning-and-stability/versioning.md): How the Internet Object specification is versioned, and the stability tiers that govern each feature.
- [Version History](https://docs.internetobject.org/versioning-and-stability/version-history.md): How specification changes are recorded; the change log begins at the first 1.0 release.
- [Feature Status](https://docs.internetobject.org/versioning-and-stability/feature-status.md): Generated overview of specification features and their maturity status.
- [JSON Compatibility](https://docs.internetobject.org/interoperability/json-compatibility.md): JSON compatibility in Internet Object.
- [Converting To/From Other Formats](https://docs.internetobject.org/interoperability/conversions.md): Converting Internet Object to and from JSON and other formats.
- [Best Practices & Guidelines](https://docs.internetobject.org/best-practices/best-practices.md): Practical guidance for authoring Internet Object documents and schemas.
- [Formal Grammar (EBNF)](https://docs.internetobject.org/appendices/grammar.md): The grammar of Internet Object in EBNF.
- [Glossary](https://docs.internetobject.org/appendices/glossary.md): Definitions of key Internet Object terms.
- [FAQs](https://docs.internetobject.org/appendices/faqs-1.md): Frequently asked questions about Internet Object — what it is, its features, interoperability, size and performance, status, and how to take part.
- [Roadmap](https://docs.internetobject.org/appendices/roadmap.md): Planned directions for the Internet Object specification and ecosystem.
- [Acknowledgments](https://docs.internetobject.org/appendices/contributors.md): The author of the Internet Object specification and the ManiarTech team who helped produce it.
- [License](https://docs.internetobject.org/appendices/license.md): Licensing terms for the Internet Object Specification, its examples, and its implementations.


---

# Agent Instructions
This documentation is published with GitBook. GitBook is the documentation platform designed so that both humans and AI agents can read, navigate, and reason over technical content effectively. Learn more at gitbook.com.

## Querying This Documentation
If you need additional information, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question.
Perform an HTTP GET request on a page URL with the `ask` query parameter:
```
GET https://docs.internetobject.org/readme.md?ask=<question>
```
The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language.
The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation.
Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.