etoon
Fast TOON (Token-Oriented Object Notation) encoder for Python, Rust, and CLI.
8× faster than toons, 2.7× faster than the official TS SDK, byte-identical output.
Performance
Per-call encode time across representative payloads (etoon = Python/PyO3,
best-of-7 × 2000 calls). ✓ = output byte-identical to etoon; ✗ = the
encoder deviates from the TOON spec (e.g. py-rtoon emits 0.0 where the spec
requires 0).
| Payload (encode) | etoon | toons | py-rtoon | @toon-format/toon (TS) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1000 uniform objects | 169 µs | 888 µs (5.2×✓) | 868 µs (5.1×✗) | 455 µs (2.7×✓) |
| deep nested | 123 µs | 291 µs (2.4×✓) | 737 µs (6.0×✗) | 602 µs (4.9×✓) |
| 1000 string records | 93 µs | 747 µs (8.0×✓) | 596 µs (6.4×✓) | 640 µs (6.9×✓) |
| 500 mixed objects | 136 µs | 755 µs (5.5×✓) | 599 µs (4.4×✗) | 1165 µs (8.6×✓) |
2.4–8.6× faster than every other encoder, with byte-identical, spec-canonical output (toons and the TS SDK match byte-for-byte; py-rtoon does not).
The CLI (… | etoon) adds process-spawn + pipe I/O on top — fine for shell
pipelines / LLM logs, but for in-process use prefer the PyO3 dumps (no spawn,
no pipe). Auto-detect mode (JSON / mixed log / plain text) runs at ~0.6–1.9 ms
per call on 100–600 KB inputs.
Reproduce
# Speed + parity vs toons / py-rtoon / TS SDK (each auto-skipped if absent):
# Encoder core benchmark (Rust native, no Python/PyO3 overhead):
Install
CLI binary (recommended for LLM workflows)
Pre-built — no Rust required:
Download from GitHub Releases (Linux/macOS/Windows, x86_64/aarch64):
# x86_64
# Apple Silicon / ARM server (aarch64)
# Apple Silicon (M1/M2/M3/M4)
# Intel Mac
# PowerShell
Invoke-WebRequest -Uri "https://github.com/coseto6125/etoon/releases/latest/download/etoon-windows-x86_64.exe" -OutFile "etoon.exe"
# Move to a directory in your PATH, e.g.:
Move-Item etoon.exe "$env:USERPROFILE\.local\bin\etoon.exe"
Each release includes SHA256 checksums, SLSA provenance attestation, and VirusTotal scan reports.
# 1. Verify checksum
# 2. Verify SLSA provenance (requires gh CLI)
# 3. VirusTotal — scan report links are in the release notes
macOS unsigned binary note: xattr -d com.apple.quarantine etoon to bypass Gatekeeper.
From source (requires Rust toolchain):
Python library
This installs the Python binding (
etoon.dumps()), not the CLI binary. For the CLI, use one of the methods above.
Rust library
Usage
Python
=
# [2]{id,name}:
# 1,Alice
# 2,Bob
CLI (Bash pipe)
|
|
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LLM Agents — Setup Guide
Append | etoon to shell commands so the AI reads TOON instead of raw JSON — 40-60% fewer tokens, lossless, auto-detects input format.
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Rules:
| etoongoes at the end of the pipeline —jq/grep/awkbefore it, never after- Auto-detects JSON / mixed log / plain text — safe to append to any command
- Skip only for: byte-exact diff, single-value lookups (1-2 lines)
Claude Code
Add to CLAUDE.md (or .claude/CLAUDE.md) in your project root:
Append `| etoon` as the final pipe segment of any Bash command whose output
reaches the conversation. etoon auto-detects JSON, mixed log, and plain text.
Skip only for byte-exact diff or single-value lookups (1-2 lines).
Cursor
Add to .cursor/rules/etoon.mdc:
description: Compress shell output with etoon
globs:
alwaysApply: true
When running shell/terminal commands, append `| etoon` as the last pipe segment.
etoon auto-detects JSON, mixed log, and plain text — safe for any command.
Skip only for byte-exact diff or single-value lookups (1-2 lines).
OpenAI Codex CLI
Add to AGENTS.md in your project root:
Append `| etoon` as the final pipe segment of any shell command.
etoon auto-detects JSON, mixed log, and plain text (non-JSON passes through unchanged).
Skip only for byte-exact diff or single-value lookups (1-2 lines).
Windsurf / Other AI Editors
Add to .windsurfrules (Windsurf) or the equivalent rules file:
When executing shell commands, always append `| etoon` at the end of the pipeline.
etoon auto-detects input format: JSON → compact TOON, mixed log → JSON blocks encoded + text pass-through, plain text → unchanged.
Skip only for byte-exact diff or single-value lookups (1-2 lines).
Gemini CLI
Add to GEMINI.md in your project root:
Append `| etoon` as the final pipe segment of any shell command.
etoon auto-detects JSON, mixed log, and plain text (non-JSON passes through unchanged).
Skip only for byte-exact diff or single-value lookups (1-2 lines).
ChatGPT / Custom GPTs
Add to system prompt or custom instructions:
When generating shell commands for the user, append `| etoon` as the last pipe segment.
etoon converts JSON to TOON (40-60% fewer tokens). Non-JSON passes through unchanged.
Rust
let json_bytes = to_vec?;
let toon = encode?;
Architecture
Python dict → orjson.dumps → JSON bytes → sonic-rs (SIMD parse) → walk → TOON string
Key optimizations:
- sonic-rs SIMD JSON parser (~7× faster than serde_json)
- orjson bridge — single boundary crossing (vs PyO3-based alternatives)
- uniform-order table fast path — skips 300 key lookups per 50-row table
- itoa specialized integer formatting
Compatibility
Output is byte-identical to the toons Python package (Apache 2.0) and the
official toon-format/toon TypeScript SDK. Passes 111/111 TOON spec
fixtures covering primitives, objects, arrays (primitive/tabular/nested/bulleted),
and whitespace.
Sigil-prefixed keys (@, $, #)
Keys starting with @, $, or # are treated as valid identifiers — no quoting needed. This gives native support for:
| Sigil | Ecosystem | Examples |
|---|---|---|
@ |
AWS CloudWatch, Elasticsearch, Serilog, XML→JSON | @timestamp, @message, @version |
$ |
MongoDB, JSON Schema, AWS CloudFormation | $match, $ref, $schema, $type |
# |
JSON-LD, Azure Resource Manager | #comment, #id |
# AWS CloudWatch Insights output
|
# [1]{@timestamp,@message,statusCode}:
# "2026-04-06T12:00:01Z",POST /api/v1/users 504,504
Token savings (5 AWS CloudWatch log entries)
tiktoken (offline, BPE tokenizer):
| Tokenizer (model family) | JSON | TOON | Saved |
|---|---|---|---|
| o200k_base (GPT-4o/5/o3) | 484 | 334 | 31.0% |
| cl100k_base (GPT-4/3.5 ≈ Claude) | 479 | 332 | 30.7% |
tokencalculator.ai (online, estimated per-model cost):
| Model | JSON | TOON | Saved |
|---|---|---|---|
| Est. Tokens | 314 | 189 | 39.8% |
| OpenAI GPT-5.4 | $0.000785 | $0.000473 | 39.7% |
| Claude Opus 4.6 | $0.001570 | $0.000945 | 39.8% |
| Gemini 3.1 Pro | $0.000628 | $0.000378 | 39.8% |
| DeepSeek V3.2 | $0.000088 | $0.000053 | 39.8% |
| Grok 4.20 | $0.000063 | $0.000038 | 39.7% |
Savings increase with volume — 50 entries reach 35%+ (tiktoken) as the tabular header is amortized.
Advanced options
These are TOON spec optional parameters, intended for programmatic use in your codebase (Python / Rust library calls). The CLI
| etoonpipe for LLM workflows uses defaults and does not need these.
# Custom delimiter (when values contain commas)
# or "\t"
# Key folding: collapse {a:{b:{c:1}}} → "a.b.c: 1"
# partial fold
Limitations
- Integers > 2⁶³ are lossily coerced via f64 (works for most common big integers that happen to be representable; arbitrary-precision is not supported).
- Custom
indentis hardcoded to 2 spaces (TOON spec default).
License
Apache 2.0. Test fixtures in tests/fixtures/ are sourced from the
toons project (Apache 2.0).