The problem: JSON wastes tokens. Curly braces, quotes, colons, commas - all eat into your context window.
ISON uses tabular patterns that LLMs already understand from training data:
JSON (87 tokens): { "users": [ {"id": 1, "name": "Alice", "email": "alice@example.com"}, {"id": 2, "name": "Bob", "email": "bob@example.com"} ] }
ISON (34 tokens): table.users id:int name:string email 1 Alice alice@example.com 2 Bob bob@example.com
Features: - 30-70% token reduction - Type annotations - References between tables - Schema validation (ISONantic) - Streaming format (ISONL)
Implementations: Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, Rust, C++ 9 packages, 171+ tests passing
pip install ison-py # Parser pip install isonantic # Validation & schemas
npm install ison-parser # JavaScript npm install ison-ts # TypeScript with full types npm install isonantic-ts # Validation & schemas
[dependencies] ison-rs = "1.0" isonantic-rs = "1.0" # Validation & schemas
Looking for feedback on the format design.