ZON for TypeScript/JavaScript

Zero Overhead Notation - A human-readable data serialization format optimized for LLM token efficiency.

Installation

From npm

npm install zon-format

From yarn

yarn add zon-format

Quick Start

import { encode, decode } from 'zon-format';

const data = { message: "Hello ZON!" };
const encoded = encode(data);
console.log(encoded); // message:Hello ZON!

const decoded = decode(encoded);
console.log(decoded); // { message: "Hello ZON!" }

API Reference

encode(data, anchorInterval?)

Encodes a JavaScript object or array into a ZON-formatted string.

• data (any): The input data to encode. Must be JSON-serializable.
• anchorInterval (number, optional): Legacy parameter, defaults to 50. Not used in v1.0.1.

decode(zonStr)

Decodes a ZON-formatted string back into a JavaScript object or array.

• zonStr (string): The ZON-encoded string to decode.

Examples

Array of Objects (Table Format)

import { encode, decode } from 'zon-format';

const products = [
  { id: 1, name: "Laptop", price: 999, inStock: true },
  { id: 2, name: "Mouse", price: 29, inStock: true },
  { id: 3, name: "Keyboard", price: 79, inStock: false }
];

const encoded = encode(products);
console.log(encoded);
// Output:
// @data(3):id,inStock,name,price
// 1,T,Laptop,999
// 2,T,Mouse,29
// 3,F,Keyboard,79

const decoded = decode(encoded);
// decoded === products (exact match)

LLM Integration Example

import { encode } from 'zon-format';
import OpenAI from 'openai';

const openai = new OpenAI({ apiKey: process.env.OPENAI_API_KEY });

// Prepare data
const users = [
  { id: 1, name: "Alice", purchases: 15, total: 1500 },
  { id: 2, name: "Bob", purchases: 8, total: 800 },
  // ... 100 more users
];

// Compress with ZON (saves tokens = saves money!)
const zonData = encode(users);

// Use in prompt
const response = await openai.chat.completions.create({
  model: "gpt-4",
  messages: [
    { role: "system", content: "You will receive data in ZON format. Decode mentally and analyze." },
    { role: "user", content: `Analyze this user data:\n\n${zonData}\n\nWhat's the average purchase total?` }
  ]
});

console.log(response.choices[0].message.content);

For more details, visit the GitHub repository.