Kaitai

Kaitai is a Japanese term written as 解体, meaning dismantling, disassembly, or deconstruction. In everyday language it describes the process of breaking down a structure, mechanism, or system into parts, and it is commonly used in construction, demolition, and manufacturing contexts. The phrase is formed from kai (解) meaning to solve or undo and tai (体) meaning body or form, and is used with verbs such as ka­tai suru (to dismantle).

In the technology and software world, Kaitai also refers to Kaitai Struct, an open-source framework for describing binary data formats. It provides a declarative language to specify the structure of binary files and streams, typically using YAML-based .ksy files, from which parsers can be generated in multiple programming languages. Kaitai Struct is used to analyze, parse, and validate unfamiliar or proprietary binary formats, supporting activities such as reverse engineering, data extraction, software testing, and digital forensics. The project emphasizes reusability and cross-language compatibility, aiming to simplify binary parsing by separating format description from code.

Overall, kaitai spans both a common Japanese linguistic term for dismantling and a modern software project that facilitates parsing binary data through a standardized description language.