detailslanguage

DetailsLanguage is a domain-specific language designed to describe precise, structured details of objects, systems, and processes. It emphasizes explicit metadata, verifiable constraints, and interoperability across tools and organizations. The language aims to be readable by humans while enabling automated parsing, validation, and code generation.

Origins and purpose describe how DetailsLanguage emerged from collaborative standardization efforts in engineering and software development. It was proposed to fill gaps between informal specification documents and machine-readable data schemas, offering a unified way to express attributes, relationships, units, and constraints.

Design goals and features include a typed schema system with primitive types such as string, number, boolean, date, and duration, plus complex types like records, lists, and maps. It supports units and quantities, enumerations, optional and required fields, default values, and versioned schemas. Constraints can be expressed as predicates or rules that must hold for instances. Schemas can reference other schemas and be composed as modules. Tooling typically includes a validator, code generators for common formats (JSON, YAML, XML), and editors with schema-aware completion.

Syntax and representation are crafted to be concise and human-friendly, with a form that can be serialized to JSON-compatible representations. It supports both human-readable drafts and machine-ready schemas, enabling round-tripping between documentation and data exchange.

Use cases include product specifications, component catalogs, manufacturing instructions, data interchange between systems, and automated reporting or testing. Adoption remains limited to specialized domains, with ongoing discussions about standardization and interoperability.