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Issue 24.1

FEATURE

Token-Oriented Object Notation (TOON)

A Comprehensive Guide for Xojo Developers Working With AI

Issue: 24.1 (January/February 2026)
Author: Tim Dietrich
Author Bio: Tim uses Xojo to develop custom software for businesses that are running on NetSuite. Over the past year, a lot of his work has involved AI integration and prompt engineering.
Article Description: No description available.
Article Length (in bytes): 32,713
Starting Page Number: 51
Article Number: 24106
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Download Icon project24106.zip Updated: 2026-01-04 19:20:49

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Excerpt of article text...

If you've been following recent discussions in the AI developer community, you may have heard or read references to a new data format called TOON—short for Token-Oriented Object Notation. The claims being made about it are compelling: 30-60% fewer tokens, cleaner structure, improved LLM accuracy, and simpler reasoning compared to JSON. Some developers are excited about it, while others are skeptical.

As someone who works daily with Xojo, JSON, and AI-powered data pipelines, I decided to investigate TOON thoroughly and determine whether it offers real advantages—or whether it's destined to fade into niche obscurity.

What I discovered was genuinely surprising.

In this article, I'll walk you through everything you need to know about TOON, with production-ready Xojo code that you can test and use today.

What Is TOON?

TOON stands for Token-Oriented Object Notation. It's an open-source, AI-focused data serialization format with an official specification maintained at github.com/toon-format/spec. The format was designed with a single, focused goal: to provide a compact, human-readable encoding of the JSON data model that minimizes tokens while making structure easy for language models to follow.

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