AXON — Document Format · powers tdoc (https://tdoc.xyz)

Deterministic, semantic, signable document archives. A clean break from PDF / DOCX / HTML.

• Spec: AXON_Format_Specification.txt — v1.0 design draft.
• Reference impl: axon.py — single-file Python reference (~1800 lines).
• Demo: demo.py — runs the full pipeline end-to-end.
• Product (commercial API on top): product/ — see product/README.md.

The AXON format vs the .tdoc file extension

• AXON is the open format. Open spec, Apache-2.0 reference implementation. Anyone can build tools on it.
• .tdoc is the standard file extension for AXON archives. A .tdoc file is an AXON archive.
• Readers that support AXON also accept .axon for backwards compatibility.

Think of it like .png vs PNG: one is the file extension users see, the other is the open standard.

Status

Early-alpha reference. Spec is complete; implementation covers most of it and ships with 50 passing tests (32 format + 18 API) covering the load-bearing invariants. Landing is live at https://tdoc.xyz with Mozilla Observatory A+ · 125/125 · 10/10 tests.

Install

From PyPI (once published):

pip install axon-document           # → import axon
pip install axon-document[crypto]   # + Ed25519 signatures
pip install axon-document[pdf]      # + PyMuPDF PDF ingest
pip install axon-document[all]      # everything

From source (editable):

python3 -m venv .venv
.venv/bin/pip install -e ".[dev,crypto]"
.venv/bin/pytest tests/ product/tests/

Optional extras: [pdf], [fastjson], [crypto], [mathml], [all].

Quick start

from axon import convert_axc_string, encode_archive, decode_archive, render_html

doc = convert_axc_string("""
@section [id="hello"]:
  @heading [level=1]:
    Hello
  @paragraph:
    A deterministic document.
""", title="Hello", document_type="article.research")

encode_archive(doc, "hello.tdoc")  # .tdoc extension is the convention

loaded = decode_archive("hello.tdoc", verify=True)
print(render_html(loaded))

What's verified

As of the current test suite (pytest tests/):

Invariant	Status
AXC parse ↔ serialise round-trip (Unicode, nested, attributes)	✅
Archive byte-determinism — two encodes produce identical bytes	✅
ZIP entries stamped with fixed epoch (not wall-clock)	✅
encode_archive does not mutate manifest.modified	✅
Content-hash tamper detection via validate()	✅
verify_document rejects zeroed manifest hash	✅
Ed25519 cryptographic signing + verification	✅
ZIP-bomb + path-traversal defenses on decode	✅
Spec conformance (accessibility warnings, dup-ids, hash mismatch)	✅

32 tests, 0 xfail for the format. 18 additional tests for the tdoc API service (auth, quotas, security headers, rate limits). 50 total, all green.

License

Apache-2.0. See LICENSE.

Commercial

Hosted API, paid plans, and signing-as-a-service live at tdoc.xyz.