PTA Standards

Plain Text Accounting Standards: Specifications for Beancount, Ledger, and hledger formats.

Note

This project is in early development. Contributions welcome!

Overview

This repository contains formal specifications for plain text accounting formats:

Format	Version	Status
Beancount	v3	Draft
Ledger	v1	Planned
hledger	v1	Planned

Structure

pta-standards/
├── core/           # Shared foundations (data model, types, numerics)
├── formats/        # Individual format specifications
│   ├── beancount/  # Beancount v2, v3
│   ├── ledger/     # Ledger v1
│   └── hledger/    # hledger v1
├── tests/          # Conformance test suites
├── tooling/        # CLI, LSP, error code specifications
└── meta/           # RFCs, ADRs, governance

Goals

1. Precise: Unambiguous specifications that can be implemented correctly
2. Testable: Comprehensive test suites for conformance verification
3. Interoperable: Enable format conversion and tool compatibility
4. Community-driven: Open process for evolution and extension

Specifications Include

• Grammars: EBNF and ABNF formal grammars
• Schemas: JSON Schema and Protocol Buffers for AST
• Tree-sitter: Editor integration grammars
• Formal models: Alloy specifications for invariants
• Test vectors: Conformance test suites

License

• Documentation (*.md, specs): CC-BY-4.0
• Code (grammars, schemas, tests): MIT

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

Related Projects

• rustledger - Rust implementation of Beancount
• beancount - Original Python implementation
• ledger - C++ implementation
• hledger - Haskell implementation