Why I started MatJSON

What would it look like to describe a material specification in a format that software can work with directly?

That is the question behind MatJSON.

I work with material specifications as a mechanical engineer, and I write software to make parts of engineering work easier. MatJSON is an attempt to bring those interests together without tying the result to one vendor’s application.

A useful distinction

One distinction I want the format to preserve is the difference between a material specification and the requirements for a particular application.

A specification describes a material or product. A project may add conditions: a particular edition, supplementary testing, documentation, or an additional acceptance criterion.

Mixing those together can make it difficult to tell where a requirement originated.

Question	What a useful data model should preserve
What is the material?	A clear identifier and product form.
Where did the requirement come from?	Its source and revision.
How is the value interpreted?	Units, conditions, and context.
What has been added for this job?	Application-specific requirements.

A small illustration

Even a deliberately simplified record starts to show the idea:

{
  "material": "example material",
  "productForm": "tube",
  "source": {
    "document": "example specification",
    "edition": "example edition"
  }
}

This is only an illustration, not a valid MatJSON document or a material requirement. The schema itself needs to define the actual structure, validation rules, and meaning.

Not a replacement for engineering judgment

Putting information into JSON does not make it correct. It does not settle which edition applies, remove the need for interpretation, or make a project-specific review unnecessary.

The ambition is smaller and more practical: make information easier to exchange, inspect, trace, and reuse.

I am interested in the tools that become possible when that groundwork is done carefully. That includes ordinary automation just as much as AI.

I will use this space to share the decisions and questions as the project develops. The project itself lives at matjson.org.