Overview

IAA Config is a lightweight sequential configuration language designed for deterministic parsing, runtime variable management, nested objects, object arrays, and format conversion.

Core Behavior

• Files are parsed top to bottom.
• Values become available immediately after parsing.
• Dynamic variables may be updated and written back to disk.
• Nested paths create structured objects.
• Repeated object definitions automatically create arrays.
• Arrays may contain nested objects.

Basic Structure

{Production Configuration}

application_name:
 Inventory Service

port:
 8080

Object Array Example

players:
 name:
  Steve

 age:
  20

 name:
  Alice

 age:
  25

Syntax

IAA uses indentation-based structures with predictable parser behavior.

Title Blocks

{My Configuration}

Variables

service_name:
 Inventory API

Dynamic Variables

dynamic version:
 1.0

Comments

# Comment text

Examples

Examples showing normal variables, nested objects, dynamic variables, and object arrays.

Complete Example

{Game Configuration}

dynamic version:
 1.2

application_name:
 Example Game

settings.debug:
 True

Loading IAA

from iaacompiler import IAAModule

cfg = IAAModule()

cfg.parse_iaa(
 "config.iaa"
)

print(cfg.application_name)

Object Array Example

players:

 name:
  Steve

 level:
  20


 name:
  Alice

 level:
  25

The parser converts this into:

{
 "players": [
  {
   "name": "Steve",
   "level": 20
  },
  {
   "name": "Alice",
   "level": 25
  }
 ]
}

Accessing Arrays

cfg.players[0]["name"]

# Steve


cfg.players[1]["level"]

# 25

Rules

The parser follows strict sequential rules to keep configuration loading predictable.

Parser Rules

• Files are read from top to bottom.
• Values become available after they are parsed.
• Nested paths automatically create objects.
• Repeated object blocks create arrays.
• Array entries preserve grouped fields.
• Array indexes begin at zero.
• Unlimited nesting depth is supported.

Repeated Objects

IAA does not overwrite duplicate object blocks. Instead, it creates an array.

items:

 name:
  Sword


 name:
  Shield

Becomes:

{
 "items":[
  {
   "name":"Sword"
  },
  {
   "name":"Shield"
  }
 ]
}

Value Types

IAA supports primitive values and structured objects.

number:
 42


decimal:
 1.5


enabled:
 True

Dynamic Variables

Dynamic variables are runtime values that can be changed and saved back into an IAA file.

Declaration

dynamic build:
 100

Python Modification

cfg.modify_dynamic(
 "build",
 101,
 "config.iaa"
)

Only the changed value is updated while keeping the original structure.

Nested Variables

Nested variables create structured objects using dot notation.

Example

server.host:
 localhost


server.port:
 8080


server.settings.debug:
 True

Output

{
 "server":{
  "host":"localhost",
  "port":8080,
  "settings":{
   "debug":true
  }
 }
}

Combining Nesting and Arrays

game.players:

 name:
  Steve

 inventory:
  sword


 name:
  Alex

 inventory:
  bow

Nested paths and arrays can be combined to create complex configuration structures.

Arrays

IAA automatically creates arrays when repeated object structures appear under the same parent.

Creating Arrays

players:

 name:
  Steve

 age:
  20


 name:
  Alice

 age:
  25

Result

{
 "players":[
  {
   "name":"Steve",
   "age":20
  },
  {
   "name":"Alice",
   "age":25
  }
 ]
}

Access Syntax

Python

cfg.players[0]["name"]

cfg.players[1]["age"]

IAA Path

players.0.name

players.1.age

Array Rules

• Duplicate objects become list entries.
• Fields remain grouped together.
• Arrays support nested objects.
• Arrays can be accessed by index.

API

The IAA API converts IAA configuration files into JSON, YAML, and TOML formats. Structured objects and arrays are preserved during conversion.

Request Format

{
 "format":"json",
 "data":
 "players:\n name:\n  Steve"
}

Nested Object Conversion

server.host:
 localhost


server.settings.debug:
 True

Creates:

{
 "server":{
  "host":"localhost",
  "settings":{
   "debug":true
  }
 }
}

Array Conversion

Repeated object definitions are converted into arrays instead of duplicate keys.

players:

 name:
  Steve


 name:
  Alice

JSON output:

{
 "players":[
  {
   "name":"Steve"
  },
  {
   "name":"Alice"
  }
 ]
}

Supported Conversions