New: YAML Support for CEDAR Artifacts
We’re excited to announce support for a new YAML-based representation of CEDAR metadata artifacts. YAML (YAML Ain’t Markup Language) offers a more readable, compact alternative to JSON for defining CEDAR templates, elements, fields, and instances—making it easier for users and developers to understand and edit metadata structures.
Why YAML?
CEDAR templates have traditionally been represented as JSON Schema. While powerful and expressive, JSON Schema can be verbose and difficult to read or edit manually—especially for users reviewing or writing complex metadata templates.
The new YAML format addresses this by offering:
- Improved readability with cleaner indentation and less syntactic clutter
- Simpler hand-editing of templates for users comfortable with structured configuration formats
- Better version control diffs (changes in YAML are easier to interpret in Git-based workflows)
- Easier onboarding for those new to CEDAR or metadata specification
What’s Included
The YAML representation captures the full semantics of CEDAR artifacts, including:
- Template structure
- Field definitions and types
- Value constraints and cardinality
- Ontology bindings and value sets
- Required fields and conditional visibility
How to Use It
The Java-based CEDAR Artifact Library (https://github.com/metadatacenter/cedar-artifact-library) and the TypeScript-based CEDAR (https://github.com/metadatacenter/cedar-model-typescript-library) can be used to generate YAML representations of CEDAR templates, elements, fields and instances.
Who It’s For
The YAML format is ideal for:
- Template authors who want to version and manage artifacts in Git
- Developers building metadata templates via code or CI pipelines
- Curators who want a more human-readable alternative for reviewing artifacts
- Anyone frustrated by the cognitive load of complex JSON Schema structures
Moving Forward
This YAML representation does not replace JSON—it complements it. CEDAR continues to use JSON Schema and JSON-LD as the canonical metadata representation. YAML simply provides a more accessible format for authoring and collaboration.
As adoption grows, we’ll continue improving tooling and adding features like YAML-to-template upload capabilities in the CEDAR Workbench.
For questions or feedback, open an issue on GitHub or reach out to the CEDAR team directly.