Laravel TOON Export

A Laravel package that exports data (Eloquent models, queries, collections) into TOON format – optimized for LLM/token usage.

Think of it as: Export::toJSON / toCSV → now also toTOON

🎯 Why TOON?

TOON format is a compact, structured data format perfect for AI/LLM pipelines. It uses significantly fewer tokens than JSON while maintaining structure.

JSON (bloated):

[
  { "id": 1, "name": "Panadol", "price": 3.5 },
  { "id": 2, "name": "Nizoral", "price": 18.9 }
]

TOON (compact):

products[2]{id,name,price}:
1,Panadol,3.5
2,Nizoral,18.9

Result: ~70% fewer tokens, same information! 🚀

📦 Installation

Install via Composer:

composer require azzoelabbar/laravel-toon-export

The package will auto-discover and register itself. No configuration needed!

🚀 Quick Start

use Egate\ToonExport\Facades\ToonExport;
use App\Models\User;

// Export from collection
$users = User::select('id', 'name', 'email')->get();
$toon = ToonExport::fromCollection($users, 'users', ['id', 'name', 'email']);

// Export from query
$toon = ToonExport::fromQuery(
    User::query()->where('active', true),
    'active_users',
    ['id', 'name', 'email']
);

// Output:
// users[3]{id,name,email}:
// 1,Azzo,azzo@example.com
// 2,Ali,ali@example.com
// 3,Salah,salah@elabbar.com

📖 Usage

Export from Collection

use Egate\ToonExport\Facades\ToonExport;

$products = Product::all();
$toon = ToonExport::fromCollection($products, 'products', ['id', 'name', 'price']);

Export from Query Builder

$toon = ToonExport::fromQuery(
    Order::query()
        ->where('status', 'completed')
        ->where('created_at', '>=', now()->subMonth()),
    'recent_orders',
    ['id', 'user_id', 'total', 'created_at']
);

HTTP Download Response

Route::get('/export/users.toon', function () {
    $users = User::select('id', 'name', 'email')->get();
    $toon = ToonExport::fromCollection($users, 'users', ['id', 'name', 'email']);
    
    return response($toon, 200, [
        'Content-Type' => 'text/plain; charset=utf-8',
        'Content-Disposition' => 'attachment; filename="users.toon"',
    ]);
});

Artisan Command

Export models directly from the command line:

# Basic export
php artisan toon:export "App\Models\User" --columns=id,name,email

# Custom name and path
php artisan toon:export "App\Models\Product" \
  --name=products \
  --columns=id,name,price \
  --path=exports

Command Options:

• model (required): Fully qualified model class, e.g. App\Models\User
• --name: Root TOON name (defaults to snake_case of model name)
• --columns: Comma-separated list of columns to export
• --path: Subdirectory under storage/app (default: toon)

Examples:

# Export with default name
php artisan toon:export "App\Models\Product"
# Creates: storage/app/toon/product.toon

# Export with custom name and columns
php artisan toon:export "App\Models\User" \
  --name=active_users \
  --columns=id,name,email,role

# Export to custom directory
php artisan toon:export "App\Models\Order" \
  --name=recent_orders \
  --path=exports/toon
# Creates: storage/app/exports/toon/recent_orders.toon

🔧 Advanced Usage

Multiple Tables

$users = ToonExport::fromCollection($users, 'users', ['id', 'name']);
$orders = ToonExport::fromCollection($orders, 'orders', ['id', 'user_id', 'total']);

$combined = $users . "\n\n" . $orders;

Custom Data Arrays

$data = [
    ['id' => 1, 'name' => 'Item 1', 'price' => 10.5],
    ['id' => 2, 'name' => 'Item 2', 'price' => 20.0],
];

$toon = ToonExport::fromCollection(
    collect($data), 
    'items', 
    ['id', 'name', 'price']
);

AI/LLM Integration

use Egate\ToonExport\Facades\ToonExport;

// Export data for LLM processing
$users = User::where('city', 'Benghazi')->get();
$toon = ToonExport::fromCollection($users, 'users', ['id', 'name', 'email', 'city']);

// Send to OpenAI/Anthropic
$prompt = "Analyze this user data:\n\n{$toon}\n\nWhat patterns do you see?";
// ... send to LLM API

📋 TOON Format Specification

The TOON format follows this structure:

table_name[record_count]{column1,column2,column3}:
value1,value2,value3
value1,value2,value3
...

Rules:

• Header: name[count]{columns}:
• Data rows: comma-separated values, one per line
• Values with commas/newlines are automatically quoted
• Empty values are represented as empty strings

Example:

products[3]{id,name,price,stock}:
1,Panadol,3.5,100
2,Nizoral,18.9,50
3,Aspirin,2.0,

✅ Requirements

• PHP ^8.1
• Laravel ^10.0 || ^11.0 || ^12.0

🎨 Features

• ✅ Export from Eloquent Collections
• ✅ Export from Query Builders
• ✅ Artisan command for CLI exports
• ✅ Auto-discovery (no manual registration)
• ✅ Token-efficient format for AI/LLM
• ✅ Works with any Eloquent model
• ✅ Supports custom columns selection
• ✅ Automatic escaping for special characters

🤝 Use Cases

• AI/LLM Pipelines: Send structured data to OpenAI, Anthropic, etc.
• Data Exports: Create compact export files
• API Responses: Return token-efficient data formats
• Admin Dashboards: Export data for analysis
• Batch Processing: Prepare data for AI processing

📝 Examples

Controller Example

<?php

namespace App\Http\Controllers;

use Egate\ToonExport\Facades\ToonExport;
use App\Models\Product;

class ExportController extends Controller
{
    public function products()
    {
        $products = Product::select('id', 'name', 'price', 'stock')->get();
        
        $toon = ToonExport::fromCollection($products, 'products', [
            'id', 'name', 'price', 'stock'
        ]);
        
        return response($toon, 200, [
            'Content-Type' => 'text/plain; charset=utf-8',
            'Content-Disposition' => 'attachment; filename="products.toon"',
        ]);
    }
}

Service Example

<?php

namespace App\Services;

use Egate\ToonExport\Facades\ToonExport;
use App\Models\User;

class AIDataService
{
    public function prepareUserDataForLLM(array $userIds): string
    {
        $users = User::whereIn('id', $userIds)
            ->select('id', 'name', 'email', 'created_at')
            ->get();
        
        return ToonExport::fromCollection($users, 'users', [
            'id', 'name', 'email', 'created_at'
        ]);
    }
}

🔍 Testing

Test the package with:

# Test Artisan command
php artisan toon:export "App\Models\User" --columns=id,name,email

# Test in Tinker
php artisan tinker

Then:

use Egate\ToonExport\Facades\ToonExport;
use App\Models\User;

$users = User::limit(3)->get();
echo ToonExport::fromCollection($users, 'users', ['id', 'name', 'email']);

📚 Documentation

• GitHub Repository
• Packagist

🐛 Troubleshooting

Command not found?

php artisan package:discover
composer dump-autoload

Class not found?

composer dump-autoload
php artisan config:clear

📄 License

The MIT License (MIT). Please see License File for more information.

🙏 Credits

Built for the Laravel community, optimized for AI/LLM workflows.