AXGF — Axiom Genealogy Format

The open genealogy data standard for the modern era

GEDCOM was designed in 1984 for floppy disk exchange.
AXGF is designed for 2026 — JSON-native, AI-readable, multilingual, document-embedding.

Specification → · JSON Schema → · Examples → · Discuss →

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Why AXGF?

GEDCOM 5.5.1 (1999) and even GEDCOM 7 (2021) were designed around a person-centric, ASCII-first, flat-text model that cannot express genealogical reality as researchers actually encounter it:

Problem	GEDCOM	AXGF
Multilingual names (Japanese, Arabic, Hebrew...)	❌ ASCII-biased	✅ UTF-8, per-component transliteration
Partial dates with uncertainty	⚠️ limited	✅ precision + confidence + circa
Multiple calendar systems	❌ Gregorian only	✅ 10 calendar systems
Border-changing place names	❌	✅ country_history[]
Confidence scoring per fact	❌	✅ 0.0–1.0 on every claim
Source conflicts	❌	✅ conflicts[] with resolution
DNA sources	❌	✅ typed DNA source with shared_cm
Documents embedded in bundle	❌	✅ binary files in ZIP bundle
Documents known but not obtained	❌	✅ status: known_missing
AI hypotheses	❌	✅ first-class with status tracking
Relationships as first-class entities	❌	✅ Link entity with temporal validity
Family as independent entity	❌	✅ Family owns its own documents
Occupations as career states	❌	✅ Occupation entity (not event)
LLM-readable narrative pages	❌	✅ optional Markdown vault
JSON Schema validation	❌	✅ draft 2020-12
Git-diffable	❌	✅ one file per entity

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Core Concepts

AXGF is built around Philosophy C: four independent first-class entities.

┌─────────────┐     ┌──────────────┐     ┌─────────────┐
│   PERSON    │     │    FAMILY    │     │    EVENT    │
│             │     │              │     │             │
│ atomic unit │────▶│ structural   │────▶│ dated fact  │
│ exists alone│     │ group        │     │ N participants│
└─────────────┘     └──────────────┘     └─────────────┘
       │                   │                    │
       └──────────── LINK (typed relation) ─────┘
                     label · confidence · dates

PERSON — exists independently. No family or event required.
FAMILY — independent structural entity with its own documents and history.
EVENT — independent dated fact with N participants and typed roles.
LINK — first-class typed relationship with temporal validity and confidence.

Plus: OCCUPATION (career state), SOURCE (evidence), PLACE (reusable geography), DOCUMENT (embedded binary).

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Quick Start

Minimal valid person

{
  "id": "550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440001",
  "type": "person",
  "axgf_version": "1.0",
  "created_at": "2026-06-15T10:00:00Z",
  "updated_at": "2026-06-15T10:00:00Z",
  "version_num": 1,
  "identity": {
    "name": {
      "display": "Jean Pierre-Léonard",
      "components": [
        { "type": "given_name",  "value": "Jean",           "order": 1 },
        { "type": "family_name", "value": "Pierre-Léonard", "order": 2 }
      ]
    },
    "gender":     { "value": "M" },
    "is_living":  false,
    "visibility": "members"
  },
  "birth": {
    "date": {
      "value": "1923-04-12",
      "calendar": "gregorian",
      "precision": "exact",
      "confidence": 0.98
    }
  }
}

Japanese name with furigana

{
  "identity": {
    "name": {
      "display": "田中一郎",
      "display_latin": "Ichiro Tanaka",
      "culture": "ja",
      "direction": "ltr",
      "display_order": "family_first",
      "reading": "たなか いちろう",
      "reading_system": "hiragana",
      "components": [
        { "type": "family_name", "value": "田中", "value_latin": "Tanaka",
          "reading": "たなか", "order": 1 },
        { "type": "given_name",  "value": "一郎", "value_latin": "Ichiro",
          "reading": "いちろう", "order": 2 }
      ]
    }
  }
}

Hebrew name with patronymic

{
  "identity": {
    "name": {
      "display": "יוסף בן-דוד כהן",
      "display_latin": "Yosef ben-David Cohen",
      "culture": "he",
      "direction": "rtl",
      "components": [
        { "type": "given_name",  "value": "יוסף",   "value_latin": "Yosef",     "order": 1 },
        { "type": "patronymic", "value": "בן-דוד", "value_latin": "ben-David",  "order": 2 },
        { "type": "family_name","value": "כהן",    "value_latin": "Cohen",      "order": 3 }
      ]
    }
  }
}

Date with multiple calendars

{
  "date": {
    "value": "1923-04-12",
    "calendar": "gregorian",
    "precision": "exact",
    "confidence": 0.98,
    "alternatives": [
      { "value": "大正12年4月12日", "calendar": "japanese_era", "era": "Taisho", "era_year": 12 },
      { "value": "כ״ה ניסן תרפ״ג",  "calendar": "hebrew" }
    ]
  }
}

Bundle structure

family.axgf  (ZIP)
├── manifest.json
├── schema/axgf-1.0.schema.json
├── persons/{uuid}.json
├── families/{uuid}.json
├── events/{uuid}.json
├── links/{uuid}.json
├── occupations/{uuid}.json
├── sources/{uuid}.json
├── places/{uuid}.json
├── documents/
│   ├── index.json
│   └── files/{uuid}.pdf
└── vault/wiki/persons/{uuid}.md   (optional, AI narrative)

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Validate a bundle

pip install jsonschema
python tools/validate.py my-family.axgf

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Supported Calendar Systems

gregorian · julian · hebrew · hijri · persian · chinese · ethiopian · japanese_era · republican_french · roman

Supported Name Component Types

given_name · family_name · patronymic · matronymic · nasab · laqab · kunya · nisbah · nickname · alias · religious_name · pen_name

Event Categories

birth · death · marriage · divorce · adoption · migration · naturalization · military · incarceration · name_change · census · legal · religious · social · historical · other

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Roadmap

Version	Target	Description
1.0	June 2026	Initial public draft — core entities, i18n, confidence, documents
1.1	Q3 2026	Community feedback integration, DNA sources refinement
1.2	Q4 2026	Place authority file, Wikidata integration spec
2.0	2027	Binary format option, streaming support for large trees

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Contributing

AXGF is an open standard. All contributions are welcome.

• 💬 Discuss — GitLab Issues
• 🐛 Report a spec ambiguity — open an issue with label spec-clarification
• 📝 Propose a change — open a Merge Request against main
• 🌍 Internationalization gaps — open an issue with label i18n

Governance

AXGF 1.0 is authored by Karin Pierre-Léonard as part of the ax-genealogy project. Community governance model to be defined before version 2.0.

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Implementations

Project	Language	Status
ax-genealogy	Rust + React	Reference implementation
Your project here	—	Open a PR to list yours

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Compatibility with GEDCOM

AXGF is not a replacement for GEDCOM in legacy systems. It is a superset designed for modern use cases. Reference implementations provide:

• GEDCOM 5.5.1 → AXGF import
• GEDCOM 7.0 → AXGF import
• AXGF → GEDCOM 7.0 export (lossy — confidence, hypotheses, and vault are not expressible in GEDCOM)

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License

The AXGF specification and JSON Schema are released under Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal — effectively public domain. No copyright. No patent claims. No royalties. Implement freely in any software, commercial or open source.

SPDX-License-Identifier: CC0-1.0

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AXGF — Axiom and Genealogy Format
Specification v1.0 · June 2026
https://gitlab.com/plkarin/axgf-spec