Pipe Properties

Every IntentText block follows the same grammar:

keyword: content | property: value | property: value

Properties appear after the pipe separator | (space-pipe-space). Any keyword can carry any property — the parser preserves everything without error.

Syntax rules

Split on | (space-pipe-space)
First segment → keyword: content
Every subsequent segment → key: value
Escaped pipe \| is treated as a literal character, not a separator
Unknown properties are stored, queryable, and carried through merge
For code:, triple backticks delimit the value — everything between ``` and ``` is the content, properties go after the closing backticks

text: Payment due in 30 days | color: red | id: payment-note
quote: The only limit is imagination | by: Anonymous | size: 1.2em
code: ```fetch("/api/data")``` | lang: js

Reserved characters & escaping

| (space-pipe-space) is the only reserved delimiter in a line. Two escape sequences exist, and they are all you ever need:

Literal pipe — write \| (backslash-pipe). Works in content and in property values.
Literal backslash — write \\ (double backslash).

task: Review the A \| B comparison | owner: Ada
text: Windows path: C:\\Users\\ahmed\\docs
metric: Margin | value: 40\|60 split

The parser unescapes \| and \\ anywhere in content and property values, and the serializer re-escapes them on output — so escape round-trips are a stable fixpoint. A parsed-and-reserialized document never silently turns a literal pipe back into a property delimiter.

Colons need no escaping. Only the first word-plus-colon of a line is interpreted as a keyword — every later colon is plain text:

quote: He said: watch this | by: Ada
text: Schedule — 09:00: standup, 14:30: review

The only edge case: starting a line's prose with something that looks like a keyword. total: 50 on its own line would parse as a custom total block — if you mean it as text, say so explicitly:

text: total: 50

Standard properties by keyword

Each keyword documents its own properties on its reference page. Here is a cross-reference of common properties and where they appear.

Identity properties

Property	Used by	Description
`by:`	`quote:`, `approve:`, `sign:`, `audit:`, `revision:`, `amendment:`	Author or attribution
`at:`	`image:`, `audit:`, `approve:`, `sign:`, `freeze:`, `revision:`, `amendment:`	File path, URL, or ISO 8601 timestamp
`id:`	Any block	Explicit block identifier
`ref:`	`ref:`, `approve:`, `amendment:`	Reference identifier or cross-reference

Structural properties

Property	Used by	Description
`section:`	`revision:`, `amendment:`	Section the block relates to
`was:`	`revision:`, `amendment:`	Previous value
`now:`	`revision:`, `amendment:`	New value
`label:`	`signline:`	Text below the signature line
`width:`	`signline:`	Width of the signature line

Data properties

Property	Used by	Description
`format:`	`input:`, `output:`	Data format (json, csv, xml)
`schema:`	`input:`	Expected schema
`type:`	`meta:`, `ref:`	Type classification
`unit:`	`metric:`	Unit of measurement
`value:`	`metric:`	Numeric value
`target:`	`metric:`	Target value
`min:`	`metric:`	Minimum acceptable value
`max:`	`metric:`	Maximum acceptable value
`trend:`	`metric:`	`up`, `down`, `flat`

Agent properties

Property	Used by	Description
`depends:`	`step:`	Step dependency (runs after)
`input:`	`step:`	Input data reference
`output:`	`step:`	Output data reference
`tool:`	`step:`, `tool:`	Tool reference
`model:`	`step:`	AI model to use
`status:`	`step:`	Execution status
`confidence:`	`step:`	Confidence threshold (0–1)
`approver:`	`gate:`	Required approver
`fallback:`	`gate:`	Step if approval times out
`if:`	`decision:`, `policy:`	Condition to evaluate
`then:`	`decision:`	Branch if true
`else:`	`decision:`	Branch if false
`event:`	`trigger:`	Triggering event
`scope:`	`policy:`, `context:`	Scope boundary
`always:`	`policy:`	Unconditional rule
`never:`	`policy:`	Prohibition rule
`action:`	`policy:`	Response when policy fires
`requires:`	`policy:`	Required block type
`notify:`	`policy:`	Alert target
`timeout:`	`step:`	Maximum execution time
`retries:`	`step:`	Number of retry attempts
`priority:`	`step:`	Execution priority
`phase:`	`step:`	Pipeline phase

Trust properties

Property	Used by	Description
`role:`	`approve:`, `sign:`, `signline:`, `contact:`	Person's role
`hash:`	`sign:`, `freeze:`, `amendment:`	Content hash
`approved-by:`	`amendment:`	Amendment approver

Layout properties

Property	Used by	Description
`size:`	`page:`, `font:`, `header:`, `footer:`, `watermark:`	Dimensions or font size
`margins:`	`page:`	Page margins
`orientation:`	`page:`	`portrait` or `landscape`
`body:`	`font:`	Body font family
`heading:`	`font:`	Heading font family
`mono:`	`font:`	Monospace font family
`align:`	`header:`, `footer:`	Text alignment
`color:`	`watermark:`	Color value
`opacity:`	`watermark:`	Opacity (0–1)
`angle:`	`watermark:`	Rotation angle
`end:`	`title:`, `section:`, `sub:`, `text:`, prose	Two-sided row — value rendered at the line end
`leading:`	Any text-bearing block	Line height (`leading: 1.9`)
`space-before:`	Any text-bearing block	Space above the block
`space-after:`	Any text-bearing block	Space below the block

Two-sided rows — `end:`

end: renders a block as a two-sided row: the content sits at the line start, the end: value at the line end — the invoice/report "label left, value right" pattern:

title: Invoice INV-2026-042 | end: 2026-06-12
text: Customer | end: Acme Corp
section: Payment Terms | end: Net 30

It works on title:, section:, sub:, text:, and prose blocks. The row is flex start/end, so RTL documents flip it automatically — no extra markup. The end: value is bidi-isolated (dir="auto"), so a date or amount keeps its internal order inside an Arabic line. leading:, space-before:, and space-after: are spacing props — see Style Properties for the full mapping.

Direction — RTL and bidi isolation

Direction is automatic and per-value:

A document with Arabic (or other RTL) content flips to dir="rtl" automatically; all built-in CSS uses logical properties, so tables, quotes, callouts, and splits mirror correctly without configuration.
Override explicitly with meta: | dir: rtl (or dir: ltr) — the explicit value beats auto-detection in either direction. The Arabic alias works too: بيانات: | dir: rtl.
Mixed-language values stay readable. Table cells, task owner/due dates, metric values, deadline dates, contact email/phone, and end: values carry dir="auto" — each value resolves its own direction from its first strong character, so 10,200 QAR and 2026-06-20 keep their internal order inside RTL lines. Never manually reorder or pad mixed-language values.

Open-ended properties

Properties are fully open-ended. The parser stores everything — any key: value pair is valid:

text: Custom data | department: Engineering | priority: high | reviewed: true

Custom properties are preserved in parsed output, appear in queries, and survive merge operations. This makes .it files extensible without schema changes.

One convention applies across all properties: the date-bearing keys (date, due, at, expires, issued) hold ISO 8601 values (2026-03-09 or 2026-03-09T14:00:00Z). Locale formats are ambiguous and break date-range queries — the validator flags them with a DATE_NOT_ISO warning.

Syntax rules​

Reserved characters & escaping​

Standard properties by keyword​

Identity properties​

Structural properties​

Data properties​

Agent properties​

Trust properties​

Layout properties​

Two-sided rows — end:​

Direction — RTL and bidi isolation​

Open-ended properties​