mzTab-M for Developers

This section provides the technical resources needed to implement mzTab-M support in software — the specification, schema, reference implementations, and contribution guidelines.

Resources

  • mzTab-M 2.1 Specification — the normative specification document defining every field, controlled vocabulary requirement, and file structure rule.

  • Schema Reference — a machine-readable JSON schema and generated field reference, suitable for parser and validator generation.

  • Implementations — reference libraries (jmzTab-m for Java, generated clients for other languages).

  • Contributing — how to report issues, propose changes, and contribute to the specification or tooling.

Design Principles

mzTab-M is developed following an API-first approach: the JSON schema is the authoritative source for the domain model, and reference implementations are generated from it. This means that extending the format begins with a schema change, followed by updating the specification, and finally regenerating or updating the libraries.

All controlled vocabulary terms referenced in mzTab-M files must be drawn from registered ontologies (PSI-MS, ChEBI, NCIT, and others). New term requests should be submitted to the respective ontology maintainers and referenced via their accession numbers.