---
title: "Validator and inspector"
description: "Drop a .spdf file to check it against the SPDF specification and see what is inside: record, units, fragments with anchors, figures, vector spaces. Everything runs in your browser; nothing is uploaded."
url: https://spdf.joseluissaorin.com/validator
markdown: https://spdf.joseluissaorin.com/validator.md
lang: en
alternate_es: https://spdf.joseluissaorin.com/es/validador.md
updated: 2026-10-07
author: José Luis Saorín Ferrer (https://joseluissaorin.com)
license: CC-BY-4.0
---

# Validator and inspector

> Drop a .spdf file to check it against the SPDF specification and see what is inside: record, units, fragments with anchors, figures, vector spaces. Everything runs in your browser; nothing is uploaded.

The validator runs in the browser at `/validator`: drop a .spdf file and it is checked with spdf-format and SQLite in WebAssembly, without uploading it. From the command line: `npx spdf-format validate file.spdf`.

Samples: SPDF in five pages (/muestras/spdf-in-five-pages.spdf), SPDF en cinco páginas (/muestras/spdf-en-cinco-paginas.spdf), El garrote mas bien dado, y alcalde de Zalamea (/commons/files/calderon-alcalde-de-zalamea-1746.spdf), Sidereus nuncius: Magna, longeqve admirabilia spectacula pandens, suspiciendaque proponens vnicuique, præsertim verò philosophis, atq́; astronomis, quæ à Galileo Galileo patritio Florentino Patauini Gymnasij publico mathematico perspicilli nuper à se reperti beneficio sunt obseruata in Lunæ facie, fixis innumeris, Lacteo Circulo, stellis nebulosis, apprime verò in quatuor planetis circa Iovis stellam disparibus interuallis, atque periodis, celeritate mirabili circumuolutis; quos, nemini in hanc vsque diem cognitos, nouissimè author depræhendit primus; atque Medicea Sidera nuncupandos decrevit (/commons/files/galilei-sidereus-nuncius-1610.spdf), The Yellow Wall Paper (/commons/files/gilman-yellow-wall-paper-1901.spdf), Les Fleurs du mal (/commons/files/baudelaire-fleurs-du-mal-1857.spdf).

## What it checks

The validator runs the same checks, in the same order, as every conforming implementation, and reports the same codes. It uses `spdf-format`, the TypeScript implementation, with SQLite compiled to WebAssembly: **the file never leaves your computer**.

| Code | Meaning |
| --- | --- |
| E001 | Not a SQLite database |
| E002 | Unknown `application_id` or version |
| E003 | A 5.0 file wrapped in gzip (warning: 5.0 files are distributed uncompressed) |
| E010 · E011 | A required table or column is missing |
| E012 | A required `spdf_meta` key is missing |
| E013 | `documents` must hold exactly one row |
| E020 | A trigger or a view is present |
| E030 · E031 · E032 | A vector of the wrong length, an unknown space or an unknown dtype |
| E040 · E041 · E042 | An invalid anchor, an unknown anchor type or characters out of range |
| E050 · E051 | Invalid metadata JSON, or metadata that is not a CSL item |
| E060 | A required extension this reader does not know |
| E070 | The full-text index is out of sync with the fragments |
| E080 · E081 · E082 | A blob, the content hash or the signature does not match |
| E090 | Units are not numbered contiguously from 1 |
| W100–W110 | Warnings: a semantic profile without vectors, a media profile without times, a newer minor version, a legacy file… |

## From the command line

Every implementation validates too. With the TypeScript one:

```sh
npx spdf-format validate darwin-origin.spdf
```