Headers

Status: Reference Last updated: 2026-05-11 20:30 EDT

Headers are lines beginning with @ that provide metadata about the transcript. They appear between @Begin and the first utterance (though some headers like @Comment can appear anywhere).

Required Headers

@UTF8

Must be the very first line of every CHAT file. Declares UTF-8 encoding.

@UTF8

@Begin / @End

Mark the start and end of the transcript body. Every CHAT file must have exactly one @Begin and one @End.

@Participants

Declares all speakers in the transcript. Format: CODE [Name] Role, comma-separated. The role is required; the name is optional, so each entry is either CODE Role or CODE Name Role.

@Participants:	CHI Target_Child, MOT Mother, FAT Father
@Participants:	CHI Alex Target_Child, MOT Mary Mother

In the first line, Target_Child, Mother, and Father are roles, not names. In the second line, Alex and Mary are optional names sitting between the speaker code and the role.

Speaker codes are short identifiers; the validator accepts up to seven characters from A-Z, 0-9, _, -, and '. The convention is three uppercase letters; the most common codes are:

• CHI: target child
• MOT: mother
• FAT: father
• INV: investigator
• OBS: observer

@ID

Provides detailed metadata for each participant. One @ID line per participant.

@ID:	eng|corpus|CHI|2;6.||||Target_Child|||

Fields (pipe-separated): language, corpus, speaker code, age, sex, group, SES, participant role, education, custom field.

Age format: years;months.days (e.g., 2;6. = 2 years, 6 months).

SES field: ethnicity (White, Black, Asian, Latino, Pacific, Native, Multiple, Unknown), socioeconomic code (UC, MC, WC, LI), or combined with comma separator (e.g., White,MC).

Optional Headers

@Languages

Declares the language(s) used in the transcript.

@Languages:	eng, fra

@Date

Recording date in DD-MON-YYYY format.

@Date:	15-JAN-2024

@Location

Where the recording took place.

@Location:	Boston, MA, USA

@Situation

Description of the recording context.

@Situation:	free play with toys in lab

@Activities

Activities during the recording.

@Activities:	toyplay, reading

@Comment

Free-form comments. Can appear anywhere in the file (before, between, or after utterances).

@Comment:	child was tired during this session

@Media

Links the transcript to an audio or video file.

@Media:	session01, audio

@Transcriber / @Coder

Identifies who created or coded the transcript.

@Transcriber:	JDS
@Coder:	ABC

Header Ordering

Headers should follow this conventional order:

1. @UTF8 (required, first line)
2. @Begin (required)
3. @Languages
4. @Participants (required)
5. @ID lines (one per participant)
6. Other metadata headers (@Date, @Location, etc.)
7. @Comment lines (can also appear later)

Validation

The parser validates header structure including:

• @UTF8 must be the first non-empty line
• @Begin and @End are required and must appear exactly once
• @Participants is required and must declare all speakers used in utterances
• @ID participant codes must match @Participants declarations
• Age format validation in @ID lines