---
title: "Table of contents as JSON"
manual: "Render guides"
version: "main"
permalink: "https://docs.typo3.org/permalink/t3renderguides:tableofcontentsjson"
source: "Developer/TableOfContents.rst"
modified: "2026-09-17T12:30:56+00:00"
---

# Table of contents as JSON

Every manual is rendered with a `toc.json` at its root: what pages there
are, in the order the table of contents puts them and nested the way it nests
them.

```json
{
    "project": {
        "title": "TYPO3 Explained",
        "version": "main",
        "permalink": "https://docs.typo3.org/permalink/t3coreapi:{anchor}@main"
    },
    "pages": [
        {
            "path": "Index",
            "title": "TYPO3 Explained",
            "anchor": "api-overview",
            "pages": [
                {
                    "path": "Introduction/Index",
                    "title": "Introduction",
                    "anchor": "introduction"
                }
            ]
        },
        {
            "orphan": true,
            "path": "404",
            "title": "Content was removed",
            "anchor": "not-found"
        }
    ]
}
```

What the project says is said once, at the top:

-   **title**

    The title of the manual.

-   **version**

    The version it was rendered as, or `""` for a manual that names none.

-   **permalink**

    The permalink of every page at once: put a page's `anchor` where
    `{anchor}` is. `""` for a manual that declares no interlink
    shortcode and therefore has no permalinks.

Each page carries only what is its own:

-   **path**

    The page within the manual, relative to this file and without an extension,
    because the same page exists as `.html` and as `.md` and a
    reader wants to choose. Works in a local render and under
    `docs.typo3.org` alike.

-   **title**

    The title of the page.

-   **anchor**

    The label the page is known by: its own if it declares one, otherwise the id
    derived from its title. Fill it into the project's `permalink`.

-   **pages**

    The pages this one's table of contents leads to, in its order. Left out
    where there are none.

-   **orphan**

    Present and `true` on a page no table of contents leads to. Listed all
    the same, because the file is published, and a table of contents that
    silently drops published pages is worse than one that says where they stand.

## Why it exists

A tool that wants to read a manual has to learn its shape first, and until now
nothing published said it. `objects.inv.json` comes closest, but it is an
index rather than a table of contents: a flat map without order or nesting,
which repeats the project title and version in every one of its entries and
knows only `.html` addresses.

Saying those things once is most of the difference in size. For TYPO3 Explained,
982 pages, `objects.inv.json` is 4.2 MB and `toc.json` is 348 KB --
27 KB against 343 KB once the server has compressed them.

> [!NOTE]
> The file lists pages, not the headings inside them. Those are in
> `objects.inv.json`, which stays the place to look up a single anchor.

See [Changelog index as JSON](https://docs.typo3.org/permalink/t3renderguides:changelogindex) for the Core Changelog, which is rendered with an
index of its entries on top of this.