> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.unitlab.ai/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.unitlab.ai/documentation/releases/export-formats-and-source-inclusion.md).

# Export formats and source inclusion

Compare Unitlab annotation exports across 12 data families, including COCO, YOLO, GeoJSON, JSONL, RTTM, UUEF, and Standard Bundle.

Export format determines which Unitlab structures remain native and which require mapping. Source inclusion determines how a consumer locates media, documents, groups, and protected data.

### Annotation export formats

Choose an export format that preserves the annotation structures your downstream tools need.

| Data family         | Supported annotation exports        |
| ------------------- | ----------------------------------- |
| Image               | COCO, YOLOv8, YOLOv5, UUEF          |
| Video               | COCO, YOLOv8, YOLOv5, UUEF          |
| Medical             | COCO, YOLOv8, YOLOv5, UUEF          |
| Document / PDF      | UUEF                                |
| Text                | JSONL, UUEF                         |
| HTML                | JSONL, UUEF                         |
| Audio               | Audio JSON, RTTM, UUEF              |
| Time series         | JSONL, UUEF                         |
| Tabular             | JSONL, UUEF                         |
| Geospatial          | GeoJSON, COCO, YOLOv8, YOLOv5, UUEF |
| Pathology           | COCO, YOLOv8, YOLOv5, UUEF          |
| LiDAR / point cloud | UUEF                                |

Native single-family formats apply to one compatible family. A release containing multiple families uses **UUEF** or **Standard Bundle**.

**UUEF (Unitlab Unified Export Format)** preserves Unitlab's richer annotation structure, including properties, attributes, relations, item properties, tags, and page or frame context. LiDAR UUEF exports include the scene's sensors and frames, 3D geometry and tracks, camera boxes, and point-segmentation labels when present. Point segmentation includes a label array for each annotated frame and sensor.

**Standard Bundle** creates one ZIP containing a compatible output per selected family and a manifest describing the release and written files. Its defaults are:

| Data family                                    | Default format inside Standard Bundle |
| ---------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------- |
| Image, Video, Medical                          | COCO                                  |
| Text, HTML, Time series, Tabular               | JSONL                                 |
| Audio                                          | Audio JSON                            |
| Geospatial                                     | GeoJSON                               |
| Document / PDF, Pathology, LiDAR / point cloud | UUEF                                  |

For geospatial data, **GeoJSON** expresses geometries in WGS84 coordinates. **COCO** preserves level-0 raster coordinates, while **YOLO** normalizes geometry against the full raster dimensions. Choose UUEF when you need the native annotation structure and metadata.

YOLO exports place bounding boxes and segmentation contours in separate label folders. Skeletons, points and lines do not map to these YOLO outputs. Video and medical YOLO exports use per-frame label files with a trailing track ID extension, so confirm that your downstream parser supports that representation.

These are annotation export formats. A supported export does not imply that the same format can be uploaded as a source file or imported as existing annotations. For example, LiDAR sources may be PCD, PLY or BIN, while their annotations export through UUEF.

#### Source files and download links

When creating a release, **Include export token URL** adds persistent download links to supported annotation exports. It does not package the original source files inside the annotation archive. These token links allow access without signing in; share them only with the intended recipients. The Unitlab link stays stable, while the cloud-storage link it redirects to may expire.

Download source files separately through the source links or SDK/CLI. For lidar scenes uploaded as folders, UUEF includes a source-file listing link so you can retrieve the complete scene, including its camera files, rather than only the entry file.

See [LiDAR Annotation](/documentation/annotations/lidar-annotation.md#export-reviewed-lidar-annotations) for 3D scene, point-label, and track validation. For source file extensions and scene layouts, use [Data upload](/documentation/data/data-upload.md).

### Use this in production

* Inventory classes, geometry, masks, keypoints, segments, spans, relations, properties, Item Properties, temporal state, and Data Group context before choosing a format.
* Prefer the platform-native representation when another format would lose required structure.
* Document any lossy mapping or post-processing step.
* Choose source download methods and token-link access according to downstream runtime and security requirements.
* Validate a sample with the real parser before releasing full volume.

***

> **Continue with Unitlab:** [multimodal data curation](https://unitlab.ai/en/data-curation)