The CharaCard specification covers three formats and describes its interaction with the PNG specification. As with any community-defined specification, the precise meanings and definitions are somewhat fluid and determined only by a specific implementation. The most common implementations being SillyTavern and Character Hub. This page documents the CharaCard specification, as generally implemented by the myriad of archives and interfaces which interact with these items - not just the most popular.

Character Cards are usually distributed as PNG images or JSON text documents. The JSON document directly contains the CharaCard JSON structure, while the PNG contains the same JSON CharaCard structure as metadata. Note that the PNG is not a polymorphic JSON/PNG hybrid file, but a fully standards-compliant (if unusually constructed) PNG, with metadata which can be decoded back into a JSON CharaCard structure.

Version 1 was created with TavernAI, and is long obsolete. This standard is not backwards compatible and provided as a matter of historical interest.