Prepare a CSV

CSV is the most common data format. lakreet-swarm uses an RFC 4180 compliant parser with auto-delimiter detection.

Basic structure

First row = column headers (must match template control names). Each subsequent row = one video.

Source Text,Opacity
Budi,100
Sari,60
Andi,25
Rina,80
A/B,50

Delimiter auto-detection

The parser detects delimiter from the first line: comma (,), semicolon (;), or tab (\t).

Indonesian Excel often uses semicolon — it just works:

Source Text;Opacity
Budi;100
Sari;60

No config needed. If detection fails, force it:

# In lakreet.config.json
{ "delimiter": ";" }

Quoting rules (RFC 4180)

Case	Example
Comma in value	"Smith, John",100
Newline in value	"Line 1\nLine 2",100
Double quote	"He said ""Hello""",100
Leading/trailing space	" padded ",100

Quotes are preserved verbatim (not stripped) — EffectCraft receives the exact string.

BOM (Byte Order Mark)

UTF-8 BOM (\uFEFF) is automatically stripped. Files saved from Excel with "UTF-8 with BOM" work correctly.

Column headers = control names

Each header must match a control name from the template (or be mapped via column mapping).

# Template controls: Source Text, Opacity
Source Text,Opacity
Budi,100

Comment columns

Any column starting with # is ignored:

Source Text,Opacity,#internal_id
Budi,100,row-001

Empty cells

Control type	Empty cell behavior
text	Empty string "" (unless --empty-as-default)
slider	Error: "empty value is not a number"
checkbox	Error: not a boolean

Use --empty-as-default flag or config emptyAsDefault: true to skip text columns and use template defaults.

Line numbers in errors

Validation errors always include the CSV line number (1-based, header = line 1):

Found 2 problem(s) in data.csv:
- Line 5, column "Opacity": "abc" is not a number.
- Line 8, column "Logo": file not found: /path/to/missing.png

Validation before render

Always run check first:

lakreet-swarm check --template template.ectemplate --data data.csv

Common pitfalls

Problem	Fix
"Column X is not a control"	Match header to control name, or use columns mapping
"expected N columns, found M"	Check for missing/extra commas, unclosed quotes
"is not a number"	Slider columns need numeric values only
"is not a boolean"	Checkbox columns need true/false/yes/no/1/0/ya/tidak
Indonesian Excel semicolon	Auto-detected; or set "delimiter": ";" in config

Next steps

• Use JSON or JSONL — native types, no quoting issues
• Map columns — CSV header → control name mapping
• Validate first — catch problems before render