A parser for Microsoft OneNote® files implemented in Rust.

The project supports reading OneNote files in the OneNote desktop format ([MS-ONESTORE] 2.3), plus files downloaded from OneDrive (using the FSSHTTP packaging format, [MS-ONESTORE] 2.8).

In addition to the publicly documented contents, this project also allows reading ink/handwriting content as well as math/equation content.

Feature contributions are welcome, but otherwise the project focuses on bugfixes and compatibility.

The parser supports the following OneNote file formats:

• .one – Section files containing the actual notes and content.
• .onetoc2 – Table of contents files used to organize sections within a notebook.

These files can be obtained from:

• OneNote Desktop (2016, 2019, LTSC, etc.)
• OneDrive (by downloading a notebook directory)
• OneNote for Windows 10/11 (via .one export)
• OneNote for Mac (as backup files)

• Read OneNote desktop files
• Read OneNote notebooks and sections obtained via OneDrive download
• Provide a Rust API for inspecting notebook, section, and page data
• Support HTML conversion via the one2html project

• The ability to write OneNote files

Add the dependency to your Cargo.toml:

[dependencies]
onenote_parser = "1.1"

use onenote_parser::Parser;
use std::path::Path;

fn main() -> Result<(), Box<dyn std::error::Error>> {
    let mut parser = Parser::new();
    // .onetoc2 file from a OneDrive download (FSSHTTP packaging format)
    let notebook = parser.parse_notebook(Path::new("My Notebook.onetoc2"))?;
    println!("sections: {}", notebook.entries().len());
    Ok(())
}

The parser uses the log crate for diagnostics. By default, log output is disabled unless the consuming application installs a logger. This keeps the library quiet while allowing callers to enable logging using any compatible logger (for example env_logger, tracing via tracing-log, or similar).

Enable the backtrace feature to capture a std::backtrace::Backtrace on parser errors. This can help pinpoint where a parsing failure originated and is exposed through std::error::Error::backtrace().

[dependencies]
onenote_parser = { version = "1.1", features = ["backtrace"] }

The API is considered stable and will not change without a major version bump. Releases follow semantic versioning.

The code organization and architecture follows the OneNote file format which is built from several layers of encodings:

• fsshttpb/: This implements the FSSHTTP binary packaging format as specified in [MS-FSSHTTPB]: Binary Requests for File Synchronization via SOAP Protocol. This is the lowest level of the file format and specifies how objects and their relationships are encoded (and decoded) from a binary stream (in our case a file).
• onestore/: This implements the OneStore format as specified in [MS-ONESTORE]: OneNote Revision Store File Format which describes how a OneNote revision store file (also called OneStore) containing all OneNote objects is stored in a FSSHTTP binary packaging file. This also includes the file header ([MS-ONESTORE] 2.8) and then how the OneNote revision store is built from the FSSHTTP objects and revisions ([MS-ONESTORE] 2.7).
• one/: This implements the OneNote file format as specified in [MS-ONE]: OneNote File Format. This specifies how objects in a OneNote file are parsed from a OneStore revision file.
• onenote/: This finally implements an API that provides access to the data stored in a OneNote file. It parses the FSSHTTPB data, the revision store data and then constructs the objects contained by the OneNote file. This includes resolving all references, e.g. looking up pages' paragraphs.

• [MS-ONESTORE]: OneNote Revision Store File Format
• [MS-ONE]: OneNote File Format
• [MS-FSSHTTPB]: Binary Requests for File Synchronization via SOAP Protocol
• LibMsON: A work in progress OneNote® revision store file parser in C++
• FSSHTTP - parser tools for protocol FSSHTTP/B/D: A FSSHTTPB data parser

This project is licensed under the Mozilla Public License 2.0.

Test fixtures in crates/parser/tests/samples/ include files from third-party sources under their respective licenses (MIT, AGPL-3.0-or-later). See the LICENSE files in those directories for details.

This project is neither related to nor endorsed by Microsoft in any way. The author does not have any affiliation with Microsoft.