What Is the ChordPro (chordii) Format and How Do You Use It?

ChordPro is a plain-text format for writing lyrics with chords, and you use it by typing bracketed chords inline with lyrics plus directive lines for metadata, then rendering that text into a formatted lead sheet or PDF. It suits anyone who wants chord charts that stay readable as plain text and print cleanly — guitarists first, but the format works for any instrument or notation style. The name "chordii" is a legacy alias: the original 1992 tool was called chord, its files were "chord files", and users eventually called them "chordpro" files, which is the name that stuck.

The core idea

A ChordPro file is a text file. Any text editor can create and maintain one, so you are never locked into a proprietary app just to store your songs. The format separates two things:

• Lyrics with inline chords — written on the same line, chords wrapped in square brackets at the exact point they change.
• Directives — lines starting with a curly brace that describe the song or control layout.

When rendered, the tool pulls the chords out of the brackets and places them above the lyrics at the right syllable.

Basic syntax

Chords inline with lyrics

Put the chord in brackets immediately before the word or syllable where it lands:

[C]Twinkle, twinkle, [F]little [C]star
[F]How I [C]wonder [G7]what you [C]are

The bracket itself does not appear in the output — it marks the position. A chord with no following lyric (an instrumental hit, for example) can sit in its own brackets.

Directives for title, artist, and layout

Directives are single lines beginning with {:

{title: Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star}
{artist: Traditional}
{key: C}

Common directives cover the song title, the artist, the key, and layout behaviour. Because directives are line-based, a stray or misspelled directive is the usual cause of a chart that renders oddly.

What the reference implementation can do

The official ChordPro site describes the reference implementation as simple in nature but powerful in features. Beyond basic lyric-and-chord output, it supports:

So the same source file can produce a plain chord chart or a richer score, depending on what you include.

A practical workflow

1. Write the song in any text editor. Save it as a plain text file. Keep chords in brackets and metadata in directives.
2. Render it with the ChordPro reference tool or a compatible app. The reference implementation includes a graphical application, and because ChordPro became a popular standard, many other tools read the same format.
3. Check the output and adjust. If a chord sits on the wrong syllable, move its bracket; if a heading is missing, check the directive line.
4. Build a songbook. Once several songs render correctly, combine them into a printed songbook through the PDF creation feature.

Common pitfalls

• Misplaced brackets. A chord lands where its bracket sits, so [C]Twin and Tw[C]in produce different results. Move the bracket, not the chord name.
• Broken directive lines. Directives must start the line and be well-formed. A malformed directive can silently drop metadata or disrupt layout.
• Assuming one tool. ChordPro is a format, not a single program. If one app renders something unexpectedly, the same file may behave differently in the reference implementation — test there first.
• Forgetting it is plain text. There is no hidden formatting to preserve; if the file looks right as text, the structure is usually right.

Getting started

The ChordPro project is open source, and the standard and reference implementation are free products — the site asks only that users consider a donation toward hosting and bandwidth. Contributions are welcome on GitHub. If you already write chord charts by hand, converting one song to ChordPro syntax is the fastest way to see whether the format fits how you work.