Normative description of "YOLO format"

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• I have searched https://github.com/ultralytics/docs/issues and did not find a similar request.

Description

See this forum question. Multiple docs describe the "YOLO format" and its data.yaml (or dota8.yaml, etc.), including:

• https://docs.ultralytics.com/platform/quickstart/#yolo-dataset-structure
• https://docs.ultralytics.com/platform/data/datasets/#what-label-formats-are-supported
• https://docs.ultralytics.com/datasets/obb/#yolo-obb-format
• https://docs.ultralytics.com/datasets/segment/#dataset-yaml-format

Some docs also contradict each other. Moreover, these are mostly example-driven; the exact requirements aren't stated clearly, at least not where I was able to find readily. For example, which keys are required? What can the YAML file be named? Is path: sub/path supported? Is it images/train or train/images?

A simple, normative description would be helpful -- natural-language text, a JSON Schema, both, or anything else.

See also https://github.com/ultralytics/ultralytics/issues/23747

Use case

This would have been very helpful when I was trying to diagnose a problem I was having with uploads (in the linked forum post). I'm thinking a lot of existing documentation could also be removed (replaced with a link to the dedicated doc) for easier reading and maintenance.

Additional

No response

Are you willing to submit a PR?

• Yes I'd like to help by submitting a PR!

Compare the YOLO dataset documentation at the four linked docs pages, along with the linked forum question and related issue. Identify the conflicting requirements and determine the scope of a single normative reference, including how existing examples should point to it. Done means the supported YAML and dataset structure requirements are stated consistently across the affected documentation.