# Charset Detection

## Purpose
This capability detects the character encoding of byte content to ensure it can be properly decoded into text without encoding errors.

## Requirements

### Requirement: Auto-Detection
The system SHALL auto-detect character encoding using statistical analysis of the byte content.

Priority: Critical

#### Scenario: Detect encoding
- **WHEN** byte content is analyzed
- **THEN** the most likely character encoding is returned
- **AND** a confidence score is provided

### Requirement: UTF-8 Preference
The system SHALL prefer UTF-8 when ASCII content could be valid as either ASCII or UTF-8, aligning with modern standards.

Priority: Critical

#### Scenario: Prefer UTF-8
- **WHEN** content is valid ASCII
- **THEN** the system reports it as UTF-8 (or compatible subset) if not explicitly distinguished

### Requirement: Validation
The system SHALL validate detected encodings by attempting decode operations to prevent false positives.

Priority: Critical

#### Scenario: Validate by decoding
- **WHEN** a potential encoding is identified
- **THEN** the system attempts to decode the content
- **AND** discards the encoding if decoding fails

### Requirement: Python Compatibility
The system SHALL return encoding names compatible with Python's codec system.

Priority: Critical

#### Scenario: Compatible names
- **WHEN** an encoding is returned
- **THEN** it can be used directly with `bytes.decode()`