Hello wolfganggerlach1981,

The input file has a schema defined by the user: the input section of the CWL description being executed.

You are correct, the general format is a JSON/YAML dictionary where the dictionary key is the name of an input (from the corresponding inputs section) and the value is actual value provided (matching the declared type)

This input object syntax is not a mandatory part of the spec, as we allow and encourage other methods of collecting data from users (GUIs, etc). So far all CWL implementations that are publicly available allow for this format -- at least so they can run the CWL v1.0 conformance tests.