The goal of the DITA Open Toolkit (DITA-OT) is to provide a high-quality implementation for production-level output of DITA content, built in a professionally-managed project environment by vetted contributors, and tested thoroughly for each release.

The DITA-OT is designed to meet the needs of users who want to publish DITA content, from individual users running the toolkit in a stand-alone mode to vendors who incorporate the toolkit into their software products. The different distribution packages are designed to meet the needs of these different audiences.

The DITA-OT project keeps up to date with the latest DTD and Schema updates from the OASIS DITA Technical Committee (TC), which develops and maintains the DITA standard. As the DITA TC produces drafts of future versions, the DITA-OT works to create early support for new features and helps to test the new draft versions of the standard.

The project agrees with the open-source motto of "Release early and often" and seeks to develop wide consensus on issues.