Topics / #serialization
Serialization projects on GitHub
Serialization formats and libraries for encoding structured data across services and languages.
As of , the most-starred Serialization projects on GitHub are protobuf (72.1K stars), json (50.8K stars) and flatbuffers (26.6K stars). GitHub.Locker tracks 23 Serialization repositories with 427K stars combined. The fastest-growing on October 16 was rrweb, with +7 stars in a day.
Hot right now
Most stars gained in a day · Oct 16
+7rrweb
rrweb-io/rrweb · ★ 20.3Krrweb ('record and replay the web') is an open-source tool for recording and replaying users' interactions on a website — DOM-level session replay you embed in your own app, in the spirit of Fullstory or LogRocket.
+6toon
toon-format/toon · ★ 25.5KTOON (Token-Oriented Object Notation) is a compact, human-readable way to serialize JSON data so it spends fewer tokens in LLM prompts. The repo ships a TypeScript SDK, a CLI, and benchmarks.
json
nlohmann/json · ★ 50.8KA JSON library for Modern C++ (nlohmann/json) that lets you read, create, and manipulate JSON values with intuitive, STL-like syntax directly in C++ code.
protobuf
protocolbuffers/protobuf · ★ 72.1KProtocol Buffers (protobuf) is Google's language-neutral, platform-neutral, extensible mechanism for serializing structured data, similar to XML but smaller, faster, and simpler.
The all-time top
23 projects · by stars
- 72.1K
#1 · protocolbuffers/protobuf
protobuf
Protocol Buffers (protobuf) is Google's language-neutral, platform-neutral, extensible mechanism for serializing structured data, similar to XML but smaller, faster, and simpler.
- 50.8K
#2 · nlohmann/json
json
A JSON library for Modern C++ (nlohmann/json) that lets you read, create, and manipulate JSON values with intuitive, STL-like syntax directly in C++ code.
- 26.6K
#3 · google/flatbuffers
flatbuffers
FlatBuffers is a cross-platform serialization library built for maximum memory efficiency: you read serialized data directly without a parsing/unpacking step, and it keeps forwards/backwards compatibility.
- 4

fastjson
25.6Kalibaba/fastjson · JavaFastjson is a Java library that converts Java objects to JSON and parses JSON strings back into Java objects. It works with arbitrary Java objects, including ones you have no source code for.
- 5

toon
25.5Ktoon-format/toon · TypeScriptTOON (Token-Oriented Object Notation) is a compact, human-readable way to serialize JSON data so it spends fewer tokens in LLM prompts. The repo ships a TypeScript SDK, a CLI, and benchmarks.
- 6

gson
24.2Kgoogle/gson · JavaGson is a Java library that serializes Java objects to JSON and deserializes JSON back into Java objects, working with arbitrary classes — even ones you don't have the source code for.
- 7

grpc-go
23.1Kgrpc/grpc-go · GoThe Go implementation of gRPC: a high performance, open source, general RPC framework that puts mobile and HTTP/2 first. You use it to build gRPC clients and servers in Go.
- 8

SwiftyJSON
22.9KSwiftyJSON/SwiftyJSON · SwiftSwiftyJSON is a Swift library for dealing with JSON data: it lets you pull values out of JSON without the verbose optional-wrapping and type-checking that plain Swift requires.
- 9

rrweb
20.3Krrweb-io/rrweb · TypeScriptrrweb ('record and replay the web') is an open-source tool for recording and replaying users' interactions on a website — DOM-level session replay you embed in your own app, in the spirit of Fullstory or LogRocket.
- 10

arrow
17.2Kapache/arrow · C++Apache Arrow is a universal columnar format plus a multi-language toolbox for fast data interchange and in-memory analytics — technologies that let data systems store, process, and move tabular data efficiently.
- 11

store.js
14Kmarcuswestin/store.js · JavaScriptStore.js is a JavaScript library for key/value storage in the browser that works across all browsers. It has been around since 2010 and is used in production on tens of thousands of websites like cnn.com and dailymotion.com.
- 12

go
13.9Kjson-iterator/go · GoA high-performance JSON library for Go, positioned as a 100% compatible drop-in replacement for the standard encoding/json package: you swap the import and keep your code.
- 13

capnproto
13.2Kcapnproto/capnproto · C++Cap'n Proto is an insanely fast data interchange format and capability-based RPC system. Think JSON, except binary — or think Protocol Buffers, except faster.
- 14

cJSON
13KDaveGamble/cJSON · CAn ultralightweight JSON parser written in plain ANSI C. The whole thing is one C file and one header, with the stated goal of being the dumbest parser that still gets your job done.
- 15

Mantle
11.2KMantle/Mantle · Objective-CMantle is a model framework for Cocoa and Cocoa Touch that lets you write model objects without the usual boilerplate for equality, hashing, description, and JSON conversion.
- 16

thrift
11Kapache/thrift · C++Apache Thrift is a lightweight, language-independent software stack for building RPC clients and servers. It generates code from a single interface definition file so programs written in different languages can call each other's procedures and share data.
- 17

serde
10.9Kserde-rs/serde · RustSerde is a Rust framework for serializing and deserializing data structures efficiently and generically.
- 18
protobuf.js
10.6Kprotobufjs/protobuf.js · JavaScriptprotobuf.js is a very fast, spec-compliant JavaScript implementation of Protocol Buffers for Node.js and browsers. It works with .proto schemas without protoc, offering runtime reflection and ahead-of-time code generation with TypeScript declarations.
- 19

moshi
10.2Ksquare/moshi · KotlinMoshi is a modern JSON library for Android, Java and Kotlin that parses JSON into Java and Kotlin classes and serializes objects back to JSON.
- 20

protobuf
10.1Kgolang/protobuf · GoGo bindings for Google's protocol buffers: the github.com/golang/protobuf module for serializing protobuf messages in Go, plus a protoc plugin that generates Go code from .proto files.
- 21

libfyaml
346pantoniou/libfyaml · Clibfyaml is a high-performance YAML 1.2 and JSON parser/emitter for C, built for zero-copy operation with full document-tree and event-streaming APIs, and it passes the full YAML testsuite.
- 22
rataflow
186furkankly/rataflow · Rustrataflow is a Rust library for building node-based, interactive diagram editors directly inside a terminal, ranging from a static diagram to a fully interactive node editor.
- 23

ultrastorage
164yangshun/ultrastorage · TypeScriptA TypeScript library that supercharges localStorage: it serializes rich data types and adds key expiration, namespacing, subscriptions, and schema validation on top of the browser's default storage.
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