PROTOBUF-SCHEMA

Compiled binary serialization from Google.

Definition

Protobuf v3 (proto3, July 2016) removes optional fields (re-introduced 2020), simplifies zero values. Compilation via protoc into native stubs. Compact wire format with varint, tag-length-value. proto3.field_presence flag since 2020. Used in gRPC, Envoy, Kubernetes API.

Origin

Created by Jeff Dean at Google in 2001 ; open-sourced July 2008 ; proto3 July 2016.

Example in context

A gRPC microservice exposes a Go API with a proto file defining the contract between client and server.

Related terms

• Avro — Kafka competitor.