BARE Message Encoding Binary Application Record Encoding

BARE is a simple binary representation for structured application data.

NOTICE: The BARE encoding is not finalized. Feedback is welcome. draft-devault-bare has been filed with the IETF as an Internet-Draft and represents the latest authoritative draft of the specification.

BARE at a glance

• Messages are encoded in binary and compact in size. Messages do not contain schema information — they are not self-describing.
• BARE is optimized for small messages. It is not optimized for encoding large amounts of data in a single message, or efficiently reading a message with fields of a fixed size. However, all types are aligned to 8 bits, which does exchange some space for simplicity.
• BARE's approach to extensibility is conservative: messages encoded today will be decodable tomorrow, and vice-versa. But extensibility is still possible; implementations can choose to decode user-defined types at a higher level and map them onto arbitrary data types.
• The specification is likewise conservative. Simple implementations of message decoders and encoders can be written inside of an afternoon.
• An optional DSL is provided to document message schemas and provide a source for code generation. However, if you prefer, you may also define your schema using the type system already available in your programming language.

Here is a sample schema:

type PublicKey data[128]
type Time str # ISO 8601

type Department enum {
  ACCOUNTING
  ADMINISTRATION
  CUSTOMER_SERVICE
  DEVELOPMENT

  # Reserved for the CEO
  JSMITH = 99
}

type Address list<str>[4] # street, city, state, country

type Customer struct {
  name: str
  email: str
  address: Address
  orders: list<struct {
    orderId: i64
    quantity: i32
  }>
  metadata: map<str><data>
}

type Employee struct {
  name: str
  email: str
  address: Address
  department: Department
  hireDate: Time
  publicKey: optional<PublicKey>
  metadata: map<str><data>
}

type TerminatedEmployee void

type Person union {Customer | Employee | TerminatedEmployee}

Known implementations

C

cbare

Common Lisp

cl-bare

Elm

elm-bare

Erlang

bare

Go

go-bare

Java

bare-jvm

JavaScript

bare-js

.NET

BareNET

OCaml

bare-ocaml

PHP

bare-mess-php

Python

bare-py

pybare

Ruby

bare-rb

Rust

serde_bare

bare_proc

Scheme

kahl

TypeScript

bare-ts

Zig

zig-bare