# fraillt/bitsery

Your binary serialization library

Repository: https://github.com/fraillt/bitsery
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/bitsery
Language: C++
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Topics: binary-serialization, serialization, cpp14, cpp11
Last push: 2025-10-09T19:40:00+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 53/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 46, release rhythm 35, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 3496, "days_push": 328, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: no_releases
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1262, forks 101 (observed 2026-08-28T04:04:10.323719+00:00)

## What it is
Bitsery is a header-only C++ binary serialization library designed for real-time networking, especially in games. It produces compact, metadata-free output with compile-time cross-platform guarantees and extensible bit-level control.

## Use cases
- serialize game state for real-time network delivery
- compact binary serialization of C++ structs
- cross-platform binary data exchange without IDL or code generation
- fast serialization benchmarked against cereal, protobuf, msgpack
- bit-level serialization control for bandwidth-constrained protocols
- serialize to files, streams, or buffers with runtime error checking

## When to choose
- you need the smallest possible serialized data size with no metadata overhead
- you want a header-only C++11/14 library with no macros or code generation
- you are building real-time multiplayer games or network protocols
- serialization speed and deserialization speed are critical

## When to avoid
- you need schema evolution with self-describing formats like protobuf or flatbuffers
- you want language interoperability beyond C++ out of the box
- you prefer reflection-based or code-generated serialization workflows

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: stable
- function: serialization
- domain: developer-tools, performance
- platform: cpp, cross-platform, windows
- tags: header-only, binary-serialization, cpp11, cpp14, networking, games, no-codegen, game-development, linux, macos

## Member repositories
- fraillt/bitsery (main) score 53

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:04:10.323719+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T05:04:14.111557+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/fraillt/bitsery (fetched 2026-08-28T04:04:10.323719+00:00, sha 60f0b7185286)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.