# mildsunrise/protobuf-inspector

🕵️ Tool to reverse-engineer Protocol Buffers with unknown definition

Repository: https://github.com/mildsunrise/protobuf-inspector
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/protobuf-inspector
Language: Python
License: ISC
License Family: permissive
Topics: reverse-engineering, protocol-buffers, serialization
Last push: 2020-12-13T16:13:38+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 32/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-02T17:46:02.011165+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 35, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 3693, "days_push": 2089, "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 1125, forks 105 (observed 2026-08-28T04:03:40.963509+00:00)

## What it is
A Python CLI tool that parses Google Protobuf encoded blobs (wire format 2 or 3) without knowing their schema definition, printing a colored representation of the contents. It guesses message structure automatically and lets users progressively define fields until a full protobuf definition is recovered.

## Use cases
- reverse-engineer a protobuf blob without its .proto definition
- decode unknown protocol buffers wire format data
- inspect captured protobuf network traffic
- learn how the protobuf wire format is encoded
- recover a protobuf schema from binary messages
- debug protobuf parsing errors in embedded messages

## When to choose
- you have protobuf-encoded binary data but no schema file
- you want to interactively guess field types until a full definition emerges
- you want to understand the raw wire format layout of a message

## When to avoid
- you already have the .proto definition and just need a normal decoder
- you need programmatic parsing of known schemas at scale
- you need guaranteed-correct decoding of ambiguous small fields

## Facets
- artifact type: cli-tool
- maturity: maintenance
- function: parser, reverse-engineering, serialization, developer-tools
- domain: reverse-engineering, parsers, developer-tools
- platform: python, cli, cross-platform
- tags: protobuf, wire-format, protocol-buffers, binary-analysis, command-line

## Member repositories
- mildsunrise/protobuf-inspector (main) score 32

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:03:40.963509+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 2026-08-30T06:39:32.614085+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/mildsunrise/protobuf-inspector (fetched 2026-08-28T04:03:40.963509+00:00, sha b7e2b9ffc28e)
  - registry_pypi: https://pypi.org/pypi/protobuf-inspector/json (fetched 2026-08-29T12:44:06.695674+00:00, sha 2ed0ba844fea)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.