# RSocket

Java implementation of RSocket

Repository: https://github.com/rsocket/rsocket-java
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/rsocket
Homepage: http://rsocket.io
Language: Java
License: Apache-2.0
License Family: permissive
Topics: rxjava, reactor-core, stream, netty, java, reactive, aeron, rsocket
Last push: 2025-02-10T08:21:56+00:00
Link (homepage): http://rsocket.io
Link (site_page): https://rsocket.io/about/faq
Link (site_page): https://rsocket.io/about/motivations
Link (site_page): https://rsocket.io/about/protocol
Link (site_page): https://rsocket.io/about/implementations

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 26/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-02T17:46:02.011165+00:00)
- activity 6, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 4074, "days_push": 569, "days_rel": 576, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 1}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 2388, forks 352 (observed 2026-08-28T04:06:42.768565+00:00)

## What it is
RSocket Java is the reference Java implementation of the RSocket application protocol, a binary protocol for Reactive Streams semantics over TCP, WebSockets, and Aeron. It supports four symmetric interaction models (request/response, request/stream, fire-and-forget, request/channel) with multiplexing, flow control, resumption, and leasing over a single connection.

## Use cases
- streaming responses between microservices over a single connection
- fire-and-forget messaging with backpressure
- build reactive request/stream RPC services in Java
- multiplexed bidirectional communication over WebSockets
- low-latency messaging over Aeron UDP
- resumable long-lived subscriptions across reconnects
- replace HTTP/2 for reactive service-to-service communication

## When to choose
- you need Reactive Streams semantics across a network boundary in JVM services
- you want streaming or channel interaction models beyond HTTP request/response
- you need application-level flow control and backpressure between services
- you are building Spring Reactive or Reactor-based distributed systems

## When to avoid
- your clients are browsers that only speak HTTP/1.1 or plain REST
- you need a simple request/response API where HTTP or gRPC suffices
- your team has no JVM/Reactor expertise and the ecosystem is unfamiliar
- you need broad tooling, load balancer, and proxy support out of the box

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: stable
- function: rpc, websocket, http-server, http-client, middleware, streaming
- domain: microservices, networking, backend, apis, developer-tools
- platform: jvm, cross-platform
- tags: rsocket, reactive-streams, reactor, netty, aeron, binary-protocol, backpressure, request-stream, fire-and-forget, multiplexing, real-time, android

## Member repositories
- rsocket/rsocket-java (main) score 26
- rsocket/rsocket (docs) score 23

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:06:42.768565+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 2026-08-30T02:34:32.713274+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/rsocket/rsocket-java (fetched 2026-08-28T04:06:42.768565+00:00, sha f59c126aadda)
  - homepage: http://rsocket.io (fetched 2026-08-29T10:15:43.118278+00:00, sha a69fb8da2bdd)
  - site_page: https://rsocket.io/about/faq (fetched 2026-08-29T10:15:43.212195+00:00, sha df2a68d97774)
  - site_page: https://rsocket.io/about/motivations (fetched 2026-08-29T10:15:43.266579+00:00, sha 59554a8f8c39)
  - site_page: https://rsocket.io/about/protocol (fetched 2026-08-29T10:15:43.298516+00:00, sha 15cf4c7737cd)
  - site_page: https://rsocket.io/about/implementations (fetched 2026-08-29T10:15:43.331962+00:00, sha 0c49f6823a08)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.