@cheprasov/jsbt

JavaScript Binary Transfer – a binary serialization format designed for JavaScript → JavaScript communication.

JSBT is a library and binary format for serializing real JavaScript object graphs – not just JSON‑like data.
It is built around the needs of JS/TS runtimes and can safely serialize:

• Complex graphs with circular references and shared objects
• Dates, BigInts, TypedArrays, Maps, Sets, Symbols
• Class instances (with optional reconstruction of original prototypes)
• Large, repetitive structured data with aggressive size deduplication

JSBT is ideal for Node ↔ Node, Node ↔ Browser, Browser ↔ Browser, worker/IPC channels, and any JS‑only distributed system where you care about structure, types and size, not just plain JSON.

Table of Contents

1. Why JSBT?
2. Features
3. Supported Types & Limitations
4. How JSBT Refs Work
5. Benchmarks
6. Installation
7. Quick Start
8. Usage Examples
   8.1 Simple data
   8.2 Linked objects and circular references
   8.3 Class instances → plain objects
   8.4 Class instances → restored instances
   8.5 Streams
9. Specification
10. FAQ: When to use JSBT?
11. Security considerations
12. Contributing
13. License

Why JSBT?

Most popular serialization formats in the JS ecosystem were not designed around JavaScript’s own data model:

• JSON cannot represent undefined, NaN, Infinity, -0, Map, Set, BigInt, circular references, or shared objects.
• Protobuf / Avro / Thrift are schema‑driven RPC formats. They are fantastic for cross‑language contracts, but they require predefined schemas, manual mappings and do not understand JS runtime types.
• MessagePack / CBOR are great compact formats, but they still operate with a JSON‑like view of the world and don’t natively model complex object graphs.

JSBT takes a different approach:

It is a binary format designed specifically for JavaScript runtimes, with first‑class support for the types and patterns that JS developers actually use.

Most serialization formats used with JavaScript were not designed for real JS data:

| Format | Purpose | Graph Support | Circular Refs | Class Instances | Repeated Structure Compression | |------------|----------------|--------------|----------------|------------------|-------------------------------| | JSON | Simple text | ❌ tree only | ❌ no | ❌ no | ❌ no | | Protobuf | Schema-based | ❌ schema | ❌ no | ❌ limited | ❌ no | | MsgPack | Compact JSON | ❌ tree only | ❌ no | ❌ partial | ❌ no | | CBOR | Compact JSON | ❌ tree only | ❌ no | ❌ partial | ❌ no | | JSBT | JavaScript | ✔ graph | ✔ yes | ✔ yes | ✔ yes |

JSBT is the only binary format created for developers who work exclusively inside the JS/TS ecosystem.

Typical use cases:

• transferring complex data between Node processes, workers, or browser tabs
• storing snapshots of in‑memory state (caches, order books, graphs)
• efficient transmission of large, repetitive financial or analytical data
• IPC for Electron, WebWorkers, Node worker threads, etc.

Designed for:

• Node ↔ Node data transport
• Node ↔ Browser real-time applications
• Worker threads / Web Workers
• Financial systems / analytics / order books
• IPC inside Electron
• Large repetitive data structures
• Linked graphs & circular references

If your data is just small JSON objects, JSBT might be overkill.
If your data is real JS graphs with lots of structure and repetition – JSBT is a very strong fit.

Features

• 🧠 JavaScript‑native format
  Supports real JS structures: circular references, shared references, Maps, Sets, Dates, BigInts, TypedArrays, Symbols, class instances, wrapped primitives, etc.

• 🪢 Graph-safe serialization (unique among JS formats)
  Correctly encodes and decodes object graphs, not just trees. Shared references and cycles are preserved.

• 📉 Efficient for repetitive data
  JSBT deduplicates repeated keys and values. Large arrays of similar objects can be compressed dozens of times compared to naive JSON or binary formats that do not model repetition. Example: 10,000 objects → 62.7 KB (JSON = 4.46 MB).

• 🧱 No schemas required
  Works directly with your JS objects. No IDL files, no code generation, no extra build steps.

• 🧑‍🏭 Class instance support
  Encode/decode class instances, with configurable factories to restore them to actual class instances, not just plain objects.

• 🧵 Streaming support
  Decode from streams; parse messages before the full payload is received; send multiple messages over a single binary stream.

• 💪 Enterprise-grade but developer-friendly
  Clear API, supports TypeScript, fully documented.

• 🧾 TypeScript‑first
  Implemented in TypeScript with typings out of the box.

• 🧩 Small and dependency‑free
  Just import it and use – no runtime dependencies.

Supported Types & Limitations

JSBT defines a compact internal type system (see specification) and currently supports:

Supported structures

• Predefined constants

  • undefined
  • null
  • true / false
  • NaN
  • Infinity, -Infinity
  • -0 (distinguished from +0)

• Strings

  • ASCII, Unicode, very long strings

• Numbers

  • Safe integers (Number.isSafeInteger(value) === true)
  • Floating‑point values (including very small/large magnitudes)

• BigInts

  • Arbitrary‑precision integers via bigint

• Arrays

  • Plain arrays
  • Nested arrays

• Typed Arrays

  • Uint8Array, Float64Array, and other TypedArray varieties (via generic typed array handling)

• Objects

  • Plain objects with arbitrary nested structure

• Sets

  • Set<T> with arbitrary serializable values

• Maps

  • Map<K, V> with serializable keys and values

• Symbols

  • Symbol values (especially Symbol.for() global symbols)

• Refs

  • Shared references (the same object/array appearing in multiple places)
  • Circular references (self‑links, back‑references)

• Dates

  • Date instances with millisecond precision

• Class Instances

  • Instances encoded via .toJSBT(), .toJSON(), or .valueOf()
  • Optional reconstruction via JSBT.setClassFactories().

Known limitations

These are intentional design choices and are important to understand:

• ❗ Unsafe integers cannot be encoded as plain numbers
  JSBT will throw for integers outside the range of safe JavaScript integers.
  Use bigint instead:

  // Bad (will throw):
  const value = 2 ** 60; // unsafe integer
  
  // Good:
  const value = 2n ** 60n; // BigInt, encoded via BigInt support (0100)

• ❗ Local symbol keys in objects are not supported
  Symbols are supported as values (especially global symbols via Symbol.for()),
  but arbitrary local symbols as object keys are not encoded.

How JSBT Refs Work

JSBT is a graph serializer, not a tree serializer.

Most formats (JSON, MsgPack, Protobuf, CBOR) duplicate repeated structures.
JSBT assigns refIds and reuses values.

Key abilities:

✔ Shared objects stay shared
✔ Arrays reused several times encoded once
✔ Circular references fully supported
✔ Massive compression for repetitive datasets
✔ Correct object identity restored after decoding

Example: shared references

const arr = [1, 2, 3];
const obj = { foo: "bar", arr };

const data = { arr1: arr, arr2: arr, obj1: obj, obj2: obj };

JSON loses identity:

const d = JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(data));
d.arr1 === d.arr2           // false
d.obj1 === d.obj2           // false
d.obj1.arr === d.obj2.arr   // false

JSBT preserves identity:

const d = JSBT.decode(JSBT.encode(data));
d.arr1 === d.arr2           // true
d.obj1 === d.obj2           // true
d.obj1.arr === d.obj2.arr   // true

Why is this important?

| Feature | JSON | Protobuf | MsgPack | CBOR | JSBT | |--------|------|----------|---------|-------|----------| | Shared references | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ✔ | | Circular references | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ✔ | | Value deduplication | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ✔ | | Structure deduplication | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ✔ |

This is the reason JSBT can beat JSON/MsgPack/Protobuf by 50×–70× on repeated data.

Benchmarks

Benchmarks are synthetic and indicative, not absolute.
They were run on Node.js with several typical scenarios.

1. Simple flat object

A moderately sized plain object: numbers, strings, arrays, nested meta.

JSBT is not optimized for trivial objects – JSON / Protobuf / MessagePack / CBOR are faster and/or smaller here.

| Library | Size (bytes) | Encode (µs/op) | Decode (µs/op) | |-----------|--------------|----------------|----------------| | JSON | 1430 | 4.85 | 3.48 | | Protobuf | 1017 | 3.29 | 1.95 | | MsgPack | 1083 | 2.31 | 1.58 | | CBOR | 1090 | 1.33 | 1.56 | | JSBT | 1398 | 31.51 | 20.83 |

If your data is just simple JSON objects, stay with JSON or a standard binary format.
JSBT is built for more complex structures.

2. Complex JS graph (Map, Set, Date, TypedArray, circular refs)

A single, rich JS object graph with:

• Map, Set, Date, TypedArray
• nested structures
• self‑references and back‑references

Most generic formats either fail or require manual flattening.

| Library | Result | |-----------|--------| | JSON | ❌ Error: circular structure | | Protobuf | ⚠️ Encodes an empty/default message (data lost) | | MsgPack | ❌ Error: too deep objects (depth limit) | | CBOR | ❌ Error: maximum call stack size exceeded | | JSBT | ✅ Encodes & decodes full graph, including circular refs and typed data |

Performance (JSBT only, 5,000 iterations):

• Size: ~57.5 KB
• Encode: ~3,481 µs/op
• Decode: ~1,586 µs/op

3. Repeated data (10,000 similar objects)

10,000 objects with highly repetitive structure and values (as often seen in financial, logging, or analytical data):

• many identical keys
• repeated string values
• shared arrays and meta objects

Size comparison (single run):

| Library | Size (bytes) | Human‑readable | |-----------|--------------|----------------| | JSON | 4,680,335 | 4.46 MB | | Protobuf | 3,108,000 | 2.96 MB | | MsgPack | 3,708,003 | 3.54 MB | | CBOR | 3,775,603 | 3.60 MB | | JSBT | 64,175 | 62.7 KB |

Size comparison (lower is better)

JSON      ████████████████████████████████████████ 4.46 MB
Protobuf  ████████████████████                     2.96 MB
MsgPack   ███████████████████████                  3.54 MB
CBOR      ████████████████████████                 3.60 MB
JSBT      █                                        0.06 MB

JSBT is:
🔥 73× smaller than JSON
🔥 48× smaller than Protobuf
🔥 56–60× smaller than MsgPack/CBOR

• ~48–73× smaller than the other formats on this dataset.

JSBT deduplicates repeated structures and values and models the data as a graph with references, instead of blindly repeating every field and string.

Performance (JSBT only, 100 iterations):

• One object size: 0.43 kb
• 10,000 objects size: ≈ 60.5 kb
• Encode: ≈ 1,029 ms/op (synthetic heavy test)
• Decode: ≈ 43 ms/op

For large, repetitive datasets, JSBT can reduce size by orders of magnitude
compared to formats that do not exploit structural repetition.

Installation

npm install @cheprasov/jsbt
# or
yarn add @cheprasov/jsbt
# or
pnpm add @cheprasov/jsbt

import { JSBT } from '@cheprasov/jsbt';

No runtime dependencies are required.

Quick Start

import { JSBT } from '@cheprasov/jsbt';

const user = {
  name: 'Alex',
  age: 38,
  country: 'UK',
  birthday: new Date('1984-10-10'),
};

// Encode to binary
const encodedUser = JSBT.encode(user);

// Decode back
const decodedUser = JSBT.decode(encodedUser);

console.log(decodedUser.birthday instanceof Date); // true

Usage Examples

8.1 Encoding and decoding simple data

import { JSBT } from '@cheprasov/jsbt';

const user = {
  name: 'Alex',
  age: 38,
  country: 'UK',
  birthday: new Date('1984-10-10'),
};

// Encode
const encodedUser = JSBT.encode(user);

// Decode
const decodedUser = JSBT.decode(encodedUser);

console.log(decodedUser);
// { name: 'Alex', age: 38, country: 'UK', birthday: new Date('1984-10-10T00:00:00.000Z') }

console.log(decodedUser.birthday instanceof Date); // true

8.2 Encoding and decoding data with link refs

import { JSBT } from '@cheprasov/jsbt';

const users = {
  Alex: {
    name: 'Alex',
    age: 38,
    country: 'UK',
    children: null,
  },
  Irina: {
    name: 'Irina',
    age: 40,
    country: 'UK',
    children: null,
  },
  Matvey: {
    name: 'Matvey',
    age: 2,
    parents: null,
  },
};

users.Alex.children = users.Irina.children = [users.Matvey];
users.Matvey.parents = [users.Alex, users.Irina];

// Encode
const encodedUsers = JSBT.encode(users);
console.log(encodedUsers.length); // e.g. 112

// Decode
const decodedUsers = JSBT.decode(encodedUsers);

console.log(decodedUsers.Alex.children === decodedUsers.Irina.children); // true
console.log(decodedUsers.Matvey.parents[0] === decodedUsers.Alex);       // true
console.log(decodedUsers.Matvey.parents[1] === decodedUsers.Irina);      // true

This is where JSBT differs from JSON and most binary formats:
references and cycles are preserved, not flattened away.

8.3 Encoding instances of Class and decoding as object

When encoding class instances, JSBT will use the first available method among:

• toJSBT()
• toJSON()
• valueOf()

The instance will be encoded as a plain object.
Additionally, the decoded object will have a non‑enumerable property __jsbtConstructorName with the original constructor name.

import { JSBT } from '@cheprasov/jsbt';

export class User {
  protected _name: string;
  protected _email: string;

  constructor(name: string, email: string) {
    this._name = name;
    this._email = email;
  }

  toJSBT() { // or toJSON, or valueOf
    return {
      name: this._name,
      email: this._email,
    };
  }
}

const user = new User('Alex', '[email protected]');

// Encode
const encodedUser = JSBT.encode(user);

// Decode
const decodedUser = JSBT.decode(encodedUser);

console.log(decodedUser);
// { name: 'Alex', email: '[email protected]' }

console.log('Constructor Name:', decodedUser.__jsbtConstructorName);
// Constructor Name: User

8.4 Encoding and decoding instances of Class

You can also configure JSBT to reconstruct instances using class factories.

import { JSBT } from '@cheprasov/jsbt';

export class User {
  protected _name: string;
  protected _email: string;

  constructor(name: string, email: string) {
    this._name = name;
    this._email = email;
  }
}

export class CustomUser {
  protected name: string;
  protected email: string;

  constructor(name: string, email: string) {
    this.name = name;
    this.email = email;
  }
}

const user = new User('Alex', '[email protected]');
const customUser = new CustomUser('Custom Alex', '[email protected]');

// Encode
const encodedUser = JSBT.encode(user);
const encodedCustomUser = JSBT.encode(customUser);

// Register factories
JSBT.setClassFactories({
  User,        // instances of User will be decoded as User
  CustomUser,  // instances of CustomUser will be decoded as CustomUser
});

// Decode
const decodedUser = JSBT.decode(encodedUser);
const decodedCustomUser = JSBT.decode(encodedCustomUser);

console.log(decodedUser instanceof User);         // true
console.log(decodedCustomUser instanceof CustomUser); // true

You can also map one encoded constructor name to another class if needed (e.g. migrations, polymorphic hierarchies).

8.5 Decoding stream data

JSBT can decode data from a stream incrementally, allowing you to:

• Parse messages before all data is received
• Send several JSBT messages over a single stream
• Build efficient protocols over TCP/WebSocket/etc.

Note: the API below is conceptual/pseudo‑code – adjust to your actual ByteStream / loader implementations.

import { JSBT } from '@cheprasov/jsbt';

const stream = new ByteStream(); // Your own byte stream abstraction

const loader = new DataLoader(); // Pseudo loader

// Feed portions of data into the stream as they arrive
loader.onLoadPortionData((chunk: Uint8Array) => {
  stream.addMessages(chunk);
});

// Mark stream completion
loader.onCompleteLoading((lastChunk: Uint8Array) => {
  stream.completeStream(lastChunk);
});

// Decode data via stream
const dataPromise = JSBT.decodeStream(stream); // Promise resolved once enough bytes are received

dataPromise.then((data) => {
  console.log('Decoded from stream:', data);
});

Specification

The full binary specification of JSBT, including type tags and encoding details, is documented here:

👉 specification.md

This document is the reference if you want to implement JSBT in another language or integrate it into low‑level protocols.

FAQ: When to use JSBT?

Use JSBT when:

• You control both ends and both sides are JavaScript/TypeScript.
• You need to transfer complex JS data (Maps, Sets, Dates, BigInts, TypedArrays, circular references).
• You care about preserving structure and types, not just raw JSON.
• Your payloads are often large and repetitive (financial feeds, logs, metrics, analytical reports).
• You want a compact binary format without maintaining schemas or IDLs.

Probably don’t use JSBT when:

• You just need to send small JSON objects over HTTP.
• You require a cross‑language, schema‑first contract (use Protobuf/Avro/Thrift instead).
• Your main bottleneck is CPU on trivial payloads and JSON is “good enough”.

Security considerations

• JSBT does not execute arbitrary code
• No eval-based deserialization
• Class reconstruction is opt-in via factory map
• Unexpected class names produce plain objects

Contributing

Something does not work as expected? Found a bug? Want to add a feature?

• Fork the project
• Add or adjust tests
• Fix the issue
• Open a Pull Request

Contributions, issue reports, and benchmark results are all very welcome.

License

MIT – see LICENSE for details.