protobufs

Overview

Protocol Buffers, commonly referred to as Protobufs, are a language-neutral, platform-neutral, extensible mechanism for serializing structured data. They are used by Meshtastic software for encoding and transmitting data between the App and Device, as well as for Device-to-Device communication.

Protobufs provide a efficient and lightweight way of exchanging data, making them well-suited for use in resource-constrained environments like the Meshtastic network. They offer several advantages over traditional data formats like XML or JSON, including:

• Smaller serialized size: Protobuf serialized data is typically much smaller than XML or JSON representations of the same data.
• Faster serialization and deserialization: Protobufs are designed to be serialized and deserialized quickly, which is important for applications that need to process large amounts of data.
• Type-safe and self-describing: Protobuf messages are type-safe, and the message formats are self-describing, making it easier to work with and maintain the data over time.

Meshtastic Protobufs

The Meshtastic project defines its own set of Protobuf messages for various types of data exchanged between app-device and device-device. These messages are organized into different modules.

The official documentation for the Meshtastic Protobuf messages can be found on the Buf Schema Registry (BSR). The BSR provides a centralized location for managing and documenting the Protobuf schemas used by the project.