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https://github.com/helsing-ai/buffrs

Modern protobuf package management
https://github.com/helsing-ai/buffrs

distribution package-manager protobuf protocol-buffers registry

Last synced: 3 months ago
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Modern protobuf package management

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README 

        











# Buffrs



**Modern protobuf package management**



[![Helsing](https://img.shields.io/badge/helsing-open%20source-black.svg)](https://helsing.ai)

[![Buffrs Crate](https://img.shields.io/crates/v/buffrs.svg)](https://crates.io/crates/buffrs)

[![Buffrs Book](https://img.shields.io/badge/book-latest-blueviolet.svg)](https://helsing-ai.github.io/buffrs)

[![Buffrs Docs](https://img.shields.io/badge/docs-latest-blue.svg)](https://docs.rs/buffrs)

![Nix Flake](https://img.shields.io/github/actions/workflow/status/helsing-ai/buffrs/nix.yml?logo=nixos&label=flake)






## Quickstart



```bash,ignore

$ cargo install buffrs

$ buffrs login

$ buffrs init --api

$ buffrs add 

$ buffrs install

```



Useful resources:



- [The Buffrs Book](https://helsing-ai.github.io/buffrs)

- [Crate Documentation](https://docs.rs/buffrs)

- [Announcement Post](https://blog.helsing.ai/buffrs-a-package-manager-for-protocol-buffers-1-2-aaf7c00153d2)

- `buffrs help`



## Synopsis



```text,ignore

Modern protobuf package management



Usage: buffrs 



Commands:

  init       Initializes a buffrs setup

  new        Creates a new buffrs package in the current directory

  lint       Check rule violations for this package

  add        Adds dependencies to a manifest file

  remove     Removes dependencies from a manifest file

  package    Exports the current package into a distributable tgz archive

  publish    Packages and uploads this api to the registry

  install    Installs dependencies

  uninstall  Uninstalls dependencies

  list       Lists all protobuf files managed by Buffrs to stdout

  login      Logs you in for a registry

  logout     Logs you out from a registry

  lock       Lockfile related commands

  help       Print this message or the help of the given subcommand(s)



Options:

  -h, --help     Print help

  -V, --version  Print version

```



## Motivation



Protocol buffers are agreeably a great way to define fully typed,

language-independent API schemas with strong backward compatibility guarantees.

They offer a neat experience for API consumers through generated bindings. *The

biggest problem associated with Protocol Buffers is their distribution.*



- How do you consume the raw protobuf files of one project reliably in another

  one?

- How do you prevent transitive dependencies?

- How do you publish to a unified registry with package format across

  languages?



One obvious way is to generate code bindings in the repository containing the

Protocol Buffers and publish the generated bindings, but this is associated

with problems such as language lock-in. You need to proactively publish

bindings for any possible language your API consumers may use. Also, in

strongly typed languages like Rust, it is hard to extend the behavior of

generated code in consuming projects due to _the orphan rule_. Summing up: this

approach works somehow but hurts frequently.



This is where Buffrs comes in: Buffrs solves this by defining a strict,

package-based distribution mechanism and treats Protocol Buffers as a

first-class citizen.



*This allows you to publish Buffrs packages to a registry and properly depend

on them in other projects.*



## Roadmap



- [x] Support project manifests and dependency declaration

- [x] Support package distribution via Artifactory

- [x] Support tonic as code generation backend

- [x] Support protoc as code generation backend

- [ ] Implement `buffrs-registry`, a self-hostable, S3-based registry.

- [ ] Supply tooling around Protocol Buffers, such as bindgen, linting, validation and

  formatting.