MessagePack

Note

Install with pip install labox[msgpack]

Labox provides two serializers for the efficient MessagePack binary format: one for individual values and another for streams of values. MessagePack is a compact binary serialization format that's faster and more space-efficient than JSON while supporting similar data types.

MsgPackSerializer

The MsgPackSerializer handles individual MessagePack values:

from labox.extra.msgpack import msgpack_serializer

data = {
    "name": "experiment_1",
    "parameters": {"temperature": 298.15, "pressure": 1.0},
    "results": [12.3, 15.7, 9.8],
    "success": True,
}

serialized_data = msgpack_serializer.serialize_data(data)

MsgPackStreamSerializer

The MsgPackStreamSerializer handles streams of MessagePack values, serializing each value separately in the stream:

from labox.extra.msgpack import msgpack_stream_serializer


# For streaming multiple MessagePack values
async def generate_data():
    for i in range(100):
        yield {"id": i, "value": i * 2.5}


# The stream serializer handles async iterables of MessagePack data

Supported Data Types

MessagePack serializers work with the types defined in MSG_PACK_TYPES:

• Primitives: int, str, float, bool, None
• Collections: dict, list (with MessagePack-compatible keys and values)
• Extensions: Custom MessagePack extension types (via the Any type annotation)

The MsgPackType type alias provides a recursive type definition for MessagePack-compatible data structures.

Custom Configuration

Both serializers can be customized with different packer and unpacker implementations:

from msgpack import Packer
from msgpack import Unpacker

from labox.extra.msgpack import MsgPackSerializer
from labox.extra.msgpack import MsgPackStreamSerializer


# Custom packer/unpacker with specific options
def custom_packer():
    return Packer(use_bin_type=True, strict_types=True)


def custom_unpacker():
    return Unpacker(raw=False, strict_map_key=False)


value_serializer = MsgPackSerializer(packer=custom_packer, unpacker=custom_unpacker)

stream_serializer = MsgPackStreamSerializer(packer=custom_packer, unpacker=custom_unpacker)

Content Type

Both serializers use the content type "application/msgpack" to identify MessagePack data, following the standard MIME type for the MessagePack format.