Serialization,
for humans.

HiPack is a human-friendly serialization format. Unlike MessagePack, it is not binary, but text-based. Like JSON, it can be understood by machines and humans — with emphasis on the later.

Comparison of HiPack, JSON, and MessagePack

Try It

Use the left box to input text in JSON, and check how it would look converted into HiPack, optionally in “compact” form.

News

2019/08/20 Updated Try It section in the website to use hipack-js instead of relying on a remote REST service.
2015/11/23 HiPack v1 is now stable. The list of implementations and tools have been updated to indicate which versions of the HiPack specification are supported by each one of them.

Specifications

HiPack specification:

HiPack Specification, version 1

Enhancement proposals in consideration for the next version of the specification:

HEP-001: Value Annotations

Code

HiPack can be used with the following programming languages:

C v1 hep-1: hipack-c Reference implementation.
C: sixpack Small implementation with a SAX-style API, suitable for embedded devices, and may be built to avoid memory allocations.
JavaScript v1 hep-1: hipack-js Works in NodeJS, IoJS, and in the browser. Installable using NPM, and Bower using the hipack-js module name. Maintained by the HiPack team.
Python v1 hep-1: hipack-python Maintained by the HiPack team, too.
Rust: hipack-rs Minimal dependencies, uses only the Rust standard library.
C: wheel Implementation included in libwheel.

Tools