msgspec#

msgspec is a fast serialization and validation library, with builtin support for JSON, MessagePack, YAML, and TOML. It features:

🚀 High performance encoders/decoders for common protocols. The JSON and MessagePack implementations regularly benchmark as the fastest options for Python.
🎉 Support for a wide variety of Python types. Additional types may be supported through extensions.
🔍 Zero-cost schema validation using familiar Python type annotations. In benchmarks msgspec decodes and validates JSON ~2x faster than orjson can decode it alone.
✨ A speedy Struct type for representing structured data. If you already use dataclasses or attrs, Structs should feel familiar. However, they’re 10-100x faster for common operations.

All of this is included in a lightweight library with no required dependencies.

msgspec may be used for serialization alone, as a faster JSON or MessagePack library. For the greatest benefit though, we recommend using msgspec to handle the full serialization & validation workflow:

Define your message schemas using standard Python type annotations.

>>> import msgspec

>>> class User(msgspec.Struct):
...     """A new type describing a User"""
...     name: str
...     groups: set[str] = set()
...     email: str | None = None

Encode messages as JSON, or one of the many other supported protocols.

>>> alice = User("alice", groups={"admin", "engineering"})

>>> alice
User(name='alice', groups={"admin", "engineering"}, email=None)

>>> msg = msgspec.json.encode(alice)

>>> msg
b'{"name":"alice","groups":["admin","engineering"],"email":null}'

Decode messages back into Python objects, with optional schema validation.

>>> msgspec.json.decode(msg, type=User)
User(name='alice', groups={"admin", "engineering"}, email=None)

>>> msgspec.json.decode(b'{"name":"bob","groups":[123]}', type=User)
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
msgspec.ValidationError: Expected `str`, got `int` - at `$.groups[0]`

msgspec is designed to be as performant as possible, while retaining some of the nicities of validation libraries like pydantic. For supported types, encoding/decoding a message with msgspec can be ~2-80x faster than alternative libraries.

Highlights#

msgspec is fast. It benchmarks as the fastest serialization library for Python, outperforming all other JSON/MessagePack libraries compared.
msgspec is friendly. Through use of Python’s type annotations, messages are validated during deserialization in a declarative way. msgspec also works well with other type-checking tooling like mypy and pyright, providing excellent editor integration.
msgspec is flexible. It natively supports a wide range of Python builtin types. Support for additional types can also be added through extensions.
msgspec is lightweight. It has no required dependencies, and the binary size is a fraction of that of comparable libraries.
msgspec is correct. The encoders/decoders implemented are strictly compliant with their respective specifications, providing stronger guarantees of compatibility with other systems.

Used By#

msgspec is used by many organizations and open source projects, here we highlight a few:

Pioreactor

NautilusTrader

Starlite