Binary Format (BEVE)

Glaze provides a binary format to send and receive messages like JSON, but with significantly improved performance and message size savings.

The binary specification is known as BEVE.

Write BEVE

my_struct s{};
std::vector<std::byte> buffer{};
glz::write_beve(s, buffer);

Read BEVE

my_struct s{};
glz::read_beve(s, buffer);

[!NOTE]

Reading binary is safe for invalid input and does not require null terminated buffers.

Untagged Binary

By default Glaze will handle structs as tagged objects, meaning that keys will be written/read. However, structs can be written/read without tags by using the option structs_as_arrays or the functions glz::write_beve_untagged and glz::read_beve_untagged.

BEVE to JSON Conversion

glaze/binary/beve_to_json.hpp provides glz::beve_to_json, which directly converts a buffer of BEVE data to a buffer of JSON data.

Member Function Pointers

Objects that expose member function pointers through glz::meta are skipped by the BEVE writer by default. This mirrors JSON/TOML behaviour and avoids emitting unusable callable placeholders in binary payloads.

If you want the key present, use write_member_functions = true.

Partial Objects

It is sometimes desirable to write out only a portion of an object. This is permitted via an array of JSON pointers, which indicate which parts of the object should be written out.

static constexpr auto partial = glz::json_ptrs("/i",
                                               "/d",
                                               "/sub/x",
                                               "/sub/y");
std::vector<std::byte> out;
glz::write_beve<partial>(s, out);