---

title: Go Object Serialization sidebar_position: 0 id: index license: | Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more contributor license agreements. See the NOTICE file distributed with this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership. The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the “License”); you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at

 http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on an “AS IS” BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.

Apache Fory Go is a high-performance serialization library for Go. It supports xlang mode for cross-language payloads and native mode for Go-only payloads, with fast object graph serialization, circular references, polymorphism, and schema-aware struct handling.

Why Fory Go?

• High Performance: Fast serialization and optimized binary protocols
• Xlang: Seamless data exchange with Java, Python, C++, Rust, JavaScript/TypeScript, C#, Swift, Dart, Scala, and Kotlin
• Automatic Serialization: Serialize Go structs with fast serializers
• Reference Tracking: Built-in support for circular references and shared objects
• Type Safety: Strong typing with schema-aware serializers
• Schema Evolution: Compatible mode for forward/backward compatibility
• Thread-Safe Option: Pool-based thread-safe wrapper for concurrent use

Quick Start

Installation

Requirements: Go 1.24 or later

go get github.com/apache/fory/go/fory

Basic Usage

package main

import (
    "fmt"
    "github.com/apache/fory/go/fory"
)

type User struct {
    ID   int64
    Name string
    Age  int32
}

func main() {
    // Create an xlang Fory instance.
    f := fory.New(fory.WithXlang(true))

    // Register struct with a type ID
    if err := f.RegisterStruct(User{}, 1); err != nil {
        panic(err)
    }

    // Serialize
    user := &User{ID: 1, Name: "Alice", Age: 30}
    data, err := f.Serialize(user)
    if err != nil {
        panic(err)
    }

    // Deserialize
    var result User
    if err := f.Deserialize(data, &result); err != nil {
        panic(err)
    }

    fmt.Printf("Deserialized: %+v\n", result)
    // Output: Deserialized: {ID:1 Name:Alice Age:30}
}

Xlang Mode And Native Mode

Use xlang mode for cross-language payloads and schemas shared with other Fory implementations. Xlang mode is the default Go wire mode, and Go examples that use it set fory.WithXlang(true) explicitly so the mode choice is visible.

Use native mode for Go-only traffic. Native mode is selected with fory.WithXlang(false) and keeps Go object serialization in Go-native form. It is optimized for Go structs, pointers, interfaces, and Go-specific type behavior that does not need a portable xlang mapping. Compatible mode is enabled by default. Set fory.WithCompatible(false) only when every reader and writer uses the same Go struct schema and you want faster serialization and smaller size.

See Cross-Language Interoperability for Go xlang registration and interoperability rules, and Native Serialization for Go-only payloads.

Configuration

Fory Go uses a functional options pattern for configuration:

f := fory.New(
    fory.WithXlang(true),
    fory.WithTrackRef(true),      // Enable reference tracking
    fory.WithMaxDepth(20),       // Set max nesting depth
)

See Configuration for all available options.

Supported Types

Fory Go supports a wide range of types:

• Primitives: bool, int8-int64, uint8-uint64, float32, float64, string
• Collections: slices, maps, sets
• Time: time.Time, time.Duration
• Pointers: pointer types with automatic nil handling
• Structs: any struct with exported fields

See Supported Types for the complete type mapping.

Xlang Serialization

Fory Go is fully compatible with other Fory implementations. Data serialized in Go can be deserialized in Java, Python, C++, Rust, JavaScript/TypeScript, C#, Swift, Dart, Scala, or Kotlin:

// Go serialization
f := fory.New(fory.WithXlang(true))
f.RegisterStruct(User{}, 1)
data, _ := f.Serialize(&User{ID: 1, Name: "Alice"})
// 'data' can be deserialized by Java, Python, etc.

See Cross-Language Interoperability for type mapping and compatibility details.

Documentation

Topic	Description
Basic Serialization	Default xlang APIs and interoperability
Native Serialization	Go-only serialization
Configuration	Options and settings
Schema Metadata	Field-level configuration
Type Registration	Registering types for serialization
Supported Types	Complete type support reference
References	Circular references and shared objects
Schema Evolution	Forward/backward compatibility
Custom Serializers	Extend serialization behavior
Thread Safety	Concurrent usage patterns
gRPC Support	Fory payloads over grpc-go
Troubleshooting	Common issues and solutions

Related Resources

• Xlang Serialization Specification
• Xlang Type Mapping
• GitHub Repository

Before decoding bytes from outside the application trust boundary, read Go Security.