STEF

STEF is a compact, deterministic binary serialization format with typed, self-describing values.

This repository contains the official Rust implementation.

Crates

Crate	Description
stef-core	Raw serialization and deserialization layer

Roadmap

Phase 1 — Foundation

• stef-core — initial release, stable
• stef-fuzz — fuzz testing layer over stef-core

Phase 2 — High-level API

• stef-derive — derive macros for StefSerialize and StefDeserialize
• stef — traits and high-level API over stef-core
• stef-json — bidirectional JSON ↔ STEF bridge

Phase 3 — Interoperability

• stef-ffi — C ABI layer
• stef-json-ffi — FFI for the JSON bridge
• Under consideration: stef-yaml, stef-toml, stef-bson

Phase 4 — Tooling

• stef-cli — VIM-style TUI (ratatui) for inspecting and navigating STEF files
• Plugin system as dynamic libraries via C ABI (depends on stef-ffi)
• VSCode extension

Phase 5 — Schemas

• stef-schema — schema layer over stef-derive: runtime validation and interoperable description

Ongoing

• Bilingual documentation (spec, ADRs, READMEs)
• docs branch with Starlight/Astro

License

MIT