protobuf-net.Grpc

protobuf-net.Grpc adds code-first support for services over gRPC using either the native Grpc.Core API, or the fully-managed Grpc.Net.Client / Grpc.AspNetCore.Server API.

It should work on all .NET languages that can generate something even remotely like a regular .NET type model.

Usage is as simple as declaring an interface for your service-contract:

[ServiceContract]
public interface IMyAmazingService {
    ValueTask<SearchResponse> SearchAsync(SearchRequest request);
    // ...
}

then either implementing that interface for a server:

public class MyServer : IMyAmazingService {
    // ...
}

or asking the system for a client:

var client = http.CreateGrpcService<IMyAmazingService>();
var results = await client.SearchAsync(request);

This would be equivalent to the service in .proto:

service MyAmazingService {
    rpc Search (SearchRequest) returns (SearchResponse) {}
	// ...
}

Obviously you need to tell it the uri etc - see Getting Started. Usually the configuration is convention-based, but if you prefer: there are various configuration options.

Getting hold of it

Everything is available as pre-built packages on nuget; in particular, you probably want one of:

• protobuf-net.Grpc.HttpClient for clients using HttpClient on .NET Core 3
• protobuf-net.Grpc.AspNetCore for servers using ASP.NET Core 3
• protobuf-net.Grpc.Native for clients and servers using the native Grpc.Core API

Usage examples are available in C#, VB and F#.

Anything else?

protobuf-net.Grpc is created and maintained by Marc Gravell (@marcgravell), the author of protobuf-net.

It makes use of tools from grpc, but is not official associated with, affiliated with, or endorsed by that project.

I look forward to your feedback, and if this could save you a ton of time, you're always welcome to