diff --git a/go.mod b/go.mod
index 1c772810a4..762dcf3bea 100644
--- a/go.mod
+++ b/go.mod
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@ require (
 	github.com/rs/zerolog v1.20.0
 	github.com/streadway/amqp v1.0.0
 	github.com/tomnomnom/linkheader v0.0.0-20180905144013-02ca5825eb80
+	github.com/ugorji/go/codec v1.2.4
 	github.com/urfave/cli/v2 v2.2.0
 	go.opentelemetry.io/contrib/instrumentation/net/http/httptrace/otelhttptrace v0.16.0
 	go.opentelemetry.io/contrib/instrumentation/net/http/otelhttp v0.16.0
diff --git a/go.sum b/go.sum
index b428a0a06e..b2d9d03e88 100644
--- a/go.sum
+++ b/go.sum
@@ -700,7 +700,12 @@ github.com/temoto/robotstxt v1.1.1/go.mod h1:+1AmkuG3IYkh1kv0d2qEB9Le88ehNO0zwOr
 github.com/tmc/grpc-websocket-proxy v0.0.0-20170815181823-89b8d40f7ca8/go.mod h1:ncp9v5uamzpCO7NfCPTXjqaC+bZgJeR0sMTm6dMHP7U=
 github.com/tomnomnom/linkheader v0.0.0-20180905144013-02ca5825eb80 h1:nrZ3ySNYwJbSpD6ce9duiP+QkD3JuLCcWkdaehUS/3Y=
 github.com/tomnomnom/linkheader v0.0.0-20180905144013-02ca5825eb80/go.mod h1:iFyPdL66DjUD96XmzVL3ZntbzcflLnznH0fr99w5VqE=
+github.com/ugorji/go v1.2.4 h1:cTciPbZ/VSOzCLKclmssnfQ/jyoVyOcJ3aoJyUV1Urc=
+github.com/ugorji/go v1.2.4/go.mod h1:EuaSCk8iZMdIspsu6HXH7X2UGKw1ezO4wCfGszGmmo4=
+github.com/ugorji/go/codec v0.0.0-20181204163529-d75b2dcb6bc8 h1:3SVOIvH7Ae1KRYyQWRjXWJEA9sS/c/pjvH++55Gr648=
 github.com/ugorji/go/codec v0.0.0-20181204163529-d75b2dcb6bc8/go.mod h1:VFNgLljTbGfSG7qAOspJ7OScBnGdDN/yBr0sguwnwf0=
+github.com/ugorji/go/codec v1.2.4 h1:C5VurWRRCKjuENsbM6GYVw8W++WVW9rSxoACKIvxzz8=
+github.com/ugorji/go/codec v1.2.4/go.mod h1:bWBu1+kIRWcF8uMklKaJrR6fTWQOwAlrIzX22pHwryA=
 github.com/ulikunitz/xz v0.5.6/go.mod h1:2bypXElzHzzJZwzH67Y6wb67pO62Rzfn7BSiF4ABRW8=
 github.com/ulikunitz/xz v0.5.7/go.mod h1:nbz6k7qbPmH4IRqmfOplQw/tblSgqTqBwxkY0oWt/14=
 github.com/urfave/cli v0.0.0-20171014202726-7bc6a0acffa5/go.mod h1:70zkFmudgCuE/ngEzBv17Jvp/497gISqfk5gWijbERA=
diff --git a/internal/codec/codec.go b/internal/codec/codec.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..dbeebfa5ce
--- /dev/null
+++ b/internal/codec/codec.go
@@ -0,0 +1,64 @@
+// Package codec is a unified place for configuring and allocating JSON encoders
+// and decoders.
+package codec
+
+import (
+	"io"
+	"sync"
+
+	"github.com/ugorji/go/codec"
+)
+
+var jsonHandle codec.JsonHandle
+
+func init() {
+	// This is documented to cause "smart buffering".
+	jsonHandle.WriterBufferSize = 4096
+	jsonHandle.ReaderBufferSize = 4096
+}
+
+// Encoder and decoder pools, to reuse if possible.
+var (
+	encPool = sync.Pool{
+		New: func() interface{} {
+			return codec.NewEncoder(nil, &jsonHandle)
+		},
+	}
+	decPool = sync.Pool{
+		New: func() interface{} {
+			return codec.NewDecoder(nil, &jsonHandle)
+		},
+	}
+)
+
+// Encoder encodes.
+type Encoder = codec.Encoder
+
+// GetEncoder returns an encoder configured to write to w.
+func GetEncoder(w io.Writer) *Encoder {
+	e := encPool.Get().(*Encoder)
+	e.Reset(w)
+	return e
+}
+
+// PutEncoder returns an encoder to the pool.
+func PutEncoder(e *Encoder) {
+	e.Reset(nil)
+	encPool.Put(e)
+}
+
+// Decoder decodes.
+type Decoder = codec.Decoder
+
+// GetDecoder returns a decoder configured to read from r.
+func GetDecoder(r io.Reader) *Decoder {
+	d := decPool.Get().(*Decoder)
+	d.Reset(r)
+	return d
+}
+
+// PutDecoder returns a decoder to the pool.
+func PutDecoder(d *Decoder) {
+	d.Reset(nil)
+	decPool.Put(d)
+}
diff --git a/internal/codec/codec_test.go b/internal/codec/codec_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..c984027984
--- /dev/null
+++ b/internal/codec/codec_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,74 @@
+package codec
+
+import (
+	"encoding/json"
+	"fmt"
+	"os"
+	"strings"
+	"testing"
+
+	"github.com/google/go-cmp/cmp"
+)
+
+func Example() {
+	enc := GetEncoder(os.Stdout)
+	defer PutEncoder(enc)
+	enc.MustEncode([]string{"a", "slice", "of", "strings"})
+	fmt.Fprintln(os.Stdout)
+	enc.MustEncode(nil)
+	fmt.Fprintln(os.Stdout)
+	enc.MustEncode(map[string]string{})
+	fmt.Fprintln(os.Stdout)
+	// Output: ["a","slice","of","strings"]
+	// null
+	// {}
+}
+
+func BenchmarkDecode(b *testing.B) {
+	b.ReportAllocs()
+	want := map[string]string{
+		"a": strings.Repeat(`A`, 2048),
+		"b": strings.Repeat(`B`, 2048),
+		"c": strings.Repeat(`C`, 2048),
+		"d": strings.Repeat(`D`, 2048),
+	}
+	got := make(map[string]string, len(want))
+	b.ResetTimer()
+
+	for i := 0; i < b.N; i++ {
+		dec := GetDecoder(JSONReader(want))
+		err := dec.Decode(&got)
+		PutDecoder(dec)
+		if err != nil {
+			b.Error(err)
+		}
+		if !cmp.Equal(got, want) {
+			b.Error(cmp.Diff(got, want))
+		}
+	}
+}
+
+func BenchmarkDecodeStdlib(b *testing.B) {
+	b.ReportAllocs()
+	want := map[string]string{
+		"a": strings.Repeat(`A`, 2048),
+		"b": strings.Repeat(`B`, 2048),
+		"c": strings.Repeat(`C`, 2048),
+		"d": strings.Repeat(`D`, 2048),
+	}
+	got := make(map[string]string, len(want))
+	b.ResetTimer()
+
+	for i := 0; i < b.N; i++ {
+		x, err := json.Marshal(want)
+		if err != nil {
+			b.Error(err)
+		}
+		if err := json.Unmarshal(x, &got); err != nil {
+			b.Error(err)
+		}
+		if !cmp.Equal(got, want) {
+			b.Error(cmp.Diff(got, want))
+		}
+	}
+}
diff --git a/internal/codec/reader.go b/internal/codec/reader.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..86d9ffe65c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/internal/codec/reader.go
@@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
+package codec
+
+import "io"
+
+// JSONReader returns an io.ReadCloser backed by a pipe being fed by a JSON
+// encoder.
+func JSONReader(v interface{}) io.ReadCloser {
+	r, w := io.Pipe()
+	// This unsupervised goroutine should be fine, because the writer will error
+	// once the reader is closed.
+	go func() {
+		enc := GetEncoder(w)
+		defer PutEncoder(enc)
+		defer w.Close()
+		if err := enc.Encode(v); err != nil {
+			w.CloseWithError(err)
+		}
+	}()
+	return r
+}