dBIN-protocol

dBIN is a small, deterministic binary messaging protocol designed for high-frequency, low-overhead real-time messaging (e.g. live chat / presence).

It uses a bit-level packed header to minimize per-message overhead and keep encoding/decoding cost predictable.

This repository provides:

• a reference specification SPEC.md
• a C implementation (encoder/decoder + bit I/O)

What is this (in one sentence)?

A custom wire format (bit layout) for sending messages over a socket, optimized for small messages.

Goals

• Compact header (bit-packed)
• Deterministic layout (same on any language/platform)
• Simple to implement in C
• Good for benchmarking vs JSON for small messages

Basic model

A message is sent as:

1. A bit-packed header containing metadata (who sent, where it goes, length, etc.)
2. The message bytes (UTF-8), after aligning to the next byte boundary

See SPEC.md for the exact bit layout.