Package codec provides a High Performance, Feature-Rich Idiomatic Go 1.4+ codec/encoding library for binc, msgpack, cbor, json. Supported Serialization formats are: To install: This package will carefully use 'unsafe' for performance reasons in specific places. You can build without unsafe use by passing the safe or appengine tag i.e. 'go install -tags=safe ...'. Note that unsafe is only supported for the last 3 go sdk versions e.g. current go release is go 1.9, so we support unsafe use only from go 1.7+ . This is because supporting unsafe requires knowledge of implementation details. For detailed usage information, read the primer at http://ugorji.net/blog/go-codec-primer . The idiomatic Go support is as seen in other encoding packages in the standard library (ie json, xml, gob, etc). Rich Feature Set includes: Users can register a function to handle the encoding or decoding of their custom types. There are no restrictions on what the custom type can be. Some examples: As an illustration, MyStructWithUnexportedFields would normally be encoded as an empty map because it has no exported fields, while UUID would be encoded as a string. However, with extension support, you can encode any of these however you like. This package maintains symmetry in the encoding and decoding halfs. We determine how to encode or decode by walking this decision tree This symmetry is important to reduce chances of issues happening because the encoding and decoding sides are out of sync e.g. decoded via very specific encoding.TextUnmarshaler but encoded via kind-specific generalized mode. Consequently, if a type only defines one-half of the symmetry (e.g. it implements UnmarshalJSON() but not MarshalJSON() ), then that type doesn't satisfy the check and we will continue walking down the decision tree. RPC Client and Server Codecs are implemented, so the codecs can be used with the standard net/rpc package. The Handle is SAFE for concurrent READ, but NOT SAFE for concurrent modification. The Encoder and Decoder are NOT safe for concurrent use. Consequently, the usage model is basically: Sample usage model: To run tests, use the following: To run the full suite of tests, use the following: You can run the tag 'safe' to run tests or build in safe mode. e.g. Please see http://github.com/ugorji/go-codec-bench . Struct fields matching the following are ignored during encoding and decoding Every other field in a struct will be encoded/decoded. Embedded fields are encoded as if they exist in the top-level struct, with some caveats. See Encode documentation.