Code Generation

Run the generator with your proto file to produce serialization code for your target languages.

Basic Usage

# Generate all languages
python src/main.py schema.proto --build_c --build_cpp --build_ts --build_py --build_gql

# Generate specific languages
python src/main.py schema.proto --build_c
python src/main.py schema.proto --build_py --build_ts

# Custom output paths
python src/main.py schema.proto --build_c --c_path output/c/
python src/main.py schema.proto --build_py --py_path output/python/

Default output is generated/<language>/.

Command Line Options

Option	Description
--build_c	Generate C code
--build_cpp	Generate C++ code
--build_ts	Generate TypeScript code
--build_py	Generate Python code
--build_gql	Generate GraphQL schema
--build_js	Generate JavaScript code
--build_csharp	Generate C# code
--c_path PATH	Output directory for C
--cpp_path PATH	Output directory for C++
--ts_path PATH	Output directory for TypeScript
--py_path PATH	Output directory for Python
--gql_path PATH	Output directory for GraphQL
--js_path PATH	Output directory for JavaScript
--csharp_path PATH	Output directory for C#

Build Integration

Build integration allows generated code to automatically reflect changes to proto files during your build process.

Make (C/C++)

PROTO_FILES := $(wildcard proto/*.proto)
GENERATED_DIR := generated

generated/c/%.sf.h: proto/%.proto
    python src/main.py $< --build_c --c_path generated/c/

generated/py/%.sf.py: proto/%.proto
    python src/main.py $< --build_py --py_path generated/py/

all: $(PROTO_FILES:proto/%.proto=generated/c/%.sf.h)

CMake (C/C++)

find_package(Python3 REQUIRED)

set(PROTO_FILES
    proto/messages.proto
)

foreach(PROTO_FILE ${PROTO_FILES})
    get_filename_component(PROTO_NAME ${PROTO_FILE} NAME_WE)
    set(GENERATED_HEADER "${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/generated/c/${PROTO_NAME}.sf.h")

    add_custom_command(
        OUTPUT ${GENERATED_HEADER}
        COMMAND ${Python3_EXECUTABLE} ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/src/main.py
            ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/${PROTO_FILE}
            --build_c --c_path ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/generated/c/
        DEPENDS ${PROTO_FILE}
    )
    list(APPEND GENERATED_HEADERS ${GENERATED_HEADER})
endforeach()

add_custom_target(generate_structs DEPENDS ${GENERATED_HEADERS})

npm scripts (TypeScript)

Add to package.json:

{
  "scripts": {
    "generate": "python src/main.py proto/messages.proto --build_ts --ts_path src/generated/",
    "build": "npm run generate && tsc",
    "watch": "tsc --watch"
  }
}

Python setuptools

Add to setup.py or pyproject.toml:

# setup.py
from setuptools import setup
from setuptools.command.build_py import build_py
import subprocess

class BuildWithGenerate(build_py):
    def run(self):
        subprocess.run([
            'python', 'src/main.py', 'proto/messages.proto',
            '--build_py', '--py_path', 'src/generated/'
        ])
        super().run()

setup(
    cmdclass={'build_py': BuildWithGenerate},
    # ...
)

Generated Output

The generator creates the following files:

Language	Output Files
C	<name>.sf.h, struct_frame_parser.h
C++	<name>.sf.hpp, struct_frame.hpp
TypeScript	<name>.sf.ts, struct_frame_parser.ts
Python	<name>_sf.py, struct_frame_parser.py
GraphQL	<name>.sf.graphql
JavaScript	<name>.sf.js, struct_frame_parser.js
C#	<name>.sf.cs, StructFrameParser.cs