protobuffer

Protocol Buffers (protobuf) is a language-agnostic, platform-neutral data serialization format developed by Google. It is often used in gRPC as the default data interchange format for defining the structure and communication between different services.

In gRPC, Protocol Buffers are used to define the service interface and the messages exchanged between the client and server. A .proto file is used to define the data structures (messages) and the services (RPC methods) that can be used in the gRPC communication. The .proto file acts as a contract that both the client and server agree upon.

The protobuf compiler (protoc) generates code in various programming languages based on the .proto file, which allows the client and server to serialize and deserialize the structured data in a consistent and efficient manner. This ensures that the client and server can communicate seamlessly using the defined messages and services.