Custom Serialization#

By default, FastStream uses the JSON format to send and receive messages. However, if you need to handle messages in other formats or with additional serialization steps, such as gzip, lz4, Avro, Protobuf or Msgpack, you can easily modify the serialization logic.

Serialization Steps#

Before the message reaches your subscriber, FastStream applies two functions to it sequentially: parse_message and decode_message. You can modify one or both stages depending on your needs.

Message Parsing#

At this stage, FastStream serializes an incoming message from the broker's framework into a general format called - StreamMessage. During this stage, the message body remains in the form of raw bytes.

The parser declared at the broker level will be applied to all subscribers. The parser declared at the subscriber level is applied only to that specific subscriber and overrides the `broker' parser if specified.

Message Decoding#

At this stage, the body of the StreamMessage is transformed into a format suitable for processing within your subscriber function. This is the stage you may need to redefine more often.