PicoYaml 2026.1.8

PicoSerDe

AOT-first, reflection-free serialization framework. Five formats, one unified API. Source-generated ref struct readers/writers with zero heap allocation on the hot path — deployable under NativeAOT and trimming where many serialization libraries cannot run.

Modules

PicoYaml is the only AOT-compatible YAML library on .NET.

Test Coverage

498+ tests across all 6 modules, with cross-validation against 5 competitor libraries:

Performance Summary

Numbers below are PicoSerDe on NativeAOT vs competitors on JIT — the competitors cannot run under NativeAOT at all. In a JIT environment, mature reflection-based parsers may still be faster; PicoSerDe's advantage is guaranteed deployability under trimming and self-contained publishing, not peak JIT throughput.

Benchmarks: AOT self-contained, .NET 10, 100K iterations, win-x64.

JSON/MessagePack are faster than or competitive with JIT-based alternatives even in AOT mode. INI/TOML/YAML prioritize correct, reflection-free parsing over peak throughput — their JIT competitors benefit from years of runtime-level optimizations (cached keys, direct span writes, dynamic code gen) that are incompatible with NativeAOT. PicoSerDe is the only option that runs at all in a fully-trimmed, self-contained NativeAOT deployment for these formats.

Design

// One API across all formats
JsonSerializer.Serialize<T>(value)      // → byte[] via PicoJetson
MsgPackSerializer.Deserialize<T>(data)  // T ← byte[] via PicoMsgPack
IniSerializer.Serialize(config)         // → string via PicoIni

┌──────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                 User Code                     │
└──────────────────┬───────────────────────────┘
                   │  Static Cache<T>
┌──────────────────▼───────────────────────────┐
│           PicoSerDe.Core                      │
│  ISerializer<T>  │  IDeserializer<T>         │
│  TokenType       │  SimdHelpers (Vector128)  │
│  TextHelpers     │  SerializerExtensions     │
└────┬────────┬─────────┬─────────┬─────────┬──┘
     │        │         │         │         │
 PicoJetson  PicoIni  PicoMsgPack PicoToml PicoYaml
   ││       ││         ││        ││       ││
  .Gen     .Gen       .Gen      .Gen     .Gen

• Dual-package: each format → runtime library (net10.0) + source generator (netstandard2.0)
• ref struct readers/writers — stack-allocated, zero heap allocation on hot path
• Static Cache<T> — JIT/AOT inlineable, no dictionary lookups
• file struct generated implementations — devirtualization without sealed class overhead
• JsonOptions — runtime configuration (indentation, naming policy, ignore conditions, etc.) flowing through ThreadStatic to SG-generated code

PicoJetson JsonOptions

// Compact (default) — optimal for data transfer
byte[] data = JsonSerializer.SerializeToUtf8Bytes(model);

// Human-readable
byte[] data = JsonSerializer.SerializeToUtf8Bytes(model,
    new JsonOptions { Indented = true });

// CamelCase naming
byte[] data = JsonSerializer.SerializeToUtf8Bytes(model,
    new JsonOptions { PropertyNamingPolicy = JsonNamingPolicy.CamelCase });

// Skip null properties
byte[] data = JsonSerializer.SerializeToUtf8Bytes(model,
    new JsonOptions { DefaultIgnoreCondition = JsonIgnoreCondition.WhenWritingNull });

// Allow NaN/Infinity
byte[] data = JsonSerializer.SerializeToUtf8Bytes(model,
    new JsonOptions { NumberHandling = JsonNumberHandling.AllowNamedFloatingPointLiterals });

Available options:

Packages

Package	NuGet
PicoSerDe.Core
PicoJetson / .Gen
PicoMsgPack / .Gen
PicoIni / .Gen
PicoToml / .Gen
PicoYaml / .Gen

CI/CD

Every push: build + test (498+ tests) + 5 benchmarks smoke + 5 AOT sample publishes. Release: v* tag → packs 11 packages in dependency order → NuGet.org.

Comparison

License

MIT