Standalone (No WASM Module)

Overview

You don’t need a WASM module to use zerobuf. Create a WebAssembly.Memory directly and use it as a structured binary buffer. This works in any JS runtime.

Pattern

import { zerobuf } from "zerobuf";

// No WASM module — just a memory buffer
const memory = new WebAssembly.Memory({ initial: 1 });
const buf = zerobuf(memory);

// Structured data, stored in binary
const config = buf.create({
  region: "us-east-1",
  maxRetries: 3,
  endpoints: ["a.example.com", "b.example.com"],
});

// Reads/writes go directly to the buffer
config.maxRetries = 5;
console.log(config.region); // "us-east-1"

// Nested objects and arrays work
config.endpoints.push("c.example.com");

When to Use This

• Shared memory between Workers: WebAssembly.Memory can be shared across Web Workers via postMessage (with SharedArrayBuffer backing). Both workers read/write the same structured data without serialization.
• Binary serialization: use .toJS() on one side, buf.create() on the other — or share the raw memory.buffer bytes.
• Structured arena allocation: append-only bump allocator with handle indirection. No GC pressure for short-lived objects.

Sharing Between Workers

// Main thread
const memory = new WebAssembly.Memory({ initial: 1, maximum: 100, shared: true });
const buf = zerobuf(memory);
const data = buf.create({ counter: 0 });

worker.postMessage({ memory, ptr: data.__zerobuf_ptr });

// Worker thread
onmessage = (e) => {
  const buf = zerobuf(e.data.memory);
  const data = buf.wrapObject(e.data.ptr);
  data.counter = 42; // main thread sees this immediately
};

Note: concurrent writes from multiple workers need external synchronization (e.g. Atomics). zerobuf does not provide locks.