With Workers

Overview

zerobuf works in any environment with WebAssembly.Memory. This includes Cloudflare Workers, browser Web Workers, and Service Workers.

Cloudflare Worker

import { zerobuf } from "zerobuf";

export default {
  async fetch(request: Request, env: Env): Promise<Response> {
    // With a WASM module
    const instance = await WebAssembly.instantiate(env.WASM_MODULE);
    const buf = zerobuf(
      instance.exports.memory as WebAssembly.Memory,
      (instance.exports.__heap_base as WebAssembly.Global).value,
    );

    const result = buf.create({ query: "hello", ts: Date.now() });
    instance.exports.process(result.__zerobuf_ptr);
    return Response.json(result.toJS());
  },
};

Cloudflare Worker (standalone)

import { zerobuf } from "zerobuf";

export default {
  async fetch(request: Request): Promise<Response> {
    // No WASM module — just structured binary storage
    const buf = zerobuf(new WebAssembly.Memory({ initial: 1 }));
    const data = buf.create(await request.json());
    // ... process data ...
    return Response.json(data.toJS());
  },
};

Browser Web Worker

worker.ts

import { zerobuf } from "zerobuf";

onmessage = async (e) => {
  const { wasmBytes, input } = e.data;
  const wasm = await WebAssembly.instantiate(wasmBytes);
  const buf = zerobuf(wasm.instance.exports.memory as WebAssembly.Memory);

  const obj = buf.create(input);
  wasm.instance.exports.compute(obj.__zerobuf_ptr);
  postMessage(obj.toJS());
};

Key Points

One zerobuf per memory. Each WebAssembly.Memory instance gets its own zerobuf. Don’t share a zerobuf instance across different memories.

toJS before postMessage/Response. Accessor objects reference memory via pointers. Call .toJS() to get a plain JS object before sending over postMessage or returning in a Response.

Worker isolation. Each Worker gets its own memory. To share data between Workers, serialize with .toJS() or use SharedArrayBuffer-backed memory (browser Web Workers only).