dotnet-serialization

AOT-friendly serialization patterns for .NET applications. Covers System.Text.Json source generators for compile-time serialization, Protocol Buffers (Protobuf) for efficient binary serialization, and MessagePack for high-performance compact binary format. Includes performance tradeoff guidance for choosing the right serializer and warnings about reflection-based serialization in AOT scenarios.

Scope

• System.Text.Json source generators for compile-time serialization
• Protocol Buffers (Protobuf) for binary serialization
• MessagePack for high-performance compact format
• Performance tradeoff guidance for serializer selection
• AOT-safe serialization patterns and anti-patterns

Out of scope

• Source generator authoring patterns -- see [skill:dotnet-csharp-source-generators]
• HTTP client factory and resilience pipelines -- see [skill:dotnet-http-client] and [skill:dotnet-resilience]
• Native AOT architecture and trimming -- see [skill:dotnet-native-aot] and [skill:dotnet-trimming]

Cross-references: [skill:dotnet-csharp-source-generators] for understanding how STJ source generators work under the hood. See [skill:dotnet-integration-testing] for testing serialization round-trip correctness.