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avsc — Avro Type System
Reference for avsc — the pure JavaScript Avro implementation that provides mycelium’s type system, serialization, and schema resolution.
What avsc Is
avsc is a complete implementation of the Apache Avro specification in pure JavaScript. Types, serialization, schema evolution, container files, IDL parsing — the full specification surface in a single library.
Forked from mtth/avsc and barified for the Bare runtime.
Source: github.com/bare-for-pear/avsc Upstream: github.com/mtth/avsc
Why avsc Is Constitutive
avsc is not a utility dependency. It is the language through which mycelium articulates data.
Every message in the fabric is an Avro record. Every schema contract between processes is expressed in Avro types. Every protocol operation is defined through Avro schema definitions. The type system is not a serialization choice — it is the carrier language itself.
This makes avsc constitutive. The architecture depends on it the way it depends on git — not as a tool but as a substrate. Changes to avsc are changes to the language the system speaks. It is forked, maintained locally, and treated as SPLectrum code.
See AVRO Design Scope for the full architectural role of Avro in mycelium.
What the Fork Changes
The fork replaces Node.js built-in modules with Bare equivalents. The Avro API is unchanged.
| Concern | Upstream | Fork |
|---|---|---|
| Crypto | crypto |
bare-crypto |
| Filesystem | fs |
bare-fs |
| Path | path |
bare-path |
| Streams | stream |
bare-stream |
Additional adaptations:
- TextEncoder/TextDecoder polyfill — Bare’s
text-decoder uses a streaming API. avsc expects the
WHATWG standard
.decode()and.encodeInto(). The polyfill bridges this. - Buffer/Uint8Array bridging — conditional handling where Bare’s buffer semantics differ from Node’s global Buffer.
- Bare-only targeting — the upstream dual-runtime support (Node.js + browser) is removed. One runtime, no conditional resolution.
The public API surface is identical to upstream. All upstream documentation applies.
Reference Pages
- Type System — schema definition, primitives, complex types, logical types, type inference, schema evolution
- Serialization — encoding, decoding, the Tap buffer, schema fingerprints
- Container Files — block encoding/decoding streams, file headers, codecs
- Schema Parsing — JSON schemas, IDL protocols, import resolution
- Barification — what was changed from upstream, platform dependencies, polyfills
Library Reference
The library’s own reference site: bare-for-pear.github.io/avsc — plain API documentation without the architectural context.