py1X

PY1X is a cross-platform data interchange protocol and binary format designed for constrained devices and microservice architectures. It aims to provide compact encoding, fast parsing, and strong security guarantees while remaining extensible enough to accommodate evolving data models.

It uses a binary tagging scheme with variable-length integers, supports message framing with length prefixes, and can operate in both request–response and publish–subscribe patterns. The format includes optional JSON compatibility via a text-encoded representation for debugging and interoperability. It supports streaming payloads and incremental updates.

Security: End-to-end encryption by default using X25519 for key exchange, AES-256-GCM for content encryption, and Ed25519 for digital signatures. It supports forward secrecy, key rotation, and mutual authentication. The protocol provides integrity with per-message authentication codes.

Architecture and implementations: A message envelope contains metadata, routing, and a payload section. A reference implementation suite is maintained in Python (py1x) and C; bindings exist for major platforms; typical use cases include IoT devices, industrial automation, and microservices.

History and status: Conceived by researchers at Nova Labs in 2022; first public release PY1X 1.0 in 2023. It has seen adoption in experimental IoT networks and some open-source projects; governance is community-led with a lightweight specification repository.

Limitations and reception: As a relatively new protocol, it faces interoperability challenges with established stacks and requires tooling for debugging; documentation is still developing; competition includes MQTT, CoAP, and protobuf-based systems.