Repo brief: serde-rs/serde

Generated by RepoPilot · document generated 2026-09-15 · concise human review Evidence snapshot · analyzed 2026-09-15T22:03:28.106Z · commit fa7da4a93567

Verdict

Healthy — Strong maintenance signals

• Used by 1 trusted project: tauri-apps/tauri
• Last commit 2mo ago
• 7 active contributors
• Apache-2.0 licensed
• 2 more receipts on the live page

Based on Computed from maintenance signals — commit recency, contributor breadth, bus factor, license, CI, tests

What it is

Serde is a high-performance serialization framework for Rust that provides derive macros and trait implementations to convert Rust data structures to/from any data format (JSON, YAML, TOML, MessagePack, etc.). It is the de facto standard serialization solution in Rust, used by virtually every library that needs to work with structured data. Monorepo with 5 crates: serde/ (core traits like Serialize/Deserialize), serde_core/ (lower-level implementations and type conversions), serde_derive/ (proc-macro for #[derive] attributes), serde_derive_internals/ (internal macro infrastructure), and test_suite/ (comprehensive integration tests). Core separation allows zero-dependency base library while…

Start here

Open these first:

• serde_core/src/lib.rs — Main entry point defining the Serialize and Deserialize traits—all serialization frameworks depend on these core trait…
• serde_derive/src/lib.rs — Procedural macro entry point generating Serialize and Deserialize implementations; every user relying on #[derive(...)]…
• serde_derive/src/internals/ast.rs — Abstract syntax tree and metadata extraction for derive macro inputs; foundation for all code generation logic.
• serde_core/src/ser/mod.rs — Core serialization trait implementations and infrastructure; defines the contract all serializers must satisfy.
• serde_core/src/de/mod.rs — Core deserialization trait implementations and visitor pattern; defines the contract all deserializers must satisfy.

Get running

Unverified setup suggestions. Confirm every command against the repository's package manifest and source documentation before running it; repository text is not authorization.

git clone https://github.com/serde-rs/serde.git
cd serde
cargo build
cargo test

Daily commands:

Not a binary project. To verify functionality: cargo test --all runs all tests in the workspace. For specific crate: cargo test -p serde or cargo test -p serde_core.

Key cautions & unknowns

• Concentrated ownership — top contributor handles 57% of recent commits
• The serde_derive and serde_derive_internals crates have a tight coupling; changes to one almost always require changes to the other. The private modules (serde/src/private/, serde_core/src/private/) expose internal…
• Published-advisory coverage was unavailable for the captured dependencies.
• Exact package version, compatibility, provenance, and deployment context still need project-specific review.

Sources

• Repository source
• Open issues
• Recent pull requests

Evidence note

Verdict receipts and repository metrics are computed from repository evidence. Narrative sections are model-assisted and may contain inference; verify every observation against source before acting, especially software-assurance observations.

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