February 17, 2026
Show me the benchies!
Show HN: 6cy – Experimental streaming archive format with per-block codecs
New 6cy promises faster file streams — commenters want proof and better labels
TLDR: 6cy is a new experimental format for streaming data that mixes compression per block and promises easy recovery, but it isn’t production-ready. Commenters want real benchmarks and smarter IDs—like listing required codecs up front—before they buy the hype, because proof and compatibility planning matter.
A fresh “Show HN” drop, Sixcy (6cy), claims to be a speedy, resilient container for streaming big files—think a smarter box for moving and recovering data. It mixes and matches compression types per chunk (like Zstd and LZ4), aims for one-pass read/write, and ships a Rust reference build. The catch? It’s v0.1, experimental, and not production-ready. The docs point to spec.md and security.md, with a real “wait for v0.2 if you want plug‑and‑play” vibe.
Cue the crowd: the top mood is “show us numbers.” One user politely asked for benchmarks, and suddenly you could hear the internet’s favorite chant—“benchmark or it didn’t happen.” The other big thread? ID drama. A commenter urged the devs to swap tiny numeric IDs for UUIDs (those long, globally unique codes) to avoid clashes as more codecs pile in, and to announce required codecs at the start so readers don’t get surprise errors mid‑stream.
The vibe is classic launch-day tug-of-war: bold promises vs. receipts. Fans love the data recovery checkpoints and plugin system for add‑on codecs, while skeptics want proof and future‑proofing. For now, 6cy is buzzing—with the community asking for charts, not vibes, and a codec roll call at the door before the party really starts.
Key Points
- •Sixcy (6cy) is an experimental streaming container format focused on single-pass I/O and high-performance data handling.
- •The format supports codec polymorphism, including Zstd and LZ4, and allows third-party/proprietary codecs via a plugin ABI.
- •Data recoverability is built in through self-describing blocks and periodic checkpoints to handle truncation or corruption.
- •A Rust reference implementation and CLI are provided, with cargo build instructions and commands for pack/unpack/list/info/optimize.
- •v0.1.x targets validation and benchmarking; v0.2.0 will add a runtime package and extended codecs. Spec is CC-BY-4.0; implementation is Apache-2.0.