July 12, 2026
Proto bros before protobuf woes
Protobuf-py: Protobuf for Python, without compromises
Python coders are cheering, side-eyeing, and roasting this "no-compromises" newcomer
TLDR: Buf launched protobuf-py, a new Python library meant to make a widely used data format feel simpler and more natural without losing speed or features. Commenters are split between ecstatic relief that Python might finally get a better option and deep suspicion about trusting yet another non-standard tool long term.
A new tool called protobuf-py just arrived with a huge promise: make a popular data format for Python finally feel easy, readable, and fast instead of weird and painful. The company behind it, Buf, is basically saying the old option from Google works but feels like using a machine built for another language, while this new one is supposed to feel natural for everyday Python users. For people outside the coding bubble: this is the plumbing many apps use to pack up data and send it around, so if the plumbing is annoying, developers feel it everywhere.
And wow, the reactions are not quiet. One camp is popping champagne. A delighted commenter called Python’s current setup “totally unusable” and said they’d been waiting years for something like this. Another immediately jumped to wishlist mode, hoping it can magically build Python classes from service reflections. But the other camp brought the trauma: one wary voice invoked the ghost of old abandoned tools, basically saying, “Sure, it looks better now, but will we still be stuck with it in 10 years?” That turned the launch into a classic internet split between finally! and fool me once.
Then came the bonus chaos: one commenter didn’t even start with the product — they roasted the README as “the worst” they’d ever seen on mobile and accused the post of spamming links. So yes, the launch managed to trigger hype, fear, feature requests, and design complaints all at once. In other words: a perfect tech-comment-section circus.
Key Points
- •Buf announced `protobuf-py`, a new Python Protocol Buffers library built from scratch.
- •Buf says the library passes every binary and JSON case in the Protobuf conformance suite across proto2, proto3, and editions.
- •The library supports extensions, custom options, unknown fields, dynamic messages, well-known types, typed code generation, and pure Python 3.10+ operation with no runtime dependencies.
- •Buf says an optional Rust accelerator gives `protobuf-py` production performance comparable to `upb`, the C engine used by Google’s Python protobuf package.
- •The company says the project grew out of work on `connect-py`, after concluding that Python needed a better protobuf runtime beneath its RPC stack.