nanopb VS EmbeddedProto

While I don't have much experience with it directly, I do know that Google's protobuf was designed with minimal footprint capabilities in mind. While it might not work out-the-box for embedded systems, it looks like there is a well maintained open source library NanoPB that "is a small code-size Protocol Buffers implementation in ansi C. It is especially suitable for use in microcontrollers, but fits any memory restricted system." And for added reassurance, it looks like Chromium has a dependency on NanoPB.

nanopb

Protocol buffers are designed for this. Consider using nanopb on the device side.

I think you're looking for nanopb, the lightweight implementation of Google's protocol buffers.

In that runtime environment, using only C is indeed the (very) safe "bet". In particular, I might personally prefer using Nanopb - Protocol Buffers for Embedded Systems.

I know it’s not the question you asked, but the answer might be this: https://github.com/nanopb/nanopb

The OTHER way to do it is with protobufs, since they don't encode parts of the message that aren't included (that is: any missing part of the message has 0 transmission overhead). nanopb works well on the ESP32.

You could look at my library Embedded Proto and Nanopb. If you have any questions let me know.

Have you looked into Embedded Proto? https://embeddedproto.com/

For a general embedded library for safety critical applications you could look at our Embedded Proto lib. This is a data serialization lib which is checked against the MISRA coding standard guidelines. Doing so makes it possible for our customers to use it in medical applications.

That's when protobuf has your back if other formats don't.

Embedded Proto is a project aimed at using protobuf with embedded C++ code without using dynamic memory allocation. It is MISRA compatible code and build with professional use in mind.