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**FlatBuffers** is a cross platform serialization library architected for
maximum memory efficiency. It allows you to directly access serialized data without parsing/unpacking it first, while still having great forwards/backwards compatibility.
Write the [schema](https://flatbuffers.dev/flatbuffers_guide_writing_schema.html) to define the data you want to serialize. See [monster.fbs](https://github.com/google/flatbuffers/blob/master/samples/monster.fbs) for an example.
3. Generate code for your language(s)
Use the `flatc` compiler to take your schema and generate language-specific code:
```
./flatc --cpp --rust monster.fbs
```
Which generates `monster_generated.h` and `monster_generated.rs` files.
4. Serialize data
Use the generated code, as well as the `FlatBufferBuilder` to construct your serialized buffer. ([`C++` example](https://github.com/google/flatbuffers/blob/master/samples/sample_binary.cpp#L24-L56))
5. Transmit/store/save Buffer
Use your serialized buffer however you want. Send it to someone, save it for later, etc...
6. Read the data
Use the generated accessors to read the data from the serialized buffer.
It doesn't need to be the same language/schema version, FlatBuffers ensures the data is readable across languages and schema versions. See the [`Rust` example](https://github.com/google/flatbuffers/blob/master/samples/sample_binary.rs#L92-L106) reading the data written by `C++`.
FlatBuffers does not follow traditional SemVer versioning (see [rationale](https://github.com/google/flatbuffers/wiki/Versioning)) but rather uses a format of the date of the release.
