---
type: "Specification"
title: "gRPC / Protocol Buffers"
description: "Typed RPC and efficient binary serialisation with generated stubs."
resource: "https://protobuf.dev/overview/"
tags: [grpc, rpc, standard]
generated: { by: human:crpage, at: 2026-07-09T09:44:00Z }
status: stable
sources: [{ id: primary, resource: "https://protobuf.dev/overview/" }]
---

A `.proto` IDL, generated stubs, efficient binary encoding and cross-language compatibility. Strong typing helps runtime adapters and service-to-service execution; poorer human readability, and protobuf is not itself a formal standards-body standard; external discovery often needs gateway or reflection support.

# Terms
Glossary terms used here: [API gateway](../glossary/api-gateway.md).