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Welcome to Protodex

Protodex is a self-hosted, lightweight protobuf schema registry and code generation tool. It provides operations for managing, versioning, and distributing Protocol Buffer schemas.

What is Protodex?​

Protodex is designed to solve the challenges of managing protobuf schemas in distributed systems by providing:

  • Schema Registry - Self-hosted registry for storing and versioning .proto files
  • Version Management - Registry-like push/pull operations for schema distribution
  • Code Generation - Generate client code for Go, Python, JavaScript/TypeScript, Java and more
  • Validation - Built-in schema validation using protoc
  • Project Management - YAML-based configuration for organizing proto files
  • Plugin System - Automatic plugin management and custom protoc plugin support
  • Web Interface - Browser-based interface for exploring packages and schemas

Key Features​

Self-Hosted​

  • Run your own private registry server
  • No external dependencies or cloud services required
  • Simple binary deployment with built-in web interface

Multi-Language Support​

  • Generate code for Go, Python, JavaScript/TypeScript, Java
  • Support for any protoc-compatible plugin (gRPC, Twirp, gRPC-Gateway, Validate, etc.)
  • Customizable output directories

Package Management​

  • Semantic versioning for schema packages
  • Project bundling with directory structure preservation

Developer Experience​

  • Simple protodex.yaml configuration
  • Intuitive CLI commands (init, push, pull, generate)
  • Built-in schema validation

Quick Example​



# Initialize a new protodex project
protodex init my-service

# Add your proto files
mkdir -p proto/user
cat > proto/user/user.proto << EOF
syntax = "proto3";
package user.v1;

service UserService {
  rpc GetUser(GetUserRequest) returns (GetUserResponse);
}

message GetUserRequest {
  string user_id = 1;
}

message GetUserResponse {
  string user_id = 1;
  string name = 2;
  string email = 3;
}
EOF

# Generate code for Go
protodex generate go

# Start a local registry server
protodex serve --port 8080

# Make sure to sign up via the web interface at http://localhost:8080

# Push your package to the registry
protodex push v1.0.0

# Pull a package from the registry
protodex pull user-service:v1.0.0 ./schemas

Get Started​

Ready to start using Protodex? Here's what to do next:

  1. Install Protodex - Download and install the CLI tool
  2. Quick Start - Create your first project
  3. Configuration - Learn about protodex.yaml configuration
  4. CLI Reference - Master the command-line interface

Community & Support​

Ready to get started? Jump to the Installation Guide and create your first protodex project!