# Kaitai - anyone heard of it?

**URL:** <https://discourse.nodered.org/t/kaitai-anyone-heard-of-it/98578>\
**Category:** General\
**Tags:** binary\
**Created:** [8 August 2025 17:43 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/kaitai-anyone-heard-of-it/98578 "2025-08-08T17:43:06Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![gregorius](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/gregorius/32/73816_2.png) [@gregorius](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/gregorius)\
**Post date:** [8 August 2025 17:43 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/kaitai-anyone-heard-of-it/98578/1 "2025-08-08T17:43:06Z")

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Hi There,

> **[Kaitai Struct: declarative binary format parsing language](https://kaitai.io/)**
>
> Kaitai Struct is a formal language for binary format specification that can be compiled into parser code

> This `.ksy` file can be compiled into `gif.cpp` / `Gif.cs` / `gif.go` / `Gif.java` / `Gif.js` / `gif.lua` / `gif.nim` / `Gif.pm` / `Gif.php` / `gif.py` / `gif.rb` and then one can instantly load a .gif file and access, for example, its width and height.

One definition can be compiled into many languages. Just wondering whether this is something worth creating a node for? I didn't find one over at [flows.nodered.org](http://flows.nodered.org)

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**Author:** ![greengolfer](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/greengolfer/32/28276_2.png) [@greengolfer](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/greengolfer)\
**Post date:** [8 August 2025 19:09 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/kaitai-anyone-heard-of-it/98578/2 "2025-08-08T19:09:13Z")

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Never heard of that…  
However, an open source project stuck at version 0.10 since 2022 is not the most appealing thing.  
I have looked in detail what this is doing. For, apparently (?), similar needs protobuf and Apache avro are more active projects.

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**Author:** ![gregorius](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/gregorius/32/73816_2.png) [@gregorius](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/gregorius)\
**Post date:** [8 August 2025 19:28 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/kaitai-anyone-heard-of-it/98578/3 "2025-08-08T19:28:37Z")

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Have you checked most of the node packages at [flows.nodered.org](http://flows.nodered.org)?

What if a project is complete? Especially one that defines a specification for a binary representation?

How often are the central tools of a linux distribution updated, ie ls, cat, rm, awk, less, etc?

Personal I find software that isn't continually updated as an indication of stability and completion.

But of course, the more features pushed into a piece of software, the more stable it becomes, the more updates, the better it must be because its being “actively” maintained.

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**Author:** ![greengolfer](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/greengolfer/32/28276_2.png) [@greengolfer](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/greengolfer)\
**Post date:** [8 August 2025 19:44 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/kaitai-anyone-heard-of-it/98578/4 "2025-08-08T19:44:48Z")

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It might be a “final” version. However, usual practice is to have a version being at least 1.0.

0.10 shows, in theory, work in progress but no effective progress sine 2022.

I admit it might well be a bit of a rushed conclusion.

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**Author:** ![gregorius](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/gregorius/32/73816_2.png) [@gregorius](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/gregorius)\
**Post date:** [9 August 2025 06:52 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/kaitai-anyone-heard-of-it/98578/5 "2025-08-09T06:52:28Z")

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So I had a quick look around the project and the JS runtime seems to have been [updated](https://github.com/kaitai-io/kaitai_struct_javascript_runtime) last week. The main project [4 months ago](https://github.com/kaitai-io/kaitai_struct). The schema definition, it seems, was updated [19 hours ago](https://github.com/kaitai-io/ksy_schema) - at time of writing.

Also I discovered a [great resource](https://github.com/kaitai-io/kaitai_struct_formats) of pre-defined binary formats. Everything from [image formats](https://github.com/kaitai-io/kaitai_struct_formats/tree/master/image) to [firmwares](https://github.com/kaitai-io/kaitai_struct_formats/tree/master/firmware). But wait ... they haven't be updated in the last two years, must be broken ... or perhaps the specifications haven't changed 🤔

A good example of what I mean: specifications - thankfully - don't change that often, so a repository that represents these specifications doesn't change either (unless new stuff is added - as was the [case last week](https://github.com/kaitai-io/kaitai_struct_formats/commits/master)).

But they don't have a version number for the format repository so no telling whether it's done or not.

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**Author:** ![AllanOricil](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/allanoricil/32/106911_2.png) [@AllanOricil](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/AllanOricil)\
**Post date:** [9 August 2025 10:47 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/kaitai-anyone-heard-of-it/98578/6 "2025-08-09T10:47:13Z")

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You are my hero! I was looking for a way to store the services of my esp32-mfa-authenticator in binary instead of yml. Because yml parser uses too much memory, the number of services users can register is 110 when considering the worst case scenario of file size. I had to limit to 100 to avoid issues.

> **[GitHub - AllanOricil/esp32-mfa-authenticator: ESP32 MFA Authenticator](https://github.com/AllanOricil/esp32-mfa-authenticator)**
>
> ESP32 MFA Authenticator

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/uploads/nodered/original/1X/d073cd938eafa2e558d7c2cd59003b3ef4963033.png) [@system](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/system)\
**Post date:** [7 November 2025 10:47 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/kaitai-anyone-heard-of-it/98578/7 "2025-11-07T10:47:43Z")

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