Strata

Deterministic data language with canonical binary encoding.

This is the reference Rust implementation of Strata.

Same data -> same bytes -> same hash.
No ambiguity. No normalization. No silent coercions.

Golden vectors are law.

What this crate provides

Canonical encoder for Strata Core Binary (.scb)
Safe decoder with explicit error semantics
Parser for Strata Text (.st)
Deterministic BLAKE3 hashing
Production-grade CLI
Golden vector enforcement

This implementation defines canonical truth for all other languages.

Installation

cargo add strata-rs

Or in Cargo.toml:

[dependencies]
strata-rs = "*"

Data model

Strata supports a minimal, fixed value model:

Value =
    Null
  | Bool(bool)
  | Int(i64)
  | String(String)
  | Bytes(Vec<u8>)
  | List(Vec<Value>)
  | Map(BTreeMap<String, Value>)

Rules:

Integers are signed 64-bit
Strings are UTF-8
Map keys are strings only
No floats
No implicit conversions

Canonical encoding

Encoding is fully deterministic.

Maps are sorted by UTF-8 byte order
Integers use canonical SLEB128
Strings are stored as raw UTF-8 bytes
Bytes are preserved verbatim

Identical values always produce identical .scb bytes.

Decoding guarantees

The decoder:

Never panics on input
Rejects malformed data explicitly
Preserves non-canonical ordering
Allows duplicate keys (debug visibility)

Decoding reveals reality.
Encoding enforces truth.

Hashing

Hashes are computed as:

BLAKE3-256(canonical_scb_bytes)

Example:

use strata::hash::hash_value;
use strata::value::Value;

let value = Value::Int(42);
let hash = hash_value(&value);

Hashes are stable across:

Machines
Operating systems
Compiler versions
Programming languages

Parsing Strata Text (`.st`)

Strata Text is a human-friendly authoring format.

Example:

user {
  id: 42
  name: "Gencho"
  active: true
  skills: ["rust", "systems"]
  avatar_hash: 0x9f86d081884c7d659a2feaa0c55ad015
}

Parsing:

use strata::parser::parse;

let value = parse(source)?;

CLI

The Rust crate ships with a CLI.

Compile

strata compile input.st output.scb

Decode

strata decode input.scb

Hash

strata hash input.st
strata hash input.scb

Format

strata fmt input.st

Error model

All failures are explicit and structured.

Decode errors include:

InvalidTag
UnexpectedEOF
InvalidVarint
InvalidUtf8
TrailingBytes

Parse errors include:

Unexpected token
Integer out of range
Malformed literals
Line and column information

CLI exit codes:

Code	Meaning
0	Success
1	Invalid input
2	I/O failure
100	Internal error

Golden vectors

Canonical truth lives in /vectors.

The Rust implementation:

Must match vectors exactly
Must never change vectors to satisfy code
Must fail when vectors say so

If Rust disagrees with vectors, Rust is wrong.

Versioning & Northstar

Strata evolution is governed by Northstar documents.

Northstar v1 – Canonical encoding
Northstar v2 – Decode & inspection
Northstar v2.1 – Explicit error semantics
Northstar v3 – Cross-language parity

Any canonical change requires a new Northstar.

License

MIT License

Final note

This crate is intentionally strict.

It is designed for:

Integrity-critical systems
Deterministic pipelines
Cross-language verification
Audit-friendly storage

If convenience matters more than correctness, use something else.
If correctness matters, this is the reference.

strata-rs 0.3.0