# Notes on Stan Output Serialization Options (YAML, Protobuf, Avro, CBOR)

**URL:** <https://discourse.mc-stan.org/t/notes-on-stan-output-serialization-options-yaml-protobuf-avro-cbor/12837>\
**Category:** Developers\
**Created:** [January 28, 2020, 11:45am UTC](https://discourse.mc-stan.org/t/notes-on-stan-output-serialization-options-yaml-protobuf-avro-cbor/12837 "2020-01-28T11:45:13Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
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**Author:** ![mike-lawrence](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.mc-stan.org/mike-lawrence/32/59_2.png) [@mike-lawrence](https://discourse.mc-stan.org/u/mike-lawrence)\
**Post date:** [August 2, 2020, 6:31pm UTC](https://discourse.mc-stan.org/t/notes-on-stan-output-serialization-options-yaml-protobuf-avro-cbor/12837/10 "2020-08-02T18:31:54Z")

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> [@sakrejda](#):
>
> We discussed HDF5 but compared to something like CBOR it cuts you off from being able to write simple custom parsers for output because it’s a very complex format. The C api seems good but the corresponding C++ wrapper has long-standing problems (had last I checked) that indicates a broken-ish maintenance process… so I would stick to CBOR for a binary format.

Possibly I don’t have sufficient expertise in this area to understand what you’re getting at, but I have been using h5py for years and hdf5r (successor to h5) for a decent amount of time too, and both seem to be pretty solid. Or were you referring to something else?

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