YaFF is Yandex’s open-source zero-copy wire format for Protobuf — Apache 2.0, currently C++, v0.1.0.
The .proto file stays the source of truth; only the physical memory layout changes.
On Yandex’s benchmarks, the Flat Layout reads hot data ~3.8× faster than FlatBuffers, within 1.2× of a raw C++ struct.
Four layouts — Fixed, Flat, Sparse, Dynamic — trade read speed for schema flexibility; Dynamic is the default.
YaFF runs in its advertising recommendation system, where it reports 10–20% CPU savings at production scale.
