High-performance JSON library powered by sonic-rs via Rustler NIFs.
Decoding strategies
Parse + Get —
parse/2returns an opaque document reference.get/2,get/3,get_many/2,get_many_nil/2andget_many_defaults/2extract fields by JSON Pointer (RFC 6901) paths without materializing the full Elixir term tree. Ideal when the same document is queried more than once, which is what the handle is for.Compiled pointers — when the same fixed set of paths is extracted from every document,
compile_pointers/2pre-parses the paths once andparse_get_many_nil/2reads the document in a single pass, building values only where a path ends and skipping everything else. For one-shot extraction — parse a payload, take a few fields, discard it — prefer this overparse/2+get/2: it never builds the document it is about to throw away. That is worth ~1.4× on a request-shaped payload and fades to parity as the document grows, since on a large one the plan walk costs about what the document build it replaces did. The bigger lever isvalidate: falseon the handle, worth ~7× on a 450 KB feed read through a handful of paths, but read its note incompile_pointers/2first: it is only a win when the paths select a small part of the document.Full decode —
decode/1converts an entire JSON binary into Elixir terms in one pass.
Encoding
encode/1 serializes Elixir terms to JSON. Supports maps (atom,
binary, or integer keys), lists, binaries, numbers, booleans, nil,
and jiffy-style {proplist} tuples.
Structs are rejected with {:error, :unhandled_struct} unless they
implement Torque.Encoder (see the protocol docs for deriving with
:only / :except). Torque ships implementations for Date, Time,
NaiveDateTime, and DateTime, which encode as ISO 8601 strings.
Scheduler awareness
Decoding and parsing automatically dispatch inputs larger than 20 KB to a
dirty CPU scheduler to avoid blocking normal BEAM schedulers. Encoding
cannot cheaply predict its output size up front, so dirty dispatch is
opt-in there: pass dirty: true to encode/2, encode!/2,
encode_to_iodata/2, or encode_to_iodata!/2 when terms are expected
to produce large output.
Type conversion
| JSON | Elixir |
|---|---|
| object | map with binary keys |
| array | list |
| string | binary |
| integer | integer |
| float | float |
true / false | true / false |
null | nil |
For objects with duplicate keys, the last value wins (unless
unique_keys: true is passed to parse/2).
Summary
Decoding
Decodes a JSON binary into Elixir terms.
Decodes a JSON binary into Elixir terms, raising on error.
Encoding
Encodes an Elixir term into a JSON binary.
Encodes an Elixir term into a JSON binary, raising on error.
Encodes an Elixir term into a JSON binary (iodata-compatible).
Alias for encode_to_iodata/2, which already raises on error.
Parse + Get
Pre-compiles a list of JSON Pointer paths into a reusable handle.
Extracts a value from a parsed document using a JSON Pointer path (RFC 6901).
Extracts a value from a parsed document, returning default when the path
does not exist.
Extracts multiple values from a parsed document in a single NIF call.
Extracts multiple values from a parsed document with per-path defaults.
Extracts multiple values from a parsed document, returning nil for missing
fields.
Returns the length of an array at the given JSON Pointer path, or nil if
the path does not exist or does not point to an array.
Parses a JSON binary into an opaque document reference.
Parses a JSON binary and extracts pre-compiled pointers in a single NIF call.
Types
An opaque handle to a set of pre-compiled JSON Pointer paths, returned by
compile_pointers/2. Pass it to parse_get_many_nil/2 or get_many_nil/2
in place of a path list to skip per-call path parsing.
Decoding
Decodes a JSON binary into Elixir terms.
JSON objects become maps with binary keys, arrays become lists, strings
become binaries, numbers become integers or floats, booleans become
true/false, and null becomes nil.
Integers outside the signed/unsigned 64-bit range decode as exact arbitrary-precision integers (Erlang bignums) rather than lossy floats.
Automatically uses a dirty CPU scheduler for inputs larger than 20 KB.
Examples
iex> Torque.decode(~s({"a":1,"b":"hello"}))
{:ok, %{"a" => 1, "b" => "hello"}}
iex> Torque.decode(~s([1,2,3]))
{:ok, [1, 2, 3]}
iex> match?({:error, _}, Torque.decode("invalid"))
true
Decodes a JSON binary into Elixir terms, raising on error.
Examples
iex> Torque.decode!(~s({"a":1}))
%{"a" => 1}
Encoding
@spec encode(term(), keyword()) :: {:ok, binary()} | {:error, binary() | :nesting_too_deep | :unhandled_struct | :encoder_expansion_too_deep}
Encodes an Elixir term into a JSON binary.
Supported terms
- Maps with atom, binary, or integer keys (integer keys are stringified — JSON object names must be strings)
- Lists (JSON arrays)
- Binaries (JSON strings)
- Integers and floats
true,false,nil(JSONnull)- Other atoms (encoded as JSON strings)
{keyword_list}tuples (jiffy-style proplist objects)- Structs implementing
Torque.Encoder(any other struct fails with{:error, :unhandled_struct}). ATorque.Encoderimplementation that expands the same struct again fails with{:error, :encoder_expansion_too_deep}.
Options
:dirty— whentrue, runs the encode on a dirty CPU scheduler. Unlikedecode/1, which dispatches on input byte size, encoding cannot cheaply predict its output size up front, so large encodes are opt-in. Enable when terms are expected to produce large output (more than roughly 20 KB). Defaults tofalse.
Any other option raises ArgumentError.
Examples
iex> Torque.encode(%{id: "abc", price: 1.5})
{:ok, ~s({"id":"abc","price":1.5})}
iex> Torque.encode({[{:id, "abc"}]})
{:ok, ~s({"id":"abc"})}
iex> Torque.encode(%{id: "abc"}, dirty: true)
{:ok, ~s({"id":"abc"})}
Encodes an Elixir term into a JSON binary, raising on error.
Accepts the same options as encode/2.
Examples
iex> Torque.encode!(%{ok: true})
~s({"ok":true})
Encodes an Elixir term into a JSON binary (iodata-compatible).
Returns the binary directly without {:ok, ...} tuple wrapping.
Raises on error. This is the fastest encoding path when the result
is passed directly to I/O (e.g. as an HTTP response body).
Accepts the same options as encode/2. Structs go through
Torque.Encoder exactly as they do there; a struct without an
implementation raises ArgumentError.
Examples
iex> Torque.encode_to_iodata(%{ok: true})
~s({"ok":true})
Alias for encode_to_iodata/2, which already raises on error.
Exists to satisfy Phoenix's :json_library contract, which calls
encode_to_iodata!/1 from its socket serializers, controllers, and
longpoll transport. Set config :phoenix, :json_library, Torque to use
Torque there.
Examples
iex> Torque.encode_to_iodata!(%{ok: true})
~s({"ok":true})
Parse + Get
Pre-compiles a list of JSON Pointer paths into a reusable handle.
Workloads that parse many documents and extract the same fixed set of fields
re-split and unescape those pointer strings on every call — wasted work, since
they never change. compile_pointers/2 does it once and returns an opaque
pointers/0 handle that parse_get_many_nil/2 and get_many_nil/2 accept
in place of a path list, eliminating all per-call path parsing (≈2× faster
extraction on a typical field set).
Compile once at startup (e.g. into :persistent_term, application state or
the process holding the documents) and reuse the handle for every document.
A pointers/0 is a NIF resource reference, so it cannot be built at
compile time into a module attribute.
Raises ArgumentError if any path is not a valid UTF-8 binary or JSON Pointer.
A JSON Pointer is either empty or begins with /.
Options
:unique_keys— whentrue, object key lookups use a forward scan that stops at the first match (faster). Defaults tofalse(reverse scan, last-value-wins for duplicate keys), matchingparse/2. Safe to enable when keys are known to be unique.:validate— controls validation of regions not selected by any path. The default,true, reports malformed input anywhere in the document. Whenfalse, unselected regions are skipped without syntax validation; selected values and every byte the walk consumes are still validated, UTF-8 included. The check for content after the document is skipped too, so~s({"a":1} junk)succeeds wheredecode/1and the default reject it, and trailing bytes are not UTF-8 checked either, being bytes the walk never reached. Truncated input is still rejected, because skipping has to find the closing delimiter. Use it only with trusted input.Measure before enabling it. Skipping a region structurally is a bracket scan over 64-byte blocks, which beats tokenizing a large subtree and loses to it on the few-byte scalars left over when the paths select most of the document. Reading 3 paths out of a 2 KB request is ~3.6× faster unvalidated; reading 146 of its fields is ~1.2× slower.
Any other option raises ArgumentError.
Extraction results are returned in the same order as paths.
Examples
iex> ptrs = Torque.compile_pointers(["/a", "/b/0"], unique_keys: true)
iex> {:ok, doc} = Torque.parse(~s({"a":1,"b":[2,3]}))
iex> Torque.get_many_nil(doc, ptrs)
[1, 2]
Extracts a value from a parsed document using a JSON Pointer path (RFC 6901).
Paths must start with "/". Array elements are addressed by index
(e.g. "/imp/0/banner/w"). An empty path "" returns the root value.
One deviation from RFC 6901: "/" also returns the root value, where the
RFC reads it as the member whose key is the empty string. Every pointer
entry point in Torque agrees on that, and changing it would silently move
existing callers' lookups, so it stands until a breaking release.
Examples
iex> {:ok, doc} = Torque.parse(~s({"site":{"domain":"example.com"}}))
iex> Torque.get(doc, "/site/domain")
{:ok, "example.com"}
iex> {:ok, doc} = Torque.parse(~s({"site":{"domain":"example.com"}}))
iex> Torque.get(doc, "/missing")
{:error, :no_such_field}
Extracts a value from a parsed document, returning default when the path
does not exist.
Raises ArgumentError for errors other than :no_such_field
(e.g. :nesting_too_deep).
Examples
iex> {:ok, doc} = Torque.parse(~s({"a":1}))
iex> Torque.get(doc, "/a", nil)
1
iex> {:ok, doc} = Torque.parse(~s({"a":1}))
iex> Torque.get(doc, "/b", :default)
:default
@spec get_many(reference(), [binary()]) :: [ ok: term(), error: :no_such_field | :nesting_too_deep ]
Extracts multiple values from a parsed document in a single NIF call.
Returns a list of results in the same order as paths, each being
{:ok, value} or {:error, :no_such_field}.
More efficient than calling get/2 in a loop because it crosses
the NIF boundary only once. For a request-shaped document you query once and
then discard, compile_pointers/2 + parse_get_many_nil/2 is usually faster
still, since it never builds the document at all, though that advantage
narrows to nothing as the document grows.
Raises ArgumentError if any path is not a valid UTF-8 binary.
Examples
iex> {:ok, doc} = Torque.parse(~s({"a":1,"b":2}))
iex> Torque.get_many(doc, ["/a", "/b", "/c"])
[{:ok, 1}, {:ok, 2}, {:error, :no_such_field}]
@spec get_many_defaults(reference(), %{required(binary()) => term()}) :: %{ required(binary()) => term() }
Extracts multiple values from a parsed document with per-path defaults.
Takes a map of %{path => default} and returns a map of the same shape
where each value is either the parsed value or the supplied default (if
the path is missing).
More ergonomic than the two-call get_many_nil/2 + Enum.map pattern
when consumers need defaults at the call site.
Equivalent to:
get_many_nil(doc, Map.keys(defaults))
|> then(&Enum.zip(Map.keys(defaults), &1))
|> Map.new(fn {p, nil} -> {p, Map.get(defaults, p)}; pv -> pv end)Note: a parsed JSON null at the path is indistinguishable from a missing
field (same as get_many_nil/2) — both substitute the default.
Examples
iex> {:ok, doc} = Torque.parse(~s({"a":1,"b":null}))
iex> Torque.get_many_defaults(doc, %{"/a" => 0, "/b" => 0, "/c" => "missing"})
%{"/a" => 1, "/b" => 0, "/c" => "missing"}
Extracts multiple values from a parsed document, returning nil for missing
fields.
Like get_many/2 but returns bare values instead of {:ok, value} tuples.
Missing fields return nil (indistinguishable from JSON null).
Faster than get_many/2 when you don't need to distinguish between
missing fields and null values, as it avoids allocating wrapper tuples.
Accepts either a list of JSON Pointer path strings or a pointers/0 handle
built by compile_pointers/2. The compiled form skips all per-call path
parsing and is the recommended option for a fixed, repeatedly-queried path
set.
Raises ArgumentError if any path is not a valid UTF-8 binary.
Examples
iex> {:ok, doc} = Torque.parse(~s({"a":1,"b":null}))
iex> Torque.get_many_nil(doc, ["/a", "/b", "/c"])
[1, nil, nil]
iex> {:ok, doc} = Torque.parse(~s({"a":1,"b":null}))
iex> ptrs = Torque.compile_pointers(["/a", "/b", "/c"])
iex> Torque.get_many_nil(doc, ptrs)
[1, nil, nil]
@spec length(reference(), binary()) :: non_neg_integer() | nil
Returns the length of an array at the given JSON Pointer path, or nil if
the path does not exist or does not point to an array.
Examples
iex> {:ok, doc} = Torque.parse(~s({"a":[1,2,3]}))
iex> Torque.length(doc, "/a")
3
iex> {:ok, doc} = Torque.parse(~s({"a":[1,2,3]}))
iex> Torque.length(doc, "/missing")
nil
Parses a JSON binary into an opaque document reference.
The returned reference can be passed to get/2, get/3, get_many/2,
get_many_nil/2, or length/2 for efficient repeated field extraction
without re-parsing.
Options
:unique_keys— whentrue, assumes object keys are unique and uses a faster lookup path. Defaults tofalse(last-value-wins for duplicate keys).
Any other option raises ArgumentError.
Automatically uses a dirty CPU scheduler for inputs larger than 20 KB.
Examples
iex> {:ok, doc} = Torque.parse(~s({"a":1}))
iex> is_reference(doc)
true
iex> {:ok, doc} = Torque.parse(~s({"a":1}), unique_keys: true)
iex> Torque.get(doc, "/a")
{:ok, 1}
@spec parse_get_many_nil(binary(), pointers()) :: {:ok, [term()]} | {:error, binary() | :nesting_too_deep}
Parses a JSON binary and extracts pre-compiled pointers in a single NIF call.
Fuses parse/2 and get_many_nil/2 for the common parse-once-extract-once
case: it walks the document once, building a value only where a compiled
pointer ends and skipping the rest, without materializing a document, a
reusable handle, or a second NIF boundary crossing. Missing fields and JSON
null both become nil. Both the lookup strategy (:unique_keys) and the
validation policy (:validate) come from the pointers/0 handle.
Returns {:ok, values} (in the same order as the paths given to
compile_pointers/2) or {:error, reason} if the JSON is malformed. A
handle compiled with validate: false reports faults only in the regions it
reads, so some malformed documents return {:ok, values} instead — see
compile_pointers/2. Automatically uses a dirty CPU scheduler for inputs
larger than 20 KB.
Examples
iex> ptrs = Torque.compile_pointers(["/id", "/site/domain", "/missing"])
iex> Torque.parse_get_many_nil(~s({"id":"x","site":{"domain":"e.com"}}), ptrs)
{:ok, ["x", "e.com", nil]}
iex> ptrs = Torque.compile_pointers(["/a"])
iex> match?({:error, _}, Torque.parse_get_many_nil("not json", ptrs))
true
Types
@opaque pointers()
An opaque handle to a set of pre-compiled JSON Pointer paths, returned by
compile_pointers/2. Pass it to parse_get_many_nil/2 or get_many_nil/2
in place of a path list to skip per-call path parsing.