Introduction

This format combines CBOR (Concise Binary Object Representation) with Zstandard, a fast lossless compression algorithm developed by Facebook.

Stencila supports CBOR+Zstd as the most compact storage option for documents. It is best suited for very large documents where file size matters. Also consider JSON+Zip which offers similar compression ratios with broader tool compatibility.

Usage

Use the .cbor.zstd file extension, or the --to cborzstd or --from cborzstd options, when converting to/from CBOR+Zstd e.g.

stencila convert doc.smd doc.cbor.zstd

Implementation

Stencila supports lossless, bi-directional conversion between Stencila documents and CBOR+Zstd powered by the Rust crates ciborium and zstd.

Limitations

CBOR+Zstd files are not human-readable or inspectable without decompression.

Requires Stencila or compatible tooling to decompress and deserialize. For a more portable compressed format, consider JSON+Zip.