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Colin McDonnell 💎 Zod @colinhacks.com · Aug 27

as you said, "decode" and "parse" are essentially synonymous. encoding is the new thing here, and it's the inverse of parse. but in anycase, this isn't something I just came up with: see io-ts and Effect Schema.

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Colin McDonnell 💎 Zod @colinhacks.com · Aug 27

starting with Zod 4, Zod is published to JSR but not deno.land/x

Third Party Modules | Deno

A hosting service for Deno scripts.

deno.land

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Colin McDonnell 💎 Zod @colinhacks.com · Aug 26

for a more detailed technical breakdown of codecs, read the associated blog post 👍 colinhacks.com/essays/intro...

Introducing Zod Codecs

colinhacks.com

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Colin McDonnell 💎 Zod @colinhacks.com · Aug 26

including...

✅ stringToNumber
✅ stringToInt
✅ stringToBigInt
✅ numberToBigInt
✅ isoDatetimeToDate
✅ epochSecondsToDate
✅ epochMillisToDate
✅ jsonCodec
✅ utf8ToBytes
✅ bytesToUtf8
✅ base64ToBytes
✅ base64urlToBytes
✅ hexToBytes
✅ stringToURL
✅ uriComponent

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Colin McDonnell 💎 Zod @colinhacks.com · Aug 26

instead of providing first-party APIs for commonly-needed codecs, Zod is taking a page from shadcn

fully-tested versions of 16 commonly-needed codecs are available on the new Codecs page. you're encouraged to copy/paste/customize them as needed 👍
zod.dev/codecs

Codecs | Zod

Bidirectional transformations with encode and decode

zod.dev

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Colin McDonnell 💎 Zod @colinhacks.com · Aug 26

Codecs is useful when mapping data between two different domains. for instance, when converting data in your Node.js backend from a rich JavaScript representation (Dates, BigInts, Maps, Sets, etc) into a JSON-serializable format (ISO datetimes, arrays, etc)

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Colin McDonnell 💎 Zod @colinhacks.com · Aug 26

these methods are intended for use cases involving data *conversion*, not *validation* (though they do that too). so if you pass in an input of an unexpected type, you'll get a TypeScript error.

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Colin McDonnell 💎 Zod @colinhacks.com · Aug 26

"how does .decode() differ from .parse()?"

good question! they're identical at runtime, but their type signatures differ in an important way.

unlike .parse()—which accepts `unknown` input—decode and encode expect strongly-typed inputs

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Colin McDonnell 💎 Zod @colinhacks.com · Aug 26

It is coupled with the addition of new methods (available on all Zod schemas)

.decode() — "forward" parsing
.encode() — "reverse" parsing

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Colin McDonnell 💎 Zod @colinhacks.com · Aug 26

Introducing Zod 4.1 and its flagship feature: codecs.

z.codec() is a new API for defining *bi-directional transformations* in Zod

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Colin McDonnell 💎 Zod @colinhacks.com · Jul 29

in the absence of an existing convention, I'm adding these three fields to Zod's package.json.

making this stuff auto-discoverable would resolve one of the biggest usability issues with today's agents/IDEs. a simple convention here will go a long way! 🤘

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Colin McDonnell 💎 Zod @colinhacks.com · Jun 3

sounds like you found an alternative but the answer is "not at all". MIT license, go ham :)

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Colin McDonnell 💎 Zod @colinhacks.com · May 28

very nice 🤩

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Colin McDonnell 💎 Zod @colinhacks.com · May 17

folks in the Bay Area: come hang out!
lu.ma/waqmeggb

Zod 4 Release Day Happy Hour · Luma

Zod 4 is here! This new major version of Zod has been under development for over a year, and it’s finally going stable on May 19th. Join me to eat food, drink…

lu.ma

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Colin McDonnell 💎 Zod @colinhacks.com · May 15

I'm throwing a happy hour in SF that evening to celebrate (thx @clerk.com!) — if you're any the area come hang out :) lu.ma/waqmeggb

Zod 4 Release Day Happy Hour · Luma

Zod 4 is here! This new major version of Zod has been under development for over a year, and it’s finally going stable on May 19th. Join me to eat food, drink…

lu.ma

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Colin McDonnell 💎 Zod @colinhacks.com · May 15

Zod 4 stable will be released this Monday, May 19th!

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Colin McDonnell 💎 Zod @colinhacks.com · Apr 12

hi Axel! big fan! the ? syntax definitely felt right...and when it unlocked recursive objects I knew it was the way.

though actually in Zod 4, z.object() adds the "?"to T.optional() but not to z.union(T, z.undefined()) as you're suggesting...a small change that makes things a little more sound

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Colin McDonnell 💎 Zod @colinhacks.com · Apr 12

z.safeint() exists but it's just z.int() 🙃 anything outside of safe range will throw. hadn't considered doubleint seriously. is that basically z.int128()? I'd represent that with a ZodBigInt subclass (similar to z.int64() and z.uint64 currently). but idk if it's widely used enough to merit addition?

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Colin McDonnell 💎 Zod @colinhacks.com · Apr 10

yikes, thanks! last minute changes gone awry

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Colin McDonnell 💎 Zod @colinhacks.com · Apr 10

thank you! this means a lot and is exactly the reaction I was hoping for :))))

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Colin McDonnell 💎 Zod @colinhacks.com · Apr 10

huge thanks to @clerk.com for supporting my work on Zod 4! they've been an amazing partner through the much-longer-than-expected development process 🫶

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Colin McDonnell 💎 Zod @colinhacks.com · Apr 10

the beta period will last 4-6 weeks so ecosystem tooling/library authors can implement day-one support. if that's you: this page is a good starting point. don’t hesitate to reach out for guidance!
v4.zod.dev/packages/core

@zod/core | Zod Docs

v4.zod.dev

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Colin McDonnell 💎 Zod @colinhacks.com · Apr 10

breakage was kept to an absolute minimum, but there are some relatively minor changes to the public API. i'd love for some brave pioneers to upgrade and report any breakage not described in the changelog:
v4.zod.dev/v4/changelog

Migration guide | Zod Docs

v4.zod.dev

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Colin McDonnell 💎 Zod @colinhacks.com · Apr 10

Zod 4 is now in beta!

💎 7x faster object parsing
💎 20x reduction in tsc instantiations
💎 57% smaller core bundle size
💎 metadata via .meta()
💎 z.toJSONSchema()
💎 z.templateLiteral()
💎 z.stringbool()
💎 z.int32(), z.float32(), etc
💎 z.file()
💎 new logo 😇

Introducing Zod 4 beta | Zod Docs

v4.zod.dev

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Colin McDonnell 💎 Zod @colinhacks.com · Feb 25

if I may be so bold, I'd like to propose some much-needed nomenclature

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