Codecs

Solace::Utils::Codecs is the encoding toolbox behind the serializers and instruction builders: base58/base64 conversions and the little-endian and compact-u16 integer encodings Solana's binary format uses. All methods are module functions.

Base58

Solana addresses and signatures are base58.

Method	Signature	Description
bytes_to_base58	(Array<Integer>) → String	Encode a byte array to base58.
base58_to_bytes	(String) → Array<Integer>	Decode base58 to a byte array.
binary_to_base58	(String) → String	Encode a binary string to base58.
base58_to_binary	(String) → String	Decode base58 to a binary string.
valid_base58?	(String) → Boolean	Whether a string is valid base58.

bytes = Solace::Utils::Codecs.base58_to_bytes("11111111111111111111111111111111")
Solace::Utils::Codecs.bytes_to_base58(bytes) # round-trips

Compact-u16 (ShortVec)

Solana encodes array lengths as a variable-length "compact-u16" (ShortVec). Decoders read from an IO and report how many bytes they consumed.

Method	Signature	Description
encode_compact_u16	(Integer) → String	Encode a length as packed bytes.
decode_compact_u16	(IO) → [Integer, Integer]	Decode [value, bytes_read] from a stream.

packed = Solace::Utils::Codecs.encode_compact_u16(300)
value, read = Solace::Utils::Codecs.decode_compact_u16(StringIO.new(packed))

Little-endian u64

Lamport amounts and most numeric instruction arguments are little-endian u64.

Method	Signature	Description
encode_le_u64	(Integer) → String	Encode an integer as 8 little-endian bytes.
decode_le_u64	(IO) → Integer	Decode a u64 from a stream.

data = Solace::Utils::Codecs.encode_le_u64(1_000_000)

Base64

RPC returns account and transaction data as base64; turn it into a stream the deserializers can read:

Method	Signature	Description
base64_to_bytestream	(String) → StringIO	Decode base64 into a StringIO.

io = Solace::Utils::Codecs.base64_to_bytestream(account_info['data'][0])

These primitives are what you compose when writing your own instruction builder.