Generating Code

Compilers and plugins

The protobuf compiler protoc with language plugins generates message classes and gRPC stubs. In Python, grpcio-tools bundles protoc; Go uses protoc-gen-go and protoc-gen-go-grpc; Java and Kotlin usually use Gradle or Maven plugins. Buf is a popular alternative toolchain that manages dependencies, runs linting and breaking-change detection, and generates code from a buf.gen.yaml file. Commit or publish generated code consistently, and regenerate in CI to catch drift.

Generating Python code and a Buf config

Commands based on the gRPC Python and Buf documentation.

# Python: generates order_pb2.py and order_pb2_grpc.py
python -m grpc_tools.protoc -I proto \
  --python_out=gen --pyi_out=gen --grpc_python_out=gen \
  proto/shop/v1/order.proto

# Buf: buf.gen.yaml (v2 format) generating Go code
# version: v2
# plugins:
#   - remote: buf.build/protocolbuffers/go
#     out: gen
#   - remote: buf.build/grpc/go
#     out: gen
buf lint && buf generate

Lint proto files

buf lint enforces naming and structure conventions so APIs across teams look consistent.

Quick check: What does the --grpc_python_out option generate?

• A database schema
• Only message classes
• gRPC client stubs and server base classes
• HTML documentation