Getting Started

Creating a definition

Start by creating a shared module that contains the networking definitions used by your game.

BufNet lets you define objects in one place, with their data types described explicitly.

-- net.luau
const define = bufnet.define
const event = bufnet.event
const t = bufnet.t

return define("game", {
	my_event = event({
		from = "Server",
		type = "Reliable",
		call = "Async",
		value = t.string,
	}),
})

Accessing the definition

A definition exposes .server() and .client():

const net = require(path.to.net)

const server = net.server() -- for server-side only
const client = net.client() -- for client-side only

Both return the same network definition, with the appropriate interface for each environment.

This allows the same definition to be shared between server and client code without maintaining separate network declarations.

Optionally, you can create a networking server file:

-- net_server.luau
const net = require(path.to.net)
return net.server()

And a client file:

-- net_client.luau
const net = require(path.to.net)
return net.client()

Options

casing

Controls the naming convention used by the generated API.

Default: Snake Options: Snake, Camel, Pascal

return define("game", {
	...
}, {
    casing = "Camel",
})

default_call

Call mode assumed by any event that doesn't declare its own call.

Default: Async Options: Async, Sync, Polling

auto_flush

Reliable and Unreliable calls are combined into a single delivery once per frame. When set to false, the automatic send is disabled and you become responsible for calling flush() — exposed on both .server() and .client() returns.

Default: true

Server:

RunService.Heartbeat:Connect(function()
	net_server.flush() -- delivers every event/funct manually
end)

Client:

RunService.Heartbeat:Connect(function()
	net_client.flush() -- delivers every event/funct manually
end)