Guide families Format Comparisons Best Format Guides Best Format for Convert Guides
Use-case recommendation

Best Format for Realtime Event Streams

JSONL is a practical default for line-delimited streaming events.

Open Samples Open Manifest
Recommendation

Define the default first.

JSONL

JSONL supports append-friendly pipelines and incremental processing.

application/octet-stream

Open Samples Open Hub

NDJSON

Use NDJSON when your tooling expects strict newline-delimited JSON records.

Files: 9

Samples Hub

JSON

Use JSON for batched payload exchange rather than stream append paths.

Files: 22

Samples Hub
Related decisions

Keep adjacent decisions one step away.

JSON vs JSONL Best Data Format for APIs How to Convert ACCESSLOG to JSON
FAQ

Resolve the likely objections early.

What is the default format recommendation for this use case?

JSONL is the recommended default format here.

How should teams validate this recommendation?

Use sample files and manifest endpoints to test compatibility and behavior before rollout.