# Buf

**Canonical:** https://apis.io/providers/buf/  
**Website:** https://buf.build  
**APIs profiled:** 3

Buf is a modern developer platform for Protocol Buffers and gRPC, providing a CLI toolchain, schema registry, and streaming infrastructure. It replaces traditional protoc-based workflows with linting, breaking change detection, code generation, remote plugins, and the Buf Schema Registry (BSR) for centralized schema distribution. Buf also offers Bufstream, a Kafka-compatible streaming platform built on Protobuf. Used by enterprises including EA, Intel, IBM, OpenAI, and Okta.

## Kin Score — 23.5 / 100 (emerging)

Scored 2026-08-20 under rubric 0.12.0. Trend: flat (+0.0 from 23.5).

| Facet | Score |
|---|---|
| Discoverability | 64.8 |
| Contract Quality | 0.0 |
| Governance | 0.0 |
| Contract Governance | 0.0 |
| Operational Transparency | 26.3 |
| Developer Ergonomics | 14.3 |
| Commercial Clarity | 53.9 |
| Access Clarity | 53.9 |

## Agent readiness — 3.0 (human-only)

| Dimension | Value |
|---|---|
| Spec Presence | no |
| Agentic Access | no |
| Reversibility Documented | no |
| MCP Server | no |
| Auth Clarity | no |
| Idempotency | no |
| Error Semantics | no |
| OpenAPI Examples | no |
| Rate Limit Signal | documented |
| Event Surface Described | no |
| Agent Skills | no |
| Well Known Catalog | no |
| Consent Identity | no |
| Agent Card | no |
| Dry Run Mode | no |

## Access

Freemium — onboarding: unknown, pricing: freemium, trial: no (confidence: medium).

## APIs (3)

- **Buf Schema Registry (BSR)** — The Buf Schema Registry (BSR) is a centralized repository for managing, distributing, and documenting Protobuf schemas. It provides dependency management, generated SDKs in mult...
- **Buf CLI** — The Buf CLI is a local Protobuf development toolchain providing linting, breaking change detection, code generation, formatting, dependency management, and schema push/pull to t...
- **Bufstream** — Bufstream is a Kafka-compatible streaming platform built on Protocol Buffers. It provides schema enforcement, Iceberg integration, and administrative tooling for managing Kafka-...

## Security (1)

- **Buf Domain Security** — TLSv1.3 · HSTS · DMARC

## Plans (1)

- **Buf Plans Pricing**

## Use cases (4)

- **Protobuf Schema Management**
- **Code Generation**
- **API Linting and Governance**
- **gRPC and ConnectRPC Development**

## Tags

Code Generation, gRPC, Kafka, Open-Source, Protocol Buffers, Schema Registry, SDK, Streaming

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Profiled by [API Evangelist](https://apievangelist.com) and published on [APIs.io](https://apis.io/providers/buf/). Scores are computed from the provider's own public artifacts under a published rubric.