airlift/drift

An annotation-based Java library for creating Thrift serializable types and services.

250

stars

800

commits

Java

primary language

Jul 20, 2026

updated

README

Drift

Maven Central Build Status

Drift is an easy-to-use, annotation-based Java library for creating Thrift clients and serializable types. The client library is similar to JAX-RS (HTTP Rest) and the serialization library is similar to JaxB (XML) and Jackson (JSON), but for Thrift.

Example

The following interface defines a client for a Scribe server:

@ThriftService
public interface Scribe
{
    @ThriftMethod
    ResultCode log(List<LogEntry> messages);
}

The log method above uses the LogEntry Thrift struct which is defined as follows:

@ThriftStruct
public class LogEntry
{
    private final String category;
    private final String message;

    @ThriftConstructor
    public LogEntry(String category, String message)
    {
        this.category = category;
        this.message = message;
    }

    @ThriftField(1)
    public String getCategory()
    {
        return category;
    }

    @ThriftField(2)
    public String getMessage()
    {
        return message;
    }
}

An instance of the Scribe client can be created using a DriftClientFactory:

// create a client
Scribe scribe = clientFactory.createDriftClient(Scribe.class);

// use client
scribe.log(Arrays.asList(new LogEntry("category", "message")));

Detailed Documentation

Contributors

andrewcox

287 commits

dain

187 commits

electrum

183 commits

hgschmie

41 commits

airlift/drift

An annotation-based Java library for creating Thrift serializable types and services.

250

stars

800

commits

Java

primary language

Jul 20, 2026

updated

README

Drift

Maven Central Build Status

Drift is an easy-to-use, annotation-based Java library for creating Thrift clients and serializable types. The client library is similar to JAX-RS (HTTP Rest) and the serialization library is similar to JaxB (XML) and Jackson (JSON), but for Thrift.

Example

The following interface defines a client for a Scribe server:

@ThriftService
public interface Scribe
{
    @ThriftMethod
    ResultCode log(List<LogEntry> messages);
}

The log method above uses the LogEntry Thrift struct which is defined as follows:

@ThriftStruct
public class LogEntry
{
    private final String category;
    private final String message;

    @ThriftConstructor
    public LogEntry(String category, String message)
    {
        this.category = category;
        this.message = message;
    }

    @ThriftField(1)
    public String getCategory()
    {
        return category;
    }

    @ThriftField(2)
    public String getMessage()
    {
        return message;
    }
}

An instance of the Scribe client can be created using a DriftClientFactory:

// create a client
Scribe scribe = clientFactory.createDriftClient(Scribe.class);

// use client
scribe.log(Arrays.asList(new LogEntry("category", "message")));

Detailed Documentation

Contributors

andrewcox

287 commits

dain

187 commits

electrum

183 commits

hgschmie

41 commits

Languages

Java

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