https://thibault.uk/tags/varint/ Recent content in Varint on Thibault Meunier Hugo en Sat, 18 Apr 2026 08:00:00 +0000 https://thibault.uk/posts/quicvarint-javascript/ Sat, 18 Apr 2026 08:00:00 +0000 https://thibault.uk/posts/quicvarint-javascript/ <p>How do you encode an integer on the wire? Fixed-size works until you want to send <code>1</code> and you&rsquo;re burning 8 bytes on zeroes. Variable-length encoding trades a bit of complexity for smaller payloads.</p> <p>QUIC defines its own scheme in <a href="https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc9000.html#name-variable-length-integer-enc" class="external-link" target="_blank" rel="noopener">RFC 9000</a>: the 2-MSB varint. The two most significant bits of the first byte tell you the total length: 1, 2, 4, or 8 bytes. The remaining bits are the value.</p>