# F3 file format

6 Hacker News commenters recommended F3 file format and 5 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 2 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Self-describing file format with a WebAssembly decoder, so no language-specific library is needed. Critics say its readme does not explain who should use it.

## Why people recommend it

- Self-describing design praised by readers (2 comments): "This bit is quite genius, rather than depend on a language-specific SDK/lib for working with the formats" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48648238)) "I love the idea, and I developed something similar of myself in the past" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48648447))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Apache Parquet](https://hackerapproved.com/p/parquet.md): 40 recommend
- [Safetensors](https://hackerapproved.com/p/safetensors.md): 7 recommend
- [JSON Canvas](https://hackerapproved.com/p/json-canvas.md): 7 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "F3 file format", https://hackerapproved.com/p/f3/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).