# Openocean-messages: First class message interoperability **URL:** \ **Category:** Autonomy\ **Created:** [November 5, 2026, 6:26am UTC](https://forum.oceansoft.org/t/openocean-messages-first-class-message-interoperability/58 "2026-11-05T06:26:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![toby](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex008/user_avatar/forum.oceansoft.org/toby/32/8_2.png) [@toby](https://forum.oceansoft.org/u/toby)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2026, 6:26am UTC](https://forum.oceansoft.org/t/openocean-messages-first-class-message-interoperability/58/1 "2026-11-05T06:26:36Z")
Based on discussions at OCEANS26 Monterey, I’ve started a project `openocean-messages`: [GitHub - openocean-software/openocean-messages: Generic messages for ocean system and tools to generate native formats · GitHub](https://github.com/openocean-software/openocean-messages) This project aims to provide a subset of common messages to improve interoperability between marine robotic systems, _regardless of middleware or programming language._ In this repo are generic messages (defined in Protobuf) for ocean systems and tools to generate **native** formats from these messages. Messages are automatically converted to the desired output format as a first-class native type, so Protobuf is _not needed at runtime_ for non-Protobuf output types (e.g. ROS Msg). The output formats currently supported by this project are: - Protobuf - ROS2 Msg - LCM types **Feedback is extremely welcome at this point,** both architecturally, but also for desired output formats, and message definitions. So far the message definitions are very thin: I’m working on defining a common set of messages between navigation and a short-horizon decision engine (IvP Helm): [openocean-messages/src/openocean/messages at main · openocean-software/openocean-messages · GitHub](https://github.com/openocean-software/openocean-messages/tree/main/src/openocean/messages)