Source: Roblox Creator Hub · CC BY 4.0 · View source · Code samples: MIT Imported 2026-10-03. Formatting adapted for this site.
SerializationService
Inherits from: Instance → Object
SerializationService converts instances to and from the binary .rbxm model format. Call SerializeInstancesAsync() to serialize a list of instances into a buffer of .rbxm content, and DeserializeInstancesAsync() to reconstruct instances from such a buffer.
Usable only from Studio plugins or Open Cloud Luau Execution Sessions. Attempting to serialize or deserialize non-creatable instances or services throws an error.
No stability contract is offered for the .rbxm format; its composition may change at any time. Content serialized by the engine can always be deserialized by the engine, but parsing engine-generated .rbxm with third-party tools, or deserializing .rbxm generated by other means, is at the user's own risk.
Inherits from: Instance
Memory category: Instances
Tags: NotCreatable, Service
Methods
| Name | Type / Returns | Description |
|---|---|---|
| SerializationService:DeserializeInstancesAsync | List | Deserializes a buffer containing .rbxm content, returning a list of instances. |
| SerializationService:SerializeInstancesAsync | buffer | Serializes a list of instances to the .rbxm format, returning a buffer or .rbxm content. |
Inherited from Instance
| Name | Type / Returns | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Instance:AddTag | () | Applies a tag to the instance. |
| Instance:children | Instances | Returns an array of the object's children. |
| Instance:ClearAllChildren | () | This method destroys all of an instance's children. |
| Instance:Clone | Instance | Create a copy of an instance and all its descendants, ignoring instances that are not Archivable. |
| Instance:clone | Instance | |
| Instance:Destroy | () | Sets the Instance.Parent property to nil, locks the Instance.Parent property, disconnects all connections, and calls Destroy() on all children. |
| Instance:destroy | () | |
| Instance:FindFirstAncestor | Instance? | Returns the first ancestor of the Instance whose Instance.Name is equal to the given name. |
| Instance:FindFirstAncestorOfClass | Instance? | Returns the first ancestor of the Instance whose Object.ClassName is equal to the given className. |
| Instance:FindFirstAncestorWhichIsA | Instance? | Returns the first ancestor of the Instance for whom Object:IsA() returns true for the given className. |
| Instance:FindFirstChild | Instance? | Returns the first child of the Instance found with the given name. |
| Instance:findFirstChild | Instance | |
| Instance:FindFirstChildOfClass | Instance? | Returns the first child of the Instance whose ClassName is equal to the given class name. |
| Instance:FindFirstChildWhichIsA | Instance? | Returns the first child of the Instance for whom Object:IsA() returns true for the given className. |
| Instance:FindFirstDescendant | Instance? | Returns the first descendant found with the given Instance.Name. |
| Instance:GetActor | Actor? | Returns the Actor associated with the Instance, if any. |
| Instance:GetAttribute | Variant | Returns the value which has been assigned to the given attribute name. |
| Instance:GetAttributeChangedSignal | RBXScriptSignal | Returns an event that fires when the given attribute changes. |
| Instance:GetAttributes | Dictionary | Returns a dictionary of the instance's attributes. |
| Instance:GetChildren | Instances | Returns an array containing all of the instance's children. |
| Instance:getChildren | Instances | |
| Instance:GetDebugId | string | Returns a coded string of the debug ID used internally by Roblox. |
| Instance:GetDescendants | Instances | Returns an array containing all of the descendants of the instance. |
| Instance:GetFullName | string | Returns a string describing the instance's ancestry. |
| Instance:GetStyled | Variant | Returns the styled or explicitly modified value of the specified property, or else the default property value if it hasn't been styled/modified. |
| Instance:GetStyledPropertyChangedSignal | RBXScriptSignal | Returns an event that fires when the given style property changes on the instance. |
| Instance:GetTags | Array | Gets an array of all tags applied to the instance. |
| Instance:HasTag | boolean | Check whether the instance has a given tag. |
| Instance:IsAncestorOf | boolean | Returns true if an Instance is an ancestor of the given descendant. |
| Instance:IsDescendantOf | boolean | Returns true if an Instance is a descendant of the given ancestor. |
| Instance:isDescendantOf | boolean | |
| Instance:IsPropertyModified | boolean | Returns true if the value stored in the specified property is not equal to the code-instantiated default. |
| Instance:QueryDescendants | Instances | Returns an array containing all descendants of the instance that match the selector string. |
| Instance:Remove | () | Sets the object's Parent to nil, and does the same for all its descendants. |
| Instance:remove | () | |
| Instance:RemoveTag | () | Removes a tag from the instance. |
| Instance:ResetPropertyToDefault | () | Resets a property to its default value. |
| Instance:SetAttribute | () | Sets the attribute with the given name to the given value. |
| Instance:WaitForChild | Instance | Returns the child of the Instance with the given name. If the child does not exist, it will yield the current thread until it does. |
Inherited from Object
| Name | Type / Returns | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Object:GetPropertyChangedSignal | RBXScriptSignal | Get an event that fires when a given property of the object changes. |
| Object:IsA | boolean | Returns true if an object's class matches or inherits from a given class. |
| Object:isA | boolean |
SerializationService:DeserializeInstancesAsync
Deserializes a buffer containing .rbxm content, returning a list of instances.
This API can only be called from Studio plugins or Open Cloud Luau Execution Sessions. If non-creatable instances or services are included in the content, an error is thrown.
No stability contract is offered for the .rbxm format and the composition of this data may change at any time. This API will faithfully parse .rbxm content that was serialized by the Roblox engine, including .rbxm files generated by Studio or via SerializeInstancesAsync().
Although it is possible to use this API to deserialize .rbxm content generated by any other means, this is done at the user's own risk. The engine may fail to deserialize such content faithfully, or at all.
Parameters
| Name | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| buffer | buffer | A buffer containing the .rbxm content to deserialize. |
Returns
| Type | Description |
|---|---|
| List | A list of the instances reconstructed from the buffer's .rbxm content. |
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| tags | ["Yields"] |
| security | None |
| thread safety | Unsafe |
| capabilities | ["PluginOrOpenCloud"] |
Code samples: View on Creator Hub (SerializationService-Roundtrip-Sample).
SerializationService:SerializeInstancesAsync
Serializes a list of instances to the .rbxm format, returning a buffer or .rbxm content.
This API can only be called from Studio plugins or Open Cloud Luau Execution Sessions. If non-creatable instances or services are included in the list of instances, an error is thrown.
No stability contract is offered for the .rbxm format and the composition of this data may change at any time. This API will serialize content according to the serialization behavior of the current engine version.
Although it is possible for other tools to parse .rbxm content, this is done at the user's own risk. The engine may still generate .rbxm content that 3rd-party tools fail to parse faithfully.
Parameters
| Name | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| inputInstances | List | The list of instances to serialize. |
Returns
| Type | Description |
|---|---|
| buffer | A buffer containing the .rbxm content of the serialized instances. |
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| tags | ["Yields"] |
| security | None |
| thread safety | Unsafe |
| capabilities | ["PluginOrOpenCloud"] |
Code samples: View on Creator Hub (SerializationService-Roundtrip-Sample).
Properties
Inherited from Instance
| Name | Type / Returns | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Instance.Archivable | boolean | Determines if an Instance and its descendants can be cloned using Instance:Clone(), and can be saved/published. |
| Instance.archivable | boolean | |
| Instance.Capabilities | SecurityCapabilities | The set of capabilities allowed to be used for scripts inside this container. |
| Instance.IsInSandbox | boolean | Indicates whether the instance is inside a sandboxed container. |
| Instance.Name | string | A non-unique identifier of the Instance. |
| Instance.Parent | Instance | Determines the hierarchical parent of the Instance. |
| Instance.PredictionMode | PredictionMode | Reflects the client-side prediction mode applied to the instance under server-authoritative physics. |
| Instance.RobloxLocked | boolean | A deprecated property that used to protect CoreGui objects. |
| Instance.Sandboxed | boolean | When enabled, the instance can only access abilities in its Capabilities list. |
| Instance.UniqueId | UniqueId | A unique identifier for the instance. |
Inherited from Object
| Name | Type / Returns | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Object.ClassName | string | A read-only string representing the class this Object belongs to. |
| Object.className | string |
Events
Inherited from Instance
| Name | Type / Returns | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Instance.AncestryChanged | Fires when the Instance.Parent property of this object or one of its ancestors is changed. | |
| Instance.AttributeChanged | Fires whenever an attribute is changed on the Instance. | |
| Instance.ChildAdded | Fires after an object is parented to this Instance. | |
| Instance.childAdded | ||
| Instance.ChildRemoved | Fires after a child is removed from this Instance. | |
| Instance.DescendantAdded | Fires after a descendant is added to the Instance. | |
| Instance.DescendantRemoving | Fires immediately before a descendant of the Instance is removed. | |
| Instance.Destroying | Fires immediately before (or is deferred until after) the instance is destroyed via Instance:Destroy(). | |
| Instance.StyledPropertiesChanged | Fires whenever any style property is changed on the instance, including when a property is set to nil. |
Inherited from Object
| Name | Type / Returns | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Object.Changed | Fires immediately after a property of the object changes, with some limitations. |