No-std support

The serde crate has a Cargo feature named "std" that is enabled by default. In order to use Serde in a no_std context this feature needs to be disabled. Modify your Serde dependency in Cargo.toml to opt out of enabled-by-default features.

[dependencies]
serde = { version = "1.0", default-features = false }

Be aware that Cargo features are unioned together across your entire dependency graph. That means if any other crate you depend on has not opted out of Serde's default features, you will build Serde with the std feature enabled whether or not your direct dependency on Serde has default-features = false.

In particular, a dependency on serde_json always needs Serde built with std. If you need JSON support without a standard library, please use serde-json-core instead of serde_json.

Derive

The #[derive(Serialize, Deserialize)] derive macros work just the same in a no-std crate.

[dependencies]
serde = { version = "1.0", default-features = false, features = ["derive"] }

Some deserialization features that require a heap-allocated temporary buffer will not be available in no-std mode without a memory allocator. In particular untagged enums cannot be deserialized.

Memory allocation

Opting out of the "std" feature of Serde removes support for any standard library data structures that involve heap memory allocation, including String and Vec<T>. It also removes some features of derive(Deserialize) including untagged enums.

You can opt back in to these impls by enabling the "alloc" Cargo feature. This configuration provides integration for heap-allocated collections without depending on the rest of the Rust standard library.

[dependencies]
serde = { version = "1.0", default-features = false, features = ["alloc"] }