Socket.IO Protocol Parser

socket.io-parser is the foundational library responsible for encoding and decoding packets for the Socket.IO protocol. It is an internal component used by both `socket.io` (server) and `socket.io-client` (browser/Node.js client) to serialize and deserialize messages, including binary data, into a transportable format compatible with the underlying Engine.IO layer. The current stable version is 4.2.6. Releases are typically aligned with major `socket.io` ecosystem updates and critical security patches, such as recent fixes for CVEs. While primarily an internal dependency, it can be used directly for advanced use cases like implementing custom Socket.IO parsers or debugging the protocol, offering a low-level interface to the Socket.IO communication structure.