fix: remove the dependency on protobuf-lite for tombstones by supervacuus · Pull Request #5157 · getsentry/sentry-java

supervacuus · 2026-03-05T10:38:04Z

📜 Description

As the title says, it replaces the dependency on a huge generic protobuf decoder with a tiny tombstone-specific package called epitaph (GH, central). The dependency is MIT licensed and can be incorporated into the Sentry ecosystem in whichever ways make sense down the road.

💡 Motivation and Context

Part of the wrap-up milestone in https://linear.app/getsentry/project/tombstone-support-android-0024cb6e3ffd

eliminates conflicts with client dependencies (Sentry Android SDK (8.30.0) incompatible with Firebase dependencies #5039, fix(dependencies): Downgrade protobuf-javalite from 4.33.1 to 3.25.8 #5044)
reduces the size of the release AAR by 25%; 371 KiB instead 495 KiB (compared with 8.34.0)
since the tombstone protobuf format changes very infrequently (many years between changes), having a low dependency direct decoder is a sensible trade-off for a mobile SDK.

https://linear.app/getsentry/issue/ANDROID-267/switch-to-dependency-free-protobuf-runtime

💚 How did you test it?

Tested the same way as the dependency it replaces. The library, though, has a battery of test cases for encoding errors and edge cases.

📝 Checklist

I added GH Issue ID & Linear ID
I added tests to verify the changes.
No new PII added or SDK only sends newly added PII if sendDefaultPII is enabled.
I updated the docs if needed.
I updated the wizard if needed.
Review from the native team if needed.
No breaking change or entry added to the changelog.
No breaking change for hybrid SDKs or communicated to hybrid SDKs.

🔮 Next steps

github-actions · 2026-03-05T10:38:30Z

Semver Impact of This PR

🟢 Patch (bug fixes)

📋 Changelog Preview

This is how your changes will appear in the changelog.
Entries from this PR are highlighted with a left border (blockquote style).

New Features ✨

(anr) Profile main thread when ANR and report ANR profiles to Sentry by markushi in #4899

Bug Fixes 🐛

Remove the dependency on protobuf-lite for tombstones by supervacuus in #5157

_{🤖 This preview updates automatically when you update the PR.}

...ry-android-core/src/main/java/io/sentry/android/core/internal/tombstone/TombstoneParser.java

cursor

Cursor Bugbot has reviewed your changes and found 1 potential issue.

Bugbot Autofix prepared a fix for the issue found in the latest run.

✅ Fixed: NPE in close() when tombstoneStream is null
- Added a null guard in TombstoneParser.close() so try-with-resources no longer throws when constructed without an InputStream.

Or push these changes by commenting:

@cursor push 9737b16a1a

Preview (9737b16a1a)

diff --git a/sentry-android-core/src/main/java/io/sentry/android/core/internal/tombstone/TombstoneParser.java b/sentry-android-core/src/main/java/io/sentry/android/core/internal/tombstone/TombstoneParser.java
--- a/sentry-android-core/src/main/java/io/sentry/android/core/internal/tombstone/TombstoneParser.java
+++ b/sentry-android-core/src/main/java/io/sentry/android/core/internal/tombstone/TombstoneParser.java
@@ -349,6 +349,8 @@
 
   @Override
   public void close() throws IOException {
-    tombstoneStream.close();
+    if (tombstoneStream != null) {
+      tombstoneStream.close();
+    }
   }
 }

_{This Bugbot Autofix run was free. To enable autofix for future PRs, go to the Cursor dashboard.}

...ry-android-core/src/main/java/io/sentry/android/core/internal/tombstone/TombstoneParser.java

markushi

Nice straight-forward replacement, looks good to me!

romtsn

cool stuff!

…obuf schema

sentry · 2026-03-09T09:32:00Z

Sentry Build Distribution

App	Version	Configuration
SDK Size	8.34.1 (1)	release

github-actions · 2026-03-09T09:38:46Z

Performance metrics 🚀

	Plain	With Sentry	Diff
Startup time	333.94 ms	389.08 ms	55.14 ms
Size	0 B	0 B	0 B

Baseline results on branch: main

Startup times

Revision	Plain	With Sentry	Diff
`ee747ae`	386.94 ms	431.43 ms	44.49 ms
`539ca63`	313.51 ms	355.43 ms	41.92 ms
`22f4345`	312.78 ms	347.40 ms	34.62 ms
`9fbb112`	401.87 ms	515.87 ms	114.00 ms
`fcec2f2`	357.47 ms	447.32 ms	89.85 ms
`d15471f`	361.89 ms	378.07 ms	16.18 ms
`d15471f`	303.49 ms	439.08 ms	135.59 ms
`0eaac1e`	320.04 ms	369.52 ms	49.48 ms
`a5ab36f`	320.47 ms	389.77 ms	69.30 ms
`27d7cf8`	369.82 ms	422.62 ms	52.80 ms

App size

Revision	Plain	With Sentry	Diff
`ee747ae`	1.58 MiB	2.10 MiB	530.95 KiB
`539ca63`	1.58 MiB	2.12 MiB	551.41 KiB
`22f4345`	1.58 MiB	2.29 MiB	719.83 KiB
`9fbb112`	1.58 MiB	2.11 MiB	539.18 KiB
`fcec2f2`	1.58 MiB	2.12 MiB	551.50 KiB
`d15471f`	1.58 MiB	2.13 MiB	559.54 KiB
`d15471f`	1.58 MiB	2.13 MiB	559.54 KiB
`0eaac1e`	1.58 MiB	2.19 MiB	619.17 KiB
`a5ab36f`	1.58 MiB	2.12 MiB	555.26 KiB
`27d7cf8`	1.58 MiB	2.12 MiB	549.42 KiB

## Summary - Adds a daily GHA workflow that checks if the upstream R8 retrace mapping spec (`doc/retrace.md`) has been updated - Mirrors the approach from [sentry-java#5157](getsentry/sentry-java#5157) for the tombstone proto schema - Allows us to react to retrace format changes promptly ## Test plan - [x] Verified the script runs successfully locally and reports "Spec is up to date" 🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code) --------- Co-authored-by: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

fix: remove the dependency on protobuf-lite for tombstones

5f33489

supervacuus requested review from adinauer, lcian, markushi and romtsn as code owners March 5, 2026 10:38

sentry bot reviewed Mar 5, 2026

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supervacuus added 2 commits March 5, 2026 11:44

update changelog

cf1111e

gate the close() on the underlying input stream

cda8031

markushi approved these changes Mar 9, 2026

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romtsn approved these changes Mar 9, 2026

View reviewed changes

add scheduled GHA workflow to check for changes in the tombstone prot…

9de2628

…obuf schema

supervacuus enabled auto-merge (squash) March 9, 2026 11:20

supervacuus disabled auto-merge March 9, 2026 11:21

supervacuus merged commit 08ffa5a into main Mar 9, 2026
65 of 66 checks passed

supervacuus deleted the fix/remove_protobuf-lite_dep_tombstone branch March 9, 2026 12:07

romtsn mentioned this pull request Mar 10, 2026

chore: Add scheduled job to check for retrace spec changes getsentry/rust-proguard#90

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sentry-release-bot bot mentioned this pull request Mar 11, 2026

publish: getsentry/sentry-java@8.35.0 getsentry/publish#7418

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fix: remove the dependency on protobuf-lite for tombstones#5157

fix: remove the dependency on protobuf-lite for tombstones#5157
supervacuus merged 4 commits intomainfrom
fix/remove_protobuf-lite_dep_tombstone

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📜 Description

💡 Motivation and Context

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📝 Checklist

🔮 Next steps

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sentry bot commented Mar 9, 2026

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