Byte Buddy is a code generation and manipulation library for creating and modifying Java classes during the runtime of a Java application and without the help of a compiler. Byte Buddy allows the creation of arbitrary classes and is not limited to implementing interfaces for the creation of runtime proxies. Furthermore, Byte Buddy offers a convenient API for changing classes either manually, using a Java agent or during a build.
Byte Buddy is a code generation and manipulation library for creating and modifiying Java classes during the runtime of a Java application and without the help of a compiler. Other than the code generation utilities that ship with the Java Class Library, Byte Buddy allows the creation of arbitrary classes and is not limited to implementing interfaces for the creation of runtime proxies. Furthermore, Byte Buddy offers a convenient API for changing classes either manually, using a Java agent or during a build.
In order to use Byte Buddy, one does not require an understanding of Java byte code or the class file format. In contrast, Byte Buddy's API aims for code that is concise and easy to understand for everybody. Nevertheless, Byte Buddy remains fully customizable down to the possibility of defining custom byte code. Furthermore, the API was designed to be as non-intrusive as possible and as a result, Byte Buddy does not leave any trace in the classes that were created by it. For this reason, the generated classes can exist without requiring Byte Buddy on the class path. Because of this feature, Byte Buddy's mascot was chosen to be a ghost.
Byte Buddy is written in Java 6 but supports the generation of classes for any Java version. Byte Buddy is a light-weight library and only depends on the visitor API of the Java byte code parser library ASM which does itself not require any further dependencies.
