Change data capture (CDC) is essential for modern data platforms, supporting event-driven microservices and real-time analytics, and CockroachDB enhances this by incorporating Protocol Buffers (Protobuf) as a serialization option. By adding Protobuf, organizations that standardize on this format, particularly in Kafka-centric architectures, can seamlessly integrate CockroachDB without additional code or converters, reducing latency, cost, and complexity. The Protobuf support includes various format options and schema delivery through an Apache-licensed .proto definition, facilitating a single, versioned contract between producers and consumers. This integration is designed for teams already using Protobuf, aiming to streamline workflows by eliminating the need for transformations from JSON or Avro to Protobuf, and is particularly beneficial for those migrating to CockroachDB from systems where Protobuf is prevalent. While the Protobuf bytes are not canonical and should not be used as stable identifiers, CockroachDB plans to document best practices and explore key-value encoders for improved stability.