# object-identity > Canonicalize any value into a tiny, stable identity string. Structural fingerprints for cache keys, deduping, and memoization. Latest version **0.2.3** (published 2026-06-30) · MIT license · 0 weekly downloads ## Install ```sh npm install object-identity pnpm add object-identity yarn add object-identity bun add object-identity ``` ## Health **Score 70/100 (B)** — status: active. Positive: has types; esm support; no vulnerabilities; has provenance; recently updated; high maintenance score. Warnings: low downloads; pre 1.0. ## Facts | | | |---|---| | Version | 0.2.3 | | Published | 2026-06-30 | | First published | 2021-10-14 | | Weekly downloads | 0 | | License | MIT | | TypeScript types | bundled | | Module format | ESM + CommonJS | | Dependencies | 0 | | Unpacked size | 12.3 KB | | Known vulnerabilities | 0 | | Install scripts | no | | Provenance | attested (GitHub Actions) | | GitHub stars | 46 | | Author | Marais Rossouw | | Maintainers | marais | | Keywords | canonical, canonicalize, object, identity, fingerprint, hash, stable, deterministic, structural, equality, dedupe, memoize, cache-key, normalize | ## Links - npm: https://www.npmjs.com/package/object-identity - Repository: https://github.com/maraisr/object-identity - Homepage: https://github.com/maraisr/object-identity#readme - Issues: https://github.com/maraisr/object-identity/issues - npm.io page: https://npm.io/package/object-identity ## Alternatives - [memory-cache](https://npm.io/package/memory-cache.md) — 795.0K weekly downloads - [@httptoolkit/proxy-agent](https://npm.io/package/@httptoolkit/proxy-agent.md) — 11.2K weekly downloads - [express-cache-controller](https://npm.io/package/express-cache-controller.md) — 5.3K weekly downloads - [http-cache-middleware](https://npm.io/package/http-cache-middleware.md) — 4.5K weekly downloads - [cache2](https://npm.io/package/cache2.md) — 1.5K weekly downloads ## Recent versions - 0.2.3 (latest) — 2026-06-30 - 0.2.2 — 2026-06-26 - 0.2.1 — 2026-06-25 - 0.2.0 — 2026-06-24 - 0.1.2 — 2023-06-29 - 0.1.1 — 2023-06-22 - 0.1.0 — 2023-06-22 - 0.0.6 — 2023-04-12 - 0.0.5 — 2023-04-12 - 0.0.4 — 2022-02-27 - 0.0.3 — 2022-02-23 - 0.0.2 — 2022-02-22 - 0.0.1 — 2021-10-14 ## README
# object-identity [![licenses](https://licenses.dev/b/npm/object-identity?style=dark)](https://licenses.dev/npm/object-identity) **A tiny, fast utility that canonicalizes any value into a stable identity, for structurally equality.**

This is free to use software, but if you do like it, consider supporting me ❤️ [![sponsor me](https://badgen.net/badge/icon/sponsor?icon=github&label&color=gray)](https://github.com/sponsors/maraisr) [![buy me a coffee](https://badgen.net/badge/icon/buymeacoffee?icon=buymeacoffee&label&color=gray)](https://www.buymeacoffee.com/marais)
## ⚡ Features - 🧬 **Canonical.** The same shape always produces the same id. - 🌀 **Deep and cycle-safe.** Handles nested objects, arrays, sets, maps, and circular references. - 🏎 **Fast.** See the [benchmarks](#-benchmark). - 🪶 **Tiny.** Around 543B minified and gzipped, with zero [dependencies](https://npm.anvaka.com/#/view/2d/object-identity/). ## ⚙️ Install - **npm** — available as [`object-identity`](https://www.npmjs.com/package/object-identity) - **JSR** — available as [`@mr/object-identity`](https://jsr.io/@mr/object-identity) ## 🚀 Usage ```ts import { identify } from 'object-identity'; // same shape, different key order, same id identify({ a: 1, b: 2 }) === identify({ b: 2, a: 1 }); // true // a plain object and an equivalent Map produce the same id identify({ a: 'b' }) === identify(new Map([['a', 'b']])); // true // nesting, Sets, Dates, and RegExps are all supported const key = identify({ user: 7, filters: new Set(['active', 'new']) }); ``` ## 💨 Benchmark - **simple** a complete nested object, with an arrays and other mixed primitives. - **deep** a long, narrow nesting chain. - **deep circular** the deep chain, but every node points back and the tail closes the loop. - **big** a wide object: hundreds of keys, but with small values. - **leafy** a large flat array of mixed primitives. ``` ✔ simple 829,712 ops/sec ✔ deep 117,578 ops/sec ✔ deep circular 169,652 ops/sec ✔ big 11,664 ops/sec ✔ leafy 41,925 ops/sec ```
All candidates ```diff simple + ✔ object-identity 829,712 ops/sec ✔ safe-stable-stringify 544,561 ops/sec 1.52x ✔ ohash 257,343 ops/sec 3.22x ✔ object-hash 96,890 ops/sec 8.56x ✔ hash-it † 328,222 ops/sec 2.53x ✔ json-stable-stringify 309,313 ops/sec 2.68x ✔ fast-json-stable-stringify 458,943 ops/sec 1.81x ✔ tiny-stable-stringify 402,523 ops/sec 2.06x ✔ json-stringify-deterministic 311,265 ops/sec 2.67x ✔ json-sorted-stringify 402,961 ops/sec 2.06x ✔ canonicalize 267,754 ops/sec 3.10x ✔ swr/_internal/stableHash 250,439 ops/sec 3.31x ✘ @tufjs/canonical-json deep + ✔ object-identity 117,578 ops/sec ✔ safe-stable-stringify 74,688 ops/sec 1.57x ✔ ohash 38,360 ops/sec 3.07x ✔ object-hash 17,877 ops/sec 6.58x ✔ hash-it † 44,260 ops/sec 2.66x ✔ json-stable-stringify 41,899 ops/sec 2.81x ✔ fast-json-stable-stringify 70,452 ops/sec 1.67x ✔ tiny-stable-stringify 62,336 ops/sec 1.89x ✔ json-stringify-deterministic 43,571 ops/sec 2.70x ✔ json-sorted-stringify 62,523 ops/sec 1.88x ✔ canonicalize 37,471 ops/sec 3.14x ✔ swr/_internal/stableHash 34,445 ops/sec 3.41x ✔ @tufjs/canonical-json 28,960 ops/sec 4.06x deep circular + ✔ object-identity 169,652 ops/sec ✔ safe-stable-stringify 133,794 ops/sec 1.27x ✔ ohash 58,065 ops/sec 2.92x ✔ object-hash 22,029 ops/sec 7.70x ✔ hash-it † 62,480 ops/sec 2.72x ✘ json-stable-stringify ✔ fast-json-stable-stringify 94,420 ops/sec 1.80x ✘ tiny-stable-stringify ✔ json-stringify-deterministic 62,684 ops/sec 2.71x ✘ json-sorted-stringify ✘ canonicalize ✔ swr/_internal/stableHash 54,642 ops/sec 3.10x ✘ @tufjs/canonical-json big + ✔ object-identity 11,664 ops/sec ✔ safe-stable-stringify 7,097 ops/sec 1.64x ✔ ohash 3,287 ops/sec 3.55x ✔ object-hash 1,940 ops/sec 6.01x ✔ hash-it † 3,583 ops/sec 3.26x ✔ json-stable-stringify 4,396 ops/sec 2.65x ✔ fast-json-stable-stringify 6,219 ops/sec 1.88x ✔ tiny-stable-stringify 5,771 ops/sec 2.02x ✔ json-stringify-deterministic 4,448 ops/sec 2.62x ✔ json-sorted-stringify 5,719 ops/sec 2.04x ✔ canonicalize 3,799 ops/sec 3.07x ✔ swr/_internal/stableHash 3,536 ops/sec 3.30x ✔ @tufjs/canonical-json 2,542 ops/sec 4.59x leafy + ✔ object-identity 41,925 ops/sec ✔ safe-stable-stringify 20,088 ops/sec 2.09x ✔ ohash 32,586 ops/sec 1.29x ✔ object-hash 11,693 ops/sec 3.59x ✔ hash-it † 12,092 ops/sec 3.47x ✔ json-stable-stringify 8,863 ops/sec 4.73x ✔ fast-json-stable-stringify 16,968 ops/sec 2.47x ✔ tiny-stable-stringify 9,269 ops/sec 4.52x ✔ json-stringify-deterministic 8,680 ops/sec 4.83x ✔ json-sorted-stringify 9,522 ops/sec 4.40x ✔ canonicalize 10,858 ops/sec 3.86x ✔ swr/_internal/stableHash 7,982 ops/sec 5.25x ✔ @tufjs/canonical-json 4,714 ops/sec 8.89x ```
> `object-identity` only handles mainly JSON-like data by design. It won't fingerprint functions or > every Node builtin the way some alternatives do, so these numbers only reflect the payloads it > targets. ## License MIT © [Marais Rossouw](https://marais.io) --- _Source: https://npm.io/package/object-identity · Machine-readable twin of the npm.io package page. Health data is recomputed on every publish._