diff --git a/parser/enrich.py b/parser/enrich.py
index 30aa980..af5b4a5 100644
--- a/parser/enrich.py
+++ b/parser/enrich.py
@@ -6,7 +6,8 @@
 
 - ``category``     — a coarse semantic class (constructor, predicate, io, ...).
 - ``typeEncodings``— for each opaque C type, how it round-trips to the wire
-                      (text / MF-JSON / WKB) and the function names that do it.
+                      (text / MF-JSON / WKB) and the function names that do it,
+                      and under ``bytes`` the reader and writer of its WKB bytes.
 - ``network``      — whether the function can be projected onto a *stateless*
                       endpoint, and if not, why.
 - ``wire``         — per-parameter and return value, the concrete request /
@@ -238,6 +239,28 @@ def choose(cands: dict, base: str, suffix: str) -> str:
         generic = base.lower() + suffix
         return generic if generic in cands else sorted(cands)[0]
 
+    # The byte codec of a type, beside its wire encodings: a reader
+    # ``T *f(const uint8_t *wkb, size_t size)`` and a writer
+    # ``uint8_t *f(const T *, uint8_t variant, size_t *size_out)``, recognised by
+    # shape. The bytes are no wire string, so they add no ``encodings`` entry; an
+    # in-process binding carries a value as them (the JVM engines).
+    bread: dict[str, list] = {}
+    bwrite: dict[str, list] = {}
+    for fn in functions:
+        params = fn.get("params", [])
+        ret = fn["returnType"]["canonical"]
+        cs = [p["canonical"] for p in params]
+        if (len(cs) == 2 and _base(cs[0]) == "uint8_t" and _ptr_depth(cs[0]) == 1
+                and _base(cs[1]) == "size_t" and _ptr_depth(cs[1]) == 0
+                and _ptr_depth(ret) == 1 and _base(ret) in structs):
+            bread.setdefault(_base(ret), []).append(fn["name"])
+        if (len(cs) == 3 and _base(ret) == "uint8_t" and _ptr_depth(ret) == 1
+                and _ptr_depth(cs[0]) == 1 and _base(cs[0]) in structs
+                and _base(cs[1]) in ("uint8_t", "unsigned char")
+                and _ptr_depth(cs[1]) == 0
+                and _base(cs[2]) == "size_t" and _ptr_depth(cs[2]) == 1):
+            bwrite.setdefault(_base(cs[0]), []).append(fn["name"])
+
     out: dict[str, dict] = {}
     for base, s in enc.items():
         dec = {e: choose(c, base, dec_suffix[e])
@@ -255,6 +278,11 @@ def choose(cands: dict, base: str, suffix: str) -> str:
             "in_aux": s["decoders"][in_e][dec[in_e]] if in_e else [],
             "out_aux": s["encoders"][out_e][encd[out_e]] if out_e else [],
         }
+        if base in bread and base in bwrite:
+            out[base]["bytes"] = {
+                "decoder": choose(dict.fromkeys(bread[base]), base, "_from_wkb"),
+                "encoder": choose(dict.fromkeys(bwrite[base]), base, "_as_wkb"),
+            }
     return out
 
 
diff --git a/tests/test_enrich.py b/tests/test_enrich.py
index 6723b87..213982d 100644
--- a/tests/test_enrich.py
+++ b/tests/test_enrich.py
@@ -62,6 +62,15 @@ def fn(name, ret, *params):
        ("const struct Box *", "box"), ("int", "maxdd")),
     fn("weird_in", "struct Weird *",
        ("const char *", "str"), ("int", "basetype")),
+    # The byte codec: a reader of (bytes, length) and a writer of (value,
+    # variant, *size_out). Box has a writer and no reader, so no byte codec.
+    fn("temporal_from_wkb", "struct Temporal *",
+       ("const uint8_t *", "wkb"), ("size_t", "size")),
+    fn("temporal_as_wkb", "uint8_t *",
+       (T, "temp"), ("uint8_t", "variant"), ("size_t *", "size_out")),
+    fn("box_as_wkb", "uint8_t *",
+       ("const struct Box *", "box"), ("uint8_t", "variant"),
+       ("size_t *", "size_out")),
     # An otherwise-exposable function carrying an internal doxygen group: it
     # must be policy-excluded (api=internal), like the programmer Datum API.
     dict(fn("internal_op", "struct Temporal *", (T, "temp")),
@@ -149,6 +158,17 @@ def test_defaultable_aux_accepted_type_tag_rejected(self):
         # Weird gets no decoder at all.
         self.assertNotIn("Weird", self.te)
 
+    def test_byte_codec_beside_the_wire_encodings(self):
+        # the byte-codec twin of #test_struct_prefix_stripped_and_round_trip
+        self.assertEqual(self.te["Temporal"]["bytes"],
+                         {"decoder": "temporal_from_wkb",
+                          "encoder": "temporal_as_wkb"})
+        # the bytes are no wire string: the encodings stay the string forms
+        self.assertEqual(self.te["Temporal"]["encodings"], ["mfjson", "text"])
+        # a writer without a reader states no codec
+        self.assertNotIn("bytes", self.te["Box"])
+        self.assertNotIn("bytes", self.te["Set"])
+
     def test_no_primitive_or_intermediate_false_positives(self):
         self.assertNotIn("int", self.te)        # was a real false positive
         self.assertNotIn("char", self.te)