Pickling (or serializing) an object is as easy as: import scala.pickling._ import json._ val pckl = List(1, 2, 3, 4).pickle Unpickling is just as easy: val lst = pckl.unpickle[List[Int]] Publication Details of the pickling framework can be found in our draft paper (under review): Instant Pickles: Generating Object-Oriented Pickler Combinators for Fast and Extensible Serialization, by Heather Mille

