Guide
Quand le texte brut vaut mieux que Base64
Repérez les cas où Base64 ajoute surtout de la complexité inutile.
Sans contrainte technique, le texte brut reste plus lisible et plus simple à maintenir.
Plain text improves readability
Humans can quickly inspect and verify plain values.
Encoded strings hide meaning and slow collaboration.
Encoding adds payload size
Base64 increases data size compared with original content.
Avoid this overhead when there is no compatibility benefit.
Debugging is faster with direct values
Plain text reduces decode steps in incident response.
Teams can spot typos and mismatches faster.
- Use plain text in internal docs.
- Keep logs readable.
- Reserve Base64 for strict transport needs.
Use Base64 only when required
Examples include binary transfer through text-only channels or strict API contracts.
Outside those cases, plain text is usually the better engineering choice.
Choose plain text for
- Readable config values.
- Simple API parameters.
- Logs and debugging output.
- Team documentation examples.
Prefer simplicity by default
If plain text works safely, keep it plain. Add Base64 only when a system truly requires encoded transport.