Another question: how can I create a deserializer ...

# serialization

[Laxystem]

Another question: how can I create a deserializer that supports two forms?

[Michael Krussel]

If you only need to support JSON, you could create a JsonContentPolymorphicSerializer that picks between the two options.

Or just a serializer that deserializes to JsonElement or what every is the most common base and then manually parse from there.

[Adam S]

If you have a custom KSerializer you can check the type of the encoder/decoder and behave differently.

There's an example in the docs that checks if the encoder is a JsonEncoder https://github.com/Kotlin/kotlinx.serialization/blob/v1.6.3/docs/json.md#under-the-hood-experimental

[Laxystem]

@Michael Krussel thanks, that's what I needed! I think I'll just use sealed interfaces for this one though.