diff --git a/pkg/beam/data/data.go b/pkg/beam/data/data.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..8ebee94a32
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkg/beam/data/data.go
@@ -0,0 +1,112 @@
+package data
+
+import (
+	"fmt"
+	"strings"
+	"strconv"
+)
+
+func Encode(obj map[string][]string) string {
+	var msg string
+	msg += encodeHeader(0)
+	for k, values := range obj {
+		msg += encodeNamedList(k, values)
+	}
+	return msg
+}
+
+func encodeHeader(msgtype int) string {
+	return fmt.Sprintf("%03.3d;", msgtype)
+}
+
+func encodeString(s string) string {
+	return fmt.Sprintf("%d:%s,", len(s), s)
+}
+
+func encodeList(l []string) string {
+	values := make([]string, 0, len(l))
+	for _, s := range l {
+		values = append(values, encodeString(s))
+	}
+	return encodeString(strings.Join(values, ""))
+}
+
+func encodeNamedList(name string, l []string) string {
+	return encodeString(name) + encodeList(l)
+}
+
+func Decode(msg string) (map[string][]string, error) {
+	msgtype, skip, err := decodeHeader(msg)
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, err
+	}
+	if msgtype != 0 {
+		// FIXME: use special error type so the caller can easily ignore
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("unknown message type: %d", msgtype)
+	}
+	msg = msg[skip:]
+	obj := make(map[string][]string)
+	for len(msg) > 0 {
+		k, skip, err := decodeString(msg)
+		if err != nil {
+			return nil, err
+		}
+		msg = msg[skip:]
+		values, skip, err := decodeList(msg)
+		if err != nil {
+			return nil, err
+		}
+		msg = msg[skip:]
+		obj[k] = values
+	}
+	return obj, nil
+}
+
+func decodeList(msg string) ([]string, int, error) {
+	blob, skip, err := decodeString(msg)
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, 0, err
+	}
+	var l []string
+	for len(blob) > 0 {
+		v, skipv, err := decodeString(blob)
+		if err != nil {
+			return nil, 0, err
+		}
+		l = append(l, v)
+		blob = blob[skipv:]
+	}
+	return l, skip, nil
+}
+
+func decodeString(msg string) (string, int, error) {
+	parts := strings.SplitN(msg, ":", 2)
+	if len(parts) != 2 {
+		return "", 0, fmt.Errorf("invalid format: no column")
+	}
+	var length int
+	if l, err := strconv.ParseUint(parts[0], 10, 64); err != nil {
+		return "", 0, err
+	} else {
+		length = int(l)
+	}
+	if len(parts[1]) < length + 1 {
+		return "", 0, fmt.Errorf("message is less than %d bytes", length)
+	}
+	payload := parts[1][:length + 1]
+	if payload[length] != ',' {
+		return "", 0, fmt.Errorf("message is not comma-terminated")
+	}
+	return payload[:length], len(parts[0]) + length + 1, nil
+}
+
+func decodeHeader(msg string) (int, int, error) {
+	if len(msg) < 4 {
+		return 0, 0, fmt.Errorf("message too small")
+	}
+	msgtype, err := strconv.ParseInt(msg[:3], 10, 32)
+	if err != nil {
+		return 0, 0, err
+	}
+	return int(msgtype), 4, nil
+}
diff --git a/pkg/beam/data/data_test.go b/pkg/beam/data/data_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..b6573a1f74
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkg/beam/data/data_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,91 @@
+package data
+
+import (
+	"testing"
+)
+
+func TestEncodeHelloWorld(t *testing.T) {
+	input := "hello world!"
+	output := encodeString(input)
+	expectedOutput := "12:hello world!,"
+	if output != expectedOutput {
+		t.Fatalf("'%v' != '%v'", output, expectedOutput)
+	}
+}
+
+func TestEncodeEmptyString(t *testing.T) {
+	input := ""
+	output := encodeString(input)
+	expectedOutput := "0:,"
+	if output != expectedOutput {
+		t.Fatalf("'%v' != '%v'", output, expectedOutput)
+	}
+}
+
+func TestEncodeEmptyList(t *testing.T) {
+	input := []string{}
+	output := encodeList(input)
+	expectedOutput := "0:,"
+	if output != expectedOutput {
+		t.Fatalf("'%v' != '%v'", output, expectedOutput)
+	}
+}
+
+func TestEncodeEmptyMap(t *testing.T) {
+	input := make(map[string][]string)
+	output := Encode(input)
+	expectedOutput := "000;"
+	if output != expectedOutput {
+		t.Fatalf("'%v' != '%v'", output, expectedOutput)
+	}
+}
+
+func TestEncode1Key1Value(t *testing.T) {
+	input := make(map[string][]string)
+	input["hello"] = []string{"world"}
+	output := Encode(input)
+	expectedOutput := "000;5:hello,8:5:world,,"
+	if output != expectedOutput {
+		t.Fatalf("'%v' != '%v'", output, expectedOutput)
+	}
+}
+
+func TestEncode1Key2Value(t *testing.T) {
+	input := make(map[string][]string)
+	input["hello"] = []string{"beautiful", "world"}
+	output := Encode(input)
+	expectedOutput := "000;5:hello,20:9:beautiful,5:world,,"
+	if output != expectedOutput {
+		t.Fatalf("'%v' != '%v'", output, expectedOutput)
+	}
+}
+
+func TestEncodeEmptyValue(t *testing.T) {
+	input := make(map[string][]string)
+	input["foo"] = []string{}
+	output := Encode(input)
+	expectedOutput := "000;3:foo,0:,"
+	if output != expectedOutput {
+		t.Fatalf("'%v' != '%v'", output, expectedOutput)
+	}
+}
+
+func TestEncodeBinaryKey(t *testing.T) {
+	input := make(map[string][]string)
+	input["foo\x00bar\x7f"] = []string{}
+	output := Encode(input)
+	expectedOutput := "000;8:foo\x00bar\x7f,0:,"
+	if output != expectedOutput {
+		t.Fatalf("'%v' != '%v'", output, expectedOutput)
+	}
+}
+
+func TestEncodeBinaryValue(t *testing.T) {
+	input := make(map[string][]string)
+	input["foo\x00bar\x7f"] = []string{"\x01\x02\x03\x04"}
+	output := Encode(input)
+	expectedOutput := "000;8:foo\x00bar\x7f,7:4:\x01\x02\x03\x04,,"
+	if output != expectedOutput {
+		t.Fatalf("'%v' != '%v'", output, expectedOutput)
+	}
+}
diff --git a/pkg/beam/data/netstring.txt b/pkg/beam/data/netstring.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..17560929b6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkg/beam/data/netstring.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,92 @@
+##
+## Netstrings spec copied as-is from http://cr.yp.to/proto/netstrings.txt
+##
+
+Netstrings
+D. J. Bernstein, djb@pobox.com
+19970201
+
+
+1. Introduction
+
+   A netstring is a self-delimiting encoding of a string. Netstrings are
+   very easy to generate and to parse. Any string may be encoded as a
+   netstring; there are no restrictions on length or on allowed bytes.
+   Another virtue of a netstring is that it declares the string size up
+   front. Thus an application can check in advance whether it has enough
+   space to store the entire string.
+
+   Netstrings may be used as a basic building block for reliable network
+   protocols. Most high-level protocols, in effect, transmit a sequence
+   of strings; those strings may be encoded as netstrings and then
+   concatenated into a sequence of characters, which in turn may be
+   transmitted over a reliable stream protocol such as TCP.
+
+   Note that netstrings can be used recursively. The result of encoding
+   a sequence of strings is a single string. A series of those encoded
+   strings may in turn be encoded into a single string. And so on.
+
+   In this document, a string of 8-bit bytes may be written in two
+   different forms: as a series of hexadecimal numbers between angle
+   brackets, or as a sequence of ASCII characters between double quotes.
+   For example, <68 65 6c 6c 6f 20 77 6f 72 6c 64 21> is a string of
+   length 12; it is the same as the string "hello world!".
+
+   Although this document restricts attention to strings of 8-bit bytes,
+   netstrings could be used with any 6-bit-or-larger character set.
+
+
+2. Definition
+
+   Any string of 8-bit bytes may be encoded as [len]":"[string]",".
+   Here [string] is the string and [len] is a nonempty sequence of ASCII
+   digits giving the length of [string] in decimal. The ASCII digits are
+   <30> for 0, <31> for 1, and so on up through <39> for 9. Extra zeros
+   at the front of [len] are prohibited: [len] begins with <30> exactly
+   when [string] is empty.
+
+   For example, the string "hello world!" is encoded as <31 32 3a 68
+   65 6c 6c 6f 20 77 6f 72 6c 64 21 2c>, i.e., "12:hello world!,". The
+   empty string is encoded as "0:,".
+
+   [len]":"[string]"," is called a netstring. [string] is called the
+   interpretation of the netstring.
+
+
+3. Sample code
+
+   The following C code starts with a buffer buf of length len and
+   prints it as a netstring.
+
+      if (printf("%lu:",len) < 0) barf();
+      if (fwrite(buf,1,len,stdout) < len) barf();
+      if (putchar(',') < 0) barf();
+
+   The following C code reads a netstring and decodes it into a
+   dynamically allocated buffer buf of length len.
+
+      if (scanf("%9lu",&len) < 1) barf();  /* >999999999 bytes is bad */
+      if (getchar() != ':') barf();
+      buf = malloc(len + 1);       /* malloc(0) is not portable */
+      if (!buf) barf();
+      if (fread(buf,1,len,stdin) < len) barf();
+      if (getchar() != ',') barf();
+
+   Both of these code fragments assume that the local character set is
+   ASCII, and that the relevant stdio streams are in binary mode.
+
+
+4. Security considerations
+
+   The famous Finger security hole may be blamed on Finger's use of the
+   CRLF encoding. In that encoding, each string is simply terminated by
+   CRLF. This encoding has several problems. Most importantly, it does
+   not declare the string size in advance. This means that a correct
+   CRLF parser must be prepared to ask for more and more memory as it is
+   reading the string. In the case of Finger, a lazy implementor found
+   this to be too much trouble; instead he simply declared a fixed-size
+   buffer and used C's gets() function. The rest is history.
+
+   In contrast, as the above sample code shows, it is very easy to
+   handle netstrings without risking buffer overflow. Thus widespread
+   use of netstrings may improve network security.