diff --git a/src/common/bitsery/ext/message-reference.h b/src/common/bitsery/ext/message-reference.h
new file mode 100644
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+++ b/src/common/bitsery/ext/message-reference.h
@@ -0,0 +1,92 @@
+
+// yabridge: a Wine VST bridge
+// Copyright (C) 2020-2021 Robbert van der Helm
+//
+// This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
+// it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+// the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
+// (at your option) any later version.
+//
+// This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+// but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+// MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+// GNU General Public License for more details.
+//
+// You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+// along with this program.  If not, see <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+
+#pragma once
+
+#include <bitsery/details/serialization_common.h>
+#include <bitsery/traits/core/traits.h>
+
+#include "../../serialization/common.h"
+
+namespace bitsery {
+namespace ext {
+
+/**
+ * An adapter for serializing zero-copy references to objects using
+ * `MessageHandler<T>`. The idea is that when serializing, we just read data
+ * from the object pointed at by the reference. Then when deserializing, we'll
+ * write the data to some `std::option<T>` (so we don't have to initialize an
+ * unused object on the serializing side), and we'll then change our reference
+ * to point to the value contained within that option.
+ *
+ * This lets us serialize 'references' to objects that can be backed by actual
+ * persistent objects. That way we can avoid allocations during the processing
+ * loop.
+ */
+template <typename T>
+class MessageReference {
+   public:
+    /**
+     * @param deseerialization_store The object we'll deserialize into, so we
+     *   can point the `MessageReference<T>` to this object. On the serializing
+     *   side this won't be touched.
+     */
+    MessageReference(std::optional<T>& deseerialization_store)
+        : deseerialization_store(deseerialization_store){};
+
+    template <typename Ser, typename Fnc>
+    void serialize(Ser& ser,
+                   const ::MessageReference<T>& object_ref,
+                   Fnc&&) const {
+        ser.object(object_ref.get());
+    }
+
+    template <typename Des, typename Fnc>
+    void deserialize(Des& des, ::MessageReference<T>& object_ref, Fnc&&) const {
+        if (!deseerialization_store) {
+            deseerialization_store.emplace();
+        }
+
+        // Since we cannot directly deserialize into a reference, we'll
+        // deserialize into this (persistent) backing object and then point the
+        // reference to this object.
+        des.object(*deseerialization_store);
+        object_ref = *deseerialization_store;
+    }
+
+   private:
+    /**
+     * The actual `T` we'll deserialize into so we can point the reference to
+     * that object after deserializing.
+     */
+    std::optional<T>& deseerialization_store;
+};
+
+}  // namespace ext
+
+namespace traits {
+
+template <typename T>
+struct ExtensionTraits<ext::MessageReference<T>, ::MessageReference<T>> {
+    using TValue = void;
+    static constexpr bool SupportValueOverload = false;
+    static constexpr bool SupportObjectOverload = true;
+    static constexpr bool SupportLambdaOverload = false;
+};
+
+}  // namespace traits
+}  // namespace bitsery