diff --git a/sea-streamer-types/Cargo.toml b/sea-streamer-types/Cargo.toml
index 1c91ca2..249db5b 100644
--- a/sea-streamer-types/Cargo.toml
+++ b/sea-streamer-types/Cargo.toml
@@ -20,9 +20,9 @@ futures = { version = "0.3", default-features = false, features = ["std", "alloc
 thiserror = { version = "1", default-features = false }
 time = { version = "0.3", default-features = false, features = ["std", "macros", "formatting"] }
 url = { version = "2.2", default-features = false }
-serde = { version = "1", default-features = false, optional = true, features = ["derive"] }
+serde = { version = "1", default-features = false, optional = true }
 serde_json = { version = "1", optional = true }
 
 [features]
-json = ["serde", "serde_json"]
+json = ["serde/derive", "serde_json"]
 wide-seq-no = []
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/sea-streamer-types/src/message.rs b/sea-streamer-types/src/message.rs
index 15b9759..fd2fb97 100644
--- a/sea-streamer-types/src/message.rs
+++ b/sea-streamer-types/src/message.rs
@@ -47,15 +47,6 @@ pub struct MessageHeader {
     timestamp: Timestamp,
 }
 
-#[cfg(feature = "serde")]
-#[derive(serde::Serialize)]
-struct HeaderJson<'a> {
-    stream_key: &'a str,
-    shard_id: u64,
-    sequence: u64,
-    timestamp: String,
-}
-
 /// Common interface of byte containers.
 pub trait Buffer {
     fn size(&self) -> usize;
@@ -367,12 +358,20 @@ impl<'a> IntoBytesOrStr<'a> for &'a [u8] {
     }
 }
 
-#[cfg(feature = "serde")]
+#[cfg(feature = "json")]
 impl serde::Serialize for MessageHeader {
     fn serialize<S>(&self, serializer: S) -> Result<S::Ok, S::Error>
     where
         S: serde::Serializer,
     {
+        #[derive(serde::Serialize)]
+        struct HeaderJson<'a> {
+            stream_key: &'a str,
+            shard_id: u64,
+            sequence: SeqNo,
+            timestamp: String,
+        }
+
         HeaderJson {
             timestamp: self
                 .timestamp
diff --git a/sea-streamer-types/src/stream.rs b/sea-streamer-types/src/stream.rs
index 0d0d1ac..084151d 100644
--- a/sea-streamer-types/src/stream.rs
+++ b/sea-streamer-types/src/stream.rs
@@ -95,3 +95,27 @@ pub fn is_valid_stream_key_char(c: char) -> bool {
     // https://stackoverflow.com/questions/37062904/what-are-apache-kafka-topic-name-limitations
     c.is_ascii_alphanumeric() || matches!(c, '.' | '_' | '-')
 }
+
+#[cfg(feature = "json")]
+mod impl_serde {
+    use super::StreamKey;
+
+    impl<'de> serde::Deserialize<'de> for StreamKey {
+        fn deserialize<D>(deserializer: D) -> Result<Self, D::Error>
+        where
+            D: serde::Deserializer<'de>,
+        {
+            let s = <&str>::deserialize(deserializer)?;
+            s.parse().map_err(serde::de::Error::custom)
+        }
+    }
+
+    impl serde::Serialize for StreamKey {
+        fn serialize<S>(&self, serializer: S) -> Result<S::Ok, S::Error>
+        where
+            S: serde::Serializer,
+        {
+            serializer.serialize_str(self.name())
+        }
+    }
+}