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Land v0.4.0 pre-release source content: docs, changelog, packaging
Bring the source tree to its finished v0.4.0 content state ahead of the release candidate. Documentation, changelog, release notes, and packaging metadata only; no code or version-string changes. CHANGELOG.md: backfill the operator-visible changes that landed since v0.3.0 (the show_metrics scraper query and fipsctl stats metrics, the discovery dedup-cache-full counter, the off-rx_loop control read surface and its new daemon-resolved fields, the fipstop TUI overhaul, the TCP inbound cap now honoring max_connections, host-map hot-reload, log-noise demotions, and the net bug fixes), topic-grouped rather than replayed per commit; intra-cycle fixes folded into their feature entries; the duplicate Unreleased Fixed section merged into one. Release notes: author docs/releases/release-notes-v0.4.0.md to the operator-upgrade bar and mirror it byte-for-byte into the root RELEASE-NOTES.md. Attribute each feature to its author in Contributors (Nym transport and the mixnet demo to @oleksky, opt-in mDNS LAN discovery to @mmalmi). README.md: add the Nym transport to the support matrix (Linux, macOS, Windows; OpenWrt pending verification), the multi-transport bullet, and the "What works today" list; fold mDNS LAN discovery into the existing Nostr-discovery bullets; refresh the status narrative to v0.4.0 over a global, public test mesh. packaging/common/fips.yaml: add commented Nym transport and mDNS LAN discovery example stanzas with verified field names and defaults. Cargo.toml: add homepage, keywords, and categories crate metadata. docs/reference: update the cli-fips version example to the released form; document the new control-socket output fields and the typed RejectReason families in control-socket.md; sync cli-fipstop.md with the overhauled TUI keybindings.
This commit is contained in:
Johnathan Corgan
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# FIPS v0.4.0
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**Released**: 2026-06-DD (provisional)
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v0.4.0 is the throughput-and-observability release on the v0.3.x wire
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format. It adds two new ways for nodes to find and reach each other (the
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Nym mixnet transport and opt-in mDNS LAN discovery), overhauls the data
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plane for higher single-node throughput and lower per-packet CPU, moves
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the entire operator read surface off the data-plane hot path so
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observability stays responsive under load, ships a reworked `fipstop`
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TUI, and hardens FMP and FSP rekey to be hitless under packet loss in
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both directions. It also folds in the accumulated mesh-convergence,
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admission-control, and packaging fixes from the maintenance line.
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v0.4.0 is wire-compatible with v0.3.0. Mixed meshes interoperate; there
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is no flag-day upgrade. A deployed v0.3.0 node and an upgraded v0.4.0
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node peer, rekey, and route normally, so you can roll the upgrade out
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across a mesh in any order.
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## At a glance
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- New outbound Nym mixnet transport with a single-container demo and a
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new mixnet-relay example.
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- Opt-in mDNS / DNS-SD discovery on the local link.
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- Data-plane overhaul: off-task encrypt and decrypt worker pools, GSO,
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connected-UDP send path, copy-avoidance on receive, batched macOS
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receive.
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- The full `show_*` read surface now serves off the receive loop, so
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`fipsctl` and `fipstop` stay responsive on loaded nodes; a new
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counter-only `show_metrics` query enables a Prometheus scraper at no
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hot-path cost.
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- Reworked `fipstop` TUI on a machine-verified render-snapshot base.
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- Rekey is now hitless under loss and reordering in both directions.
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## What's new
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### Nym mixnet transport
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FIPS can now peer over the [Nym](https://nymtech.net/) mixnet for
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metadata-resistant connectivity. The new `transports.nym` transport
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makes outbound connections through a `nym-socks5-client` SOCKS5 proxy
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that you run alongside the daemon (for example as a service running
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alongside the fips daemon, or as a sidecar container). The transport
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waits at startup for the nym-socks5-client to become ready before giving
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up.
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This is a privacy and anonymity deployment mode chosen for its own
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properties. It mixes your FIPS traffic into the Nym cover-traffic
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network so that link-level observers cannot correlate which mesh peers
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are talking. A new `examples/sidecar-nostr-mixnet-relay/` demonstrates a
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FIPS-reachable Nostr relay peered across the mixnet end to end, and a
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single-container demo ships with the transport.
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Enable it by adding a `transports.nym` instance and pointing it at your
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running nym-socks5-client. See the transports reference for the field
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set.
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### mDNS LAN discovery
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Nodes on a shared local link can now find each other with zero address
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configuration. The opt-in `node.discovery.lan` path runs an mDNS /
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DNS-SD responder and browser: each node advertises a FIPS service record
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on the link and adopts the peers it discovers. This complements the
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existing Nostr-mediated overlay discovery for the common case where the
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peers are simply on the same LAN.
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Turn it on with `node.discovery.lan.enabled: true`. `service_type` and
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`scope` tune the advertised service record and which interfaces
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participate. Discovery on the local link needs no relay and no STUN.
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### Data-plane throughput overhaul
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The receive and send paths were reworked for higher single-node
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throughput and lower per-packet CPU, building on the v0.3.0
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crypto-backend swap:
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- **Off-task encrypt and decrypt.** Per-peer encrypt and decrypt now run
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on dedicated worker tasks rather than inline on the receive loop, so a
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single busy peer no longer serializes the whole node's crypto.
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- **GSO and connected-UDP send.** The Linux send path uses generic
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segmentation offload and a connected-UDP socket where available,
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cutting syscall overhead on bulk flows.
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- **Copy-avoidance on receive.** The receive hot path avoids buffer
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copies it previously made per packet.
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- **Batched macOS receive.** macOS gains a `recvmsg_x` batched receive,
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mirroring the Linux `recvmmsg` batching from v0.3.0.
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- **Shared immutable-state context and an atomic metric registry.**
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Immutable per-node state moved into a single shared context, and
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counters live in an atomic metric registry that the new `show_metrics`
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query reads without touching the hot path.
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These are all internal to the data plane and require no operator action.
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### Observability off the hot path
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Every read-only control query now renders from a snapshot published once
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per tick into a lock-free `ArcSwap`, served from the control accept task
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instead of round-tripping the data-plane receive loop. This covers
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`show_status`, `show_stats_*`, `show_peers`, `show_sessions`,
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`show_links`, `show_connections`, `show_transports`, `show_mmp`,
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`show_tree`, `show_bloom`, `show_cache`, `show_routing`,
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`show_identity_cache`, `show_acl`, `show_listening_sockets`, and the new
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`show_metrics`. Only the mutating `connect` and `disconnect` commands
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still reach the loop.
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The practical effect: on a loaded node where the receive loop was busy,
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`fipsctl` and `fipstop` queries previously stalled or timed out (the
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five-second query pattern operators saw). They now answer promptly
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regardless of data-plane load. Per-entity snapshots reuse unchanged rows
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by pointer, so the per-tick publish cost stays bounded as peer and
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session counts grow.
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A new **`show_metrics`** query (surfaced as `fipsctl stats metrics`)
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returns a counter-only snapshot of every metric family. It is the
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enabler for a Prometheus scraper that pulls node counters at no hot-path
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cost.
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### Reworked fipstop TUI
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`fipstop` gets a rendering, navigation, and read-surface overhaul on a
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machine-verified base: a render-snapshot harness asserts the exact text
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grid and per-cell style of every view against canned control-socket
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output. New daemon-resolved fields surface through the snapshots,
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including effective persistence, root and is-root state, a
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per-transport-type peer-count map, per-peer effective depth, the root
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npub, and the last-sent uptree filter fill ratio with the subtree size
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estimate.
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A separate fix clears a garbled-screen problem on startup and stray
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bytes on quit, most visible over SSH and inside tmux: startup now forces
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a full repaint before the first draw, and quit stops and joins the
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stdin-poll thread before restoring the terminal, so post-raw-mode
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keystrokes no longer echo onto the restored screen.
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### Rekey reliability
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FMP and FSP session rekey are now hitless under packet loss and
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reordering in both directions:
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- Inbound frames are authenticated against the pending session before
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the K-bit cutover promotes it, so a spoofed or stale frame cannot
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derail a rekey in progress.
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- Rekey message-1 retransmission is bounded, and the link-dead heartbeat
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is rekey-aware so an in-flight rekey is not mistaken for a dead link.
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- FSP session rekey holds connectivity across the rekey window under
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loss and reordering.
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- Dual-initiation races (both peers starting a rekey at once on a
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high-latency link) are desynchronized with symmetric jitter so the two
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sides converge on one session rather than fighting.
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- An exhausted retransmission-budget abort, an expected and self-limiting
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outcome on lossy or high-latency links, is logged at debug rather than
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warn.
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The net operator takeaway: rekey completes cleanly without dropping
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traffic, even on lossy or high-latency links, and the log no longer
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cries wolf when a rekey gives up and retries.
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## Behavior changes worth flagging
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These affect operators on upgrade.
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- **Bloom filter antipoison cap raised.** `node.bloom.max_inbound_fpr`
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moves from 0.05 to 0.10, accepting filters with a higher derived
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false-positive rate before rejecting them. This reduces spurious
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filter rejections on larger meshes while keeping the antipoison
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protection in place.
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- **TCP inbound cap honors `max_connections`.** The TCP inbound accept
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ceiling now resolves from explicit per-transport
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`max_inbound_connections`, then node-wide
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`node.limits.max_connections`, then the built-in default of 256.
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Previously the TCP inbound ceiling was hardwired to 256 and ignored
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`max_connections`, so raising it had no effect on inbound TCP.
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- **Static host aliases hot-reload.** `/etc/fips/hosts` now reloads on
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mtime change once per tick rather than only at startup, so display
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names in `fipsctl` and `fipstop` reflect edits without a daemon
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restart. The peer ACL reloads through the same lock-free snapshot
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mechanism.
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- **Quieter logs on busy public-mesh nodes.** Routine per-peer
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connection-lifecycle and capacity-cap events, no-route session-datagram
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drops, and exhausted rekey-budget aborts are demoted to debug, so
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genuinely notable info and warn lines are no longer drowned out.
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- **More visible drops.** Receive-path silent rejections now flow
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through typed reject-reason counters, and discovery counts requests
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dropped when the dedup cache is full (`req_dedup_cache_full`, visible
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via `show_routing`). Drops that were previously silent are now
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countable.
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- **Tor connect-refused accounting.** The Tor transport increments its
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`connect_refused` statistic (the "Refused" line in `fipstop`) on an
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actively-refused SOCKS5 connect, instead of recording every connect
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failure as a generic SOCKS5 error.
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## Notable bug fixes
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The CHANGELOG has the exhaustive list. This is the operator-relevant
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subset of fixes for behavior that shipped in v0.3.0.
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- **Symmetric peer teardown on manual disconnect.** A manual
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`fipsctl disconnect` now sends the peer a scoped Disconnect so both
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ends tear down and re-handshake cleanly. Previously a manual
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disconnect tore down only the local side, leaving the peer with a
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stale session that was never re-adopted as a child and whose bloom
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filter was never re-recorded.
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- **Gateway holds long-lived and DNS-cached mappings.** `fips-gateway`
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no longer drops a virtual-IP mapping while traffic is still flowing.
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The mapping TTL clock previously advanced only on DNS re-query, so a
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busy long-lived or DNS-cached client could have its mapping reclaimed
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mid-flow. The tick now refreshes the mapping whenever conntrack reports
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active sessions and recovers a draining mapping to active when traffic
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resumes; only genuinely idle mappings drain.
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- **Accurate mesh-size estimate under filter overlap.** The mesh-size
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estimator now estimates the cardinality of the OR-union of self plus
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every connected peer's inbound filter, instead of summing per-filter
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cardinalities of tree peers. Summing assumed the filters were disjoint,
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so a stale or oversized parent filter or a routing loop inflated the
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reported mesh size and a tree rebalance flapped the count. OR-union
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deduplicates overlap, equals the old result in the disjoint case, and
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removes the estimate's dependence on tree-declaration cache freshness.
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- **Single-uplink node reattaches within a round-trip.** A node with one
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tree peer, which has periodic parent re-evaluation disabled, was left
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self-rooted and unreachable if its one-shot attaching TreeAnnounce was
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lost, until the next periodic re-broadcast. Tree-position exchange is
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now self-healing on the receive path: a node that hears an announce
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advertising a strictly worse root echoes its own declaration back,
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provoking the better-rooted peer to re-push its real position
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immediately.
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## Upgrade notes
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Operator-actionable items moving from v0.3.0 to v0.4.0:
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- **Wire-compatible, no flag day.** v0.4.0 peers with v0.3.0. Upgrade
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nodes in any order. During a rolling upgrade you may see some log lines
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on the upgraded side as it interacts with not-yet-upgraded peers;
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behavior is correct, log noise only.
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- **Bloom antipoison cap default changed.** `node.bloom.max_inbound_fpr`
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now defaults to 0.10 (was 0.05). If you set this explicitly, review
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whether you still want the old value.
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- **New optional config surfaces.** `transports.nym` (outbound Nym
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mixnet) and `node.discovery.lan` (mDNS LAN discovery) are both opt-in
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and off by default. Adding them is the only way to turn the new paths
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on.
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- **TCP inbound cap.** If you relied on the old hardwired 256 inbound-TCP
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ceiling, note it now honors `max_inbound_connections` then
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`node.limits.max_connections` then 256.
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- **New observability query.** `fipsctl stats metrics` (the
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`show_metrics` control query) returns a counter-only snapshot suitable
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for a scraper.
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## Getting v0.4.0
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- **Linux x86_64 / aarch64**: `.deb` and tarball at the
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[v0.4.0 release page](https://github.com/jmcorgan/fips/releases/tag/v0.4.0).
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- **Arch Linux**: `fips` from the AUR.
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- **macOS**: `.pkg` at the v0.4.0 release page.
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- **Windows**: ZIP at the v0.4.0 release page.
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- **OpenWrt**: `.ipk` at the v0.4.0 release page.
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- **From source**: `cargo build --release` from a checkout of the v0.4.0
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tag (Rust 1.94.1 per `rust-toolchain.toml`; `libclang-dev` is a
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required Linux build prerequisite).
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The full per-commit changelog lives in
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[`CHANGELOG.md`](../../CHANGELOG.md). Issues and discussion at
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[github.com/jmcorgan/fips](https://github.com/jmcorgan/fips).
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## Contributors
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Thanks to everyone who contributed code, packaging work, bug reports, or
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reviews to this release.
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- [@jcorgan](https://github.com/jmcorgan): release shepherd, high-level
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design, control read plane, rekey hardening, admission, bug fixes,
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testing, packaging, PR coordination, and issue resolution.
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- [@mmalmi](https://github.com/mmalmi): opt-in mDNS LAN discovery and
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data-plane performance work.
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- [@Origami74](https://github.com/Origami74): macOS packaging and
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website coordination.
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- [@dskvr](https://github.com/dskvr): AUR packaging.
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- [@oleksky](https://github.com/oleksky): Nym mixnet transport and the
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single-container mixnet demo.
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