Johnathan Corgan
d3cf1d6f25
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.
FIPS Documentation
FIPS (Free Internetworking Peering System) is a self-organizing encrypted mesh network built on Nostr identities, capable of operating over arbitrary transports — local networks, the public internet, Tor, Bluetooth, or point-to-point links — without central infrastructure.
With FIPS, your machine becomes a node in the mesh with a self-generated cryptographic identity. There are two ways to deploy it.
As an overlay on top of existing IP networks, FIPS lets your node reach any other FIPS node wherever it sits — behind a NAT, on a different ISP, on a phone over cellular, on a laptop with only Bluetooth in range, or behind a Tor onion. The mesh forwards IPv6 traffic transparently and end-to-end encrypted, with no central VPN concentrator or coordinating server.
From the ground up over raw Ethernet, WiFi, or Bluetooth, FIPS provides a complete permissionless network without any pre-existing IP infrastructure, ISP, or DNS. Any node that joins the link gets routable IPv6 addresses, peer discovery, and a path to every other node automatically.
Either way, existing networking software runs over it unchanged: SSH, HTTP servers, file transfer, anything IPv6-native works the same way it would on a local network.
New to FIPS? Start with the Getting Started guide.
Documentation Sections
Tutorials
If you are starting from scratch and want a guided path to a working mesh, go here.
How-To Guides
If you have a specific task in mind — enabling a feature, deploying a component, diagnosing a problem — go here.
Reference
If you need to look up wire formats, configuration keys, command flags, or counter inventories, go here.
Design
If you want to understand how the mesh self-organizes, why FIPS makes the choices it does, or how the pieces fit together, go here.