Johnathan Corgan
507086e39d
Pre-cut documentation pass for the 0.4.0 release, verified against current source. Corrections: - fipsctl: stale 'show identities'/'show node' -> 'show status' (host-a-service, run-as-unprivileged-user) - mesh address derivation: first 16 bytes of SHA-256(pubkey) with the leading byte set to 0xfd, not a fixed fd97: prefix (reach-mesh-services, ipv6-adapter-walkthrough) - gateway control socket mode 0660 -> 0770 (troubleshoot-gateway) - Tor example: add advertised_port: 8443 so the published port matches the prose (enable-nostr-discovery) - bloom mesh-size estimate rewritten to the OR-union-of-peer-filters algorithm; plus mtu deep-link, gateway pool wording, and a NAT failure-mode line - examples: delete orphaned nostr-rs-relay config, accept inbound to the local 8443 TCP listener, fix fd::/8 -> fd00::/8 typos, dotless wireguard alias Additions: - new Nym mixnet transport section (fips-transport-layer) and the architecture transport list - new LAN/mDNS discovery section (fips-nostr-discovery) - reference docs: Nym transport, LAN discovery, and new control/stats surfaces; drop ble from the connect transport list
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.