Restructures /docs/ by reader purpose (tutorials, how-to,
reference, design), adds the new-user-progression and
operator-recipe content the prior layout lacked, runs an
accuracy pass against current source across the pre-existing
design docs, and rewrites the gateway feature-set documentation
end-to-end around its actual operational profile (a niche
feature designed for systems already serving DHCP/DNS to a
LAN, with two independent halves — outbound LAN→mesh, inbound
mesh→LAN — sharing one nftables table, one binary, and one
control socket). Top-level README and getting-started rewritten
around two equally-weighted deployment modes (overlay on
existing IP networks; ground-up over non-IP transports).
## Additions
- 11 new tutorials in docs/tutorials/: an 8-step new-user
progression from single-daemon test-mesh peering through
to a ground-up two-device mesh, an IPv6-adapter side-trip
walkthrough, an Advanced Tutorials index, and a hand-held
OpenWrt walk-through for fips-gateway deployment that
exercises both halves of the feature.
- 12 new how-tos in docs/how-to/: firewall activation,
Nostr discovery (resolve / advertise / open across five
scenarios), Tor onion (directory + control_port modes),
UDP buffer tuning, unprivileged-user setup, persistent
identity, host aliases, Bluetooth LE peering, MTU
diagnostics, manual Linux-host gateway deployment (covers
both halves), gateway troubleshooting (organised by half),
and a section index.
- 9 new reference docs in docs/reference/: configuration,
wire formats, control-socket protocol, four CLI references
(fips, fipsctl, fipstop, fips-gateway), security posture
matrix, and Nostr events catalog. Configuration and
wire-formats are renamed-and-extended from prior design/
versions; the other seven are net-new.
- 6 new design docs: fips-concepts, fips-architecture, and
fips-prior-work split out of the deleted fips-intro.md;
consolidated fips-mmp and fips-mtu aggregations; and a
new generic port-advertisement-and-nat-traversal doc
(Nostr-signaled port advertisement plus UDP NAT-traversal
protocol, FIPS as an example implementation, suitable for
eventual NIP submission).
- Top-level docs/getting-started.md walking through the
binary-installer-only Install story.
- packaging/common/hosts pre-populated with the eight public
test-mesh nodes so shortnames resolve out of the box on
every fresh install.
## Changes
- 23 wire-format diagrams relocated to reference/diagrams/
alongside the wire-formats move.
- 4 design diagrams corrected against source code
(fips-protocol-stack, fips-identity-derivation,
fips-coordinate-discovery, fips-routing-decision).
- 10 pre-existing design docs reconciled with current
source. Numeric corrections: stale link-MMP report bounds
(now [1s, 5s] with 200 ms cold-start floor); UDP default
MTU (now 1280, IPv6 minimum); node_addr formula
(SHA-256(pubkey)[..16]); Noise patterns (IK at link, XK
at session); peer-ACL semantics (strict allowlist requires
ALL in peers.deny); daemon DNS upstream ([::1]:5354);
on-the-wire bloom-filter size (1,071 bytes); obsolete
Cargo-feature references (PR #79 dropped them) removed.
- Transport framing tightened across the docs: TCP is for
UDP-filtered networks (not NAT traversal); Tor is a
deployment mode (not failover); WebSocket dropped (not a
shipped FIPS transport); WiFi promoted to Implemented via
Ethernet in infrastructure mode; classic-Bluetooth row
removed (BLE is the only Bluetooth-mode transport).
- docs/design/fips-gateway.md rewritten end-to-end to lead
with the niche-feature framing and the two-halves
structure. Title moved from "FIPS Outbound LAN Gateway"
to "FIPS Gateway"; architecture section describes the
common machinery (the fips-gateway service, the nftables
table, the control socket) before splitting into separate
"Outbound Half" and "Inbound Half" sections of equal
weight; security considerations split per-half; no Future
Work section (speculative directions live in the project
tracker, not in protocol design docs). Inbound port
forwarding is a first-class half rather than a buried
"Implemented Extensions" subsection.
- Gateway terminology unified across all gateway docs as a
separate Linux service running alongside the fips daemon
(its own systemd unit / OpenWrt init script). Container-
pattern terms (sidecar) are reserved for the
Docker/Kubernetes sidecar deployment examples — the
testing/sidecar/ tree, examples/k8s-sidecar/,
examples/sidecar-nostr-relay/,
examples/wireguard-sidecar-macos/, and the related
CHANGELOG / top-level README entries — where the term
carries its standard container meaning.
- Net-new design body content: rekey section in
fips-mesh-layer (Noise IK msg1/msg2 over the established
link, K-bit cutover, drain window, smaller-NodeAddr-wins
tie-breaker on dual-init); Mesh Size Estimation and
Antipoison FPR Cap sections in fips-bloom-filters;
Mesh-Interface Query Filter subsection in
fips-ipv6-adapter; failure-suppression knobs and clock-
skew tolerance in fips-nostr-discovery; loop-rejection
and mid-chain ancestor swap added to spanning-tree
propagation / stability rules; Priority Chain in
fips-mesh-operation renumbered to match the
routing-decision diagram.
- Top-level README: dropped the stale nostr-discovery
cargo-feature parenthetical. docs/README.md and the four
section READMEs (tutorials, how-to, reference, design)
refreshed for the new structure; index rows reflect both
halves of the gateway feature and the new fips-gateway
CLI reference.
- Cargo.toml [package.metadata.deb] assets path updated for
the fips-security.md move; .gitignore /reference/ rule
anchored to repo root so docs/reference/ is trackable.
- packaging/openwrt-ipk/files/etc/fips/fips.yaml
configuration-doc URL updated to the new
docs/reference/configuration.md location.
## Deletions
- docs/design/fips-intro.md (split into the three new intro
design docs).
- docs/design/document-relationships.svg (orphan, no longer
referenced).
- docs/proposals/ tree removed; the only proposal it
contained (the Nostr UDP hole-punch protocol) was
rewritten as the new generic
design/port-advertisement-and-nat-traversal.md.
Architectural and protocol-level explanations for FIPS — the why
and the how behind the wire and the system. For wire formats and
configuration keys, see reference/. For task
recipes, see how-to/. For end-to-end lessons, see
tutorials/.
Reading Order
Start with fips-concepts.md for the
novice-friendly framing of what FIPS is and why, then move to
fips-architecture.md for the protocol stack,
identity model, and two-layer encryption walkthrough. From there,
follow the protocol stack from bottom to top. After the stack,
fips-mesh-operation.md explains how the
pieces work together at runtime. Cross-cutting and supporting
documents cover specific subsystems in detail.
Johnathan Corgan
5abf9a9325