Johnathan Corgan
823b830289
Forward-merge of the docs-overhaul squash (5abf9a9) and top-level README rewrite (18019bb). Conflict resolution: - README.md: master's rewritten feature lists adopted, with the encryption bullets reflecting next's two-layer Noise XX (replacing the IK/XK pair master describes for v0.3.0). - 6 design/reference markdown files (fips-bloom-filters.md, fips-mesh-layer.md, fips-mesh-operation.md, fips-session-layer.md, fips-transport-layer.md, reference/wire-formats.md): master's reorg taken, next's protocol details preserved (XX handshake naming, bloom v2 RLE/delta wire format, v2 LookupRequest sizing). - fips-intro.md modify/delete: accepted master's split into fips-architecture.md / fips-concepts.md / fips-prior-work.md, then re-applied next's IK/XK -> XX transition and spin-bit removal across the relevant split files. Same pass swept docs/reference/security.md, docs/design/fips-mmp.md, docs/design/fips-security.md, docs/design/fips-nostr-discovery.md, docs/design/port-advertisement-and-nat-traversal.md, docs/how-to/enable-nostr-discovery.md, and the affected tutorials so no IK/XK or spin-bit prose remains in current-state docs. - Diagram path conflicts: noise-ik-msg{1,2}.svg removed (IK is gone); noise-xx-msg{1,2,3}.svg moved from docs/design/diagrams/ to docs/reference/diagrams/ to match master's diagram reorg. The wire-formats.md image references resolve correctly to the new path. Local verification: cargo build --release, cargo test (1265 passed, 4 ignored), cargo clippy -D warnings, cargo fmt --check all green.
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.