Johnathan Corgan
e305e1c4e4
Forward-merge the v0.4.0 content finalize from master. The only master commit merged touches the CHANGELOG, release notes, and README badge. CHANGELOG reconciliation: adopt the regrouped, stamped [0.4.0] release section verbatim from master (a frozen release record, identical across branches), keep next's top-of-file Breaking block, and retain next's XX-handshake / XX-rekey items in [Unreleased] as 0.5.0 work (the XX path does not exist on master, which is IK). Release notes adopt master's refreshed versions. README stays at v0.5.0-dev on next (master's badge bump to v0.4.0 is master-line only). Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01A2pYfSypNmmG4HyHwZuLex
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.