Johnathan Corgan
784e22ab1f
Forward-merge the v0.4.0 pre-release content (dependency refresh, CI deb-install + AUR-build legs, docs refresh, doc-comment fixes, and the Phase 4 source-content squash: CHANGELOG, release notes, README, fips.yaml, Cargo.toml metadata, reference docs) up the one-way flow. Conflict fixups (keep next's identity, fold in master's improvements): - Version: keep next's 0.5.0-dev (Cargo.toml/lock). - README status: keep next's v0.5.0-dev / wire-format-breaking framing and the Breaking-section pointer; fold in the Nym transport and the "global, public test mesh of thousands of nodes" description. - docs/reference/cli-fips.md: keep next's 0.5.0-dev version example. - CHANGELOG: keep next's XX-handshake admission entry (no early cap gate on XX) and drop master's IK early-cap-at-handle_msg1 entry, which describes IK-only behavior that does not apply on next; take master's OR-union mesh-size rewrite (next carries the OR-union code); restore the Tor connect_refused and MMP receiver-report entries that the Fixed-section consolidation would otherwise have dropped. - lifecycle.rs: keep the mDNS/LAN handshake doc-comment as Noise XX (next unifies on XX), not master's XX-to-IK correction. Quartet green on the merged tree: fmt, build, clippy -D warnings, and cargo test --lib (1434 passed).
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.