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https://github.com/ipfs/specs

Technical specifications for the IPFS protocol stack
https://github.com/ipfs/specs

ipfs p2p protocol specifications specs standards

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Technical specifications for the IPFS protocol stack

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README 

        
# IPFS Specifications



> This repository contains the specs for the IPFS Protocol and associated subsystems.



- [Documentation and Community](#documentation-and-community)

- [Understanding badges](#understanding-the-meaning-of-the-spec-badges-and-their-lifecycle)

- [Index](#index)

- [Contribute](#contribute)

  - [InterPlanetary Improvement Process (IPIP)](#interplanetary-improvement-process-ipip)



## Documentation and Community



Looking for user support?



See [Documentation](https://docs.ipfs.io),

[Discussion Forums](https://discuss.ipfs.io/), and other

[Community Resources](https://docs.ipfs.io/community/) instead.



## Understanding the meaning of the spec badges and their lifecycle



We use the following label system to identify the state of each spec:



- ![wip](https://img.shields.io/badge/status-wip-orange.svg?style=flat-square) - A work-in-progress, possibly to describe an idea before actually committing to a full draft of the spec.

- ![draft](https://img.shields.io/badge/status-draft-yellow.svg?style=flat-square) - A draft that is ready to review. It should be implementable.

- ![reliable](https://img.shields.io/badge/status-reliable-green.svg?style=flat-square) - A spec that has been adopted (implemented) and can be used as a reference point to learn how the system works.

- ![stable](https://img.shields.io/badge/status-stable-brightgreen.svg?style=flat-square) - We consider this spec to close to final, it might be improved but the system it specifies should not change fundamentally.

- ![permanent](https://img.shields.io/badge/status-permanent-blue.svg?style=flat-square) - This spec will not change.

- ![deprecated](https://img.shields.io/badge/status-deprecated-red.svg?style=flat-square) - This spec is no longer in use.



Nothing in this spec repository is `permanent` or even `stable` yet. Most of the subsystems are still a `draft` or in `reliable` state.



## Index



The specs contained in this and related repositories are:



- **IPFS Protocol:**

  - [IPFS Guide](https://docs.ipfs.tech/) - to start your IPFS journey

  - [Protocol Architecture Overview](./ARCHITECTURE.md) - the top-level spec and the stack

- **User Interface (aka Public APIs):**

  - [HTTP Gateways](https://specs.ipfs.tech/http-gateways/) - implementation agnostic interfaces for accessing content-addressed data over HTTP

  - [Routing V1](https://specs.ipfs.tech/routing/http-routing-v1/) - implementation agnostic interfaces for content/peer/IPNS routing over HTTP

  - IPFS implementations may provide additional HTTP interfaces, for example:

    - [Kubo RPC at /api/v0](https://docs.ipfs.tech/reference/kubo/rpc/)

- **Data Formats:**

  - [IPLD](https://ipld.io/specs/) - InterPlanetary Linked Data.

    - [DAG-CBOR](https://ipld.io/docs/codecs/known/dag-cbor/) -  binary format, supporting the complete IPLD Data Model, with excellent performance, and suitable for any job.

    - [DAG-JSON](https://ipld.io/docs/codecs/known/dag-json/) - human-readable format, supporting almost the complete IPLD Data Model, and very convenient for interoperability, development, and debugging.

    - [DAG-PB](https://ipld.io/docs/codecs/known/dag-pb/) - a binary format for specific limited structures of data, which is highly used in IPFS and [UnixFS](./UNIXFS.md).

    - [CAR](https://ipld.io/specs/transport/car/) - transport format used to store content addressable objects in the form of IPLD block data as a sequence of bytes; typically as an [application/vnd.ipld.car](https://www.iana.org/assignments/media-types/application/vnd.ipld.car) file with a `.car` extension

  - Self Describing Formats ([multiformats](http://github.com/multiformats/multiformats)):

    - [multihash](https://github.com/multiformats/multihash) - self-describing hash digest format.

    - [multiaddr](https://github.com/multiformats/multiaddr) - self-describing addressing format.

    - [multicodec](https://github.com/multiformats/multicodec) - self-describing protocol/encoding streams (note: a file is a stream).

    - [multistream](https://github.com/multiformats/multistream) - multistream is a format -- or simple protocol -- for disambiguating, and layering streams. It is extremely simple.

- **Files and Directories:**

  - [UnixFS](./UNIXFS.md)

  - Related userland concepts (external docs):

    - [MFS, Mutable File System, or the Files API](https://docs.ipfs.tech/concepts/file-systems/#mutable-file-system-mfs)

- **Storage Layer:**

  - [Pinning Service API](https://ipfs.github.io/pinning-services-api-spec/)

  - [Repo](./REPO.md) - IPFS node local repository spec

    - [FileSystem Repo](./REPO_FS.md) - IPFS node local repository spec

- **Block Exchanges:**

  - [Bitswap](./BITSWAP.md) - BitTorrent-inspired exchange

- **Key Management:**

  - [KeyStore](./KEYSTORE.md) - Key management on IPFS

  - [KeyChain](./KEYCHAIN.md) - Distribution of cryptographic Artifacts

- **Networking layer:**

  - [libp2p](https://github.com/libp2p/specs) - libp2p is a modular and extensible network stack, built and use by IPFS, but that it can be reused as a standalone project. Covers:

- **Records, Naming and Record Systems:**

  - [IPNS](https://specs.ipfs.tech/ipns/) - InterPlanetary Naming System

    - [IPNS Record Creation and Verification](https://specs.ipfs.tech/ipns/ipns-pubsub-router/)

    - [IPNS over PubSub](https://specs.ipfs.tech/ipns/ipns-pubsub-router/)

  - [DNSLink](https://dnslink.dev) - mapping DNS names to IPFS content paths

  - [DNSAddr](https://github.com/multiformats/multiaddr/blob/master/protocols/DNSADDR.md) - mapping DNS names to libp2p multiaddrs

- **Other/related/included:**

  - [PDD](https://github.com/ipfs/pdd) - Protocol Driven Development



## Contribute



[![contribute](https://cdn.rawgit.com/jbenet/contribute-ipfs-gif/master/img/contribute.gif)](https://github.com/ipfs/community/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md)



Suggestions, contributions, criticisms are welcome. Though please make sure to familiarize yourself deeply with IPFS, the models it adopts, and the principles it follows.

This repository falls under the IPFS [Code of Conduct](https://github.com/ipfs/community/blob/master/code-of-conduct.md).



### InterPlanetary Improvement Process (IPIP)



- Want to propose a change to an existing specification?

- Or add a new protocol?



See:

- [IPIP: Improvement Process for IPFS Specifications](https://specs.ipfs.tech/meta/ipip-process/)

  - List of [ratified IPIPs](https://specs.ipfs.tech/ipips/)

  - List of [open IPIPs](https://github.com/ipfs/specs/pulls?q=is%3Apr+is%3Aopen+ipip+sort%3Aupdated-desc)