fastn-p2p

Revolutionary P2P communication with centralized daemon coordination for Rust.

Overview

fastn-p2p provides a daemon-based P2P architecture that eliminates the security, performance, and resource management issues of traditional direct P2P approaches. Applications use lightweight clients that communicate via a secure daemon, providing automatic connection pooling, centralized key management, and operational excellence.

Architecture

┌─────────────────┐ Unix Socket ┌──────────────────┐ P2P Network ┌─────────────────┐
│ Client Apps │◄──────────────────►│ fastn-p2p daemon │◄─────────────────►│ Remote Peers │
│ (lightweight) │ Type-safe API │ (secure coord) │ Real P2P │ (protocols) │
└─────────────────┘ └──────────────────┘ └─────────────────┘

Revolutionary Benefits:

• 🔒 Security: Secret keys isolated in daemon, clients never handle crypto
• ⚡ Performance: Automatic connection pooling, no repeated handshakes
• 📦 Lightweight: Client libraries 72% smaller (7 vs 25 dependencies)
• 🛠️ Operational: Rich identity management, online/offline control

Quick Start

1. Start the Daemon

# Start the P2P daemon (manages all identities and connections)
fastn-p2p daemon

2. Identity Management

# Create an identity
fastn-p2p create-identity alice
# Add a protocol to the identity 
fastn-p2p add-protocol alice --protocol Echo --config '{"max_length": 1000}'# Set identity online
fastn-p2p identity-online alice
# Check status
fastn-p2p status

3. Client Applications (Lightweight)

// Add to Cargo.toml: fastn-p2p-client = "0.1"use fastn_p2p_client;// Send request via daemon (no secret keys in client!)let request = EchoRequest{message:"Hello P2P!".to_string()};let result = fastn_p2p_client::call("alice",// From identity (daemon manages keys)
target_peer,// To peer (PublicKey)"Echo",// Protocol name"default",// Protocol instance
request // Request data).await?;

4. Server Applications

// Add to Cargo.toml: fastn-p2p = "0.1" use fastn_p2p;// Server uses full fastn-p2p crate with daemon utilitieslet private_key = load_identity_key("alice").await?;
fastn_p2p::listen(private_key).handle_requests("Echo", echo_handler).await?;asyncfnecho_handler(req:EchoRequest) -> Result<EchoResponse,EchoError>{Ok(EchoResponse{echoed:format!("Echo: {}", req.message)})}

Crates

fastn-p2p-client (Lightweight)

For client applications that send requests via daemon:

cargo add fastn-p2p-client # 7 dependencies, no crypto

fastn-p2p (Full Stack)

For server applications and daemon infrastructure:

cargo add fastn-p2p # 25 dependencies, full P2P stack

Daemon Management

Identity Operations

# Create identities
fastn-p2p create-identity alice
fastn-p2p create-identity bob
# Configure protocols for identities
fastn-p2p add-protocol alice --protocol Mail --config '{"storage_dir": "/var/mail"}'
fastn-p2p add-protocol alice --protocol Chat --alias backup --config '{"max_msgs": 1000}'# Control identity state
fastn-p2p identity-online alice # Enable alice's protocols
fastn-p2p identity-offline alice # Disable for maintenance# Remove protocols
fastn-p2p remove-protocol alice --protocol Mail --alias backup

Operational Commands

fastn-p2p status # Rich status dashboard
fastn-p2p daemon # Start daemon (foreground)

Client API (fastn-p2p-client)

Request/Response

use fastn_p2p_client;let result = fastn_p2p_client::call("alice",// From identity (daemon manages keys)
target_peer,// To peer (PublicKey) "Mail",// Protocol name"primary",// Protocol instance
mail_request // Request data).await?;

Streaming

letmut session = fastn_p2p_client::connect("alice",// From identity
target_peer,// To peer"FileTransfer",// Protocol "default",// Instance
filename // Initial data).await?;
session.copy_to(&mut local_file).await?;

Server API (fastn-p2p)

Protocol Servers

use fastn_p2p;// Server applications use full fastn-p2p cratelet identity_key = load_identity("alice").await?;
fastn_p2p::listen(identity_key).handle_requests("Echo", echo_handler).await?;asyncfnecho_handler(req:EchoRequest) -> Result<EchoResponse,EchoError>{Ok(EchoResponse{echoed:format!("Echo: {}", req.message)})}

Features

• 🔒 Secure by Design - Secret keys never leave daemon
• ⚡ Connection Pooling - Automatic connection reuse
• 📦 Lightweight Clients - 72% fewer dependencies than direct P2P
• 🛠️ Operational Excellence - Rich identity and protocol management
• 🌐 Real P2P - Uses iroh for actual peer-to-peer networking
• 🎯 Type Safety - PublicKey types throughout, no string confusion

Testing

Local Development

# Dual-daemon testing on local machine
./scripts/cli/test-request-response.sh
# Local + Digital Ocean droplet testing
./scripts/cli/test-do-p2p.sh

CI/CD

• GitHub Actions: Automated dual-droplet testing on real internet
• Production Validation: Tests P2P across Digital Ocean infrastructure
• Complete Coverage: End-to-end validation with real network latency

Examples

# Dual-mode request/response testing
cargo run --bin request_response server alice # Start Echo server
cargo run --bin request_response client <id52># Send Echo request

Documentation

• Examples - Complete dual-daemon testing examples
• Scripts - End-to-end testing with real infrastructure
• API Reference - Complete API documentation

License

Licensed under the Universal Permissive License (UPL-1.0).