The JavaScript implementation of the libp2p Networking Stack

[!NOTE] Are you trying to upgrade libp2p to the latest version? Check out the migration guides for any changes you need to make.

Project status

This project has been used in production for years in Ethereum, IPFS, and more. It is actively maintained by multiple organizations and continues to be improved! The API might change, but we strictly follow semver.

The documentation in the main branch may contain changes from a pre-release.

If you are looking for the documentation of the latest release, you can view the latest release on npm, or select the tag in github that matches the version you are looking for.

[!TIP] Just trying to figure out what this is all about? Check our GETTING_STARTED.md guide and examples.

Background

libp2p is the product of a long and arduous quest to understand the evolution of the Internet networking stack. In order to build P2P applications, devs have long had to make custom ad-hoc solutions to fit their needs, sometimes making some hard assumptions about their runtimes and the state of the network at the time of their development. Today, looking back more than 20 years, we see a clear pattern in the types of mechanisms built around the Internet Protocol, IP, which can be found throughout many layers of the OSI layer system, libp2p distils these mechanisms into flat categories and defines clear interfaces that once exposed, enable other protocols and applications to use and swap them, enabling upgradability and adaptability for the runtime, without breaking the API.

We are in the process of writing better documentation, blog posts, tutorials and a formal specification. Today you can find:

• libp2p.io
• docs.libp2p.io
• Specification (WIP)
• Discussion Forums
• Talks
  • libp2p <3 ethereum at DEVCON2
• Articles
  • The overview of libp2p

To sum up, libp2p is a “network stack” – a protocol suite – that cleanly separates concerns, and enables sophisticated applications to only use the protocols they absolutely need, without giving up interoperability and upgradability. libp2p grew out of IPFS, but it is built so that lots of people can use it, for lots of different projects.

Roadmap

The js-libp2p roadmap can be found here: https://github.com/libp2p/js-libp2p/blob/main/ROADMAP.md

It represents current projects the js-libp2p maintainers are focused on and provides an estimation of completion targets.

Install

npm install libp2p

Usage

Configuration

For all the information on how you can configure libp2p see CONFIGURATION.md.

Limits

For help configuring your node to resist malicious network peers, see LIMITS.md

Getting started

If you are starting your journey with js-libp2p, read the GETTING_STARTED.md guide.

Tutorials and Examples

You can find multiple examples on the examples repo that will guide you through using libp2p for several scenarios.

Structure

• /doc Docs for libp2p
• /interop Multidimensional Interop Test
• /packages/crypto Crypto primitives for libp2p
• /packages/interface The interface implemented by a libp2p node
• /packages/interface-compliance-tests Compliance tests for JS libp2p interfaces
• /packages/interface-internal Interfaces implemented by internal libp2p components
• /packages/kad-dht JavaScript implementation of the Kad-DHT for libp2p
• /packages/keychain Key management and cryptographically protected messages
• /packages/libp2p JavaScript implementation of libp2p, a modular peer to peer network stack
• /packages/logger A logging component for use in js-libp2p modules
• /packages/metrics-prometheus Collect libp2p metrics for scraping by Prometheus or Graphana
• /packages/multistream-select JavaScript implementation of multistream-select
• /packages/peer-collections Stores values against a peer id
• /packages/peer-discovery-bootstrap Peer discovery via a list of bootstrap peers
• /packages/peer-discovery-mdns Node.js libp2p mDNS discovery implementation for peer discovery
• /packages/peer-id Implementation of @libp2p/interface-peer-id
• /packages/peer-record Used to transfer signed peer data across the network
• /packages/peer-store Stores information about peers libp2p knows on the network
• /packages/protocol-echo Implementation of an Echo protocol
• /packages/protocol-perf Implementation of the Perf protocol
• /packages/pubsub libp2p pubsub base class
• /packages/pubsub-floodsub libp2p-floodsub, also known as pubsub-flood or just dumbsub, this implementation of pubsub focused on delivering an API for Publish/Subscribe, but with no CastTree Forming (it just floods the network).
• /packages/record libp2p record implementation
• /packages/stream-multiplexer-mplex JavaScript implementation of https://github.com/libp2p/mplex
• /packages/transport-tcp A TCP transport for libp2p
• /packages/transport-webrtc A libp2p transport using WebRTC connections
• /packages/transport-websockets JavaScript implementation of the WebSockets module that libp2p uses and that implements the interface-transport spec
• /packages/transport-webtransport JavaScript implementation of the WebTransport module that libp2p uses and that implements the interface-transport spec
• /packages/utils Package to aggregate shared logic and dependencies for the libp2p ecosystem

Development

Clone and install dependencies:

> git clone https://github.com/libp2p/js-libp2p.git
> cd js-libp2p
> npm install
> npm run build

Tests

Run unit tests

# run all the unit tests
> npm test

# run just Node.js tests
> npm run test:node

# run just Browser tests (Chrome)
> npm run test:chrome

Packages

List of packages currently in existence for libp2p

This table is generated using the module package-table with package-table --data=package-list.json.

Package Version Deps CI Coverage libp2p libp2p @libp2p/interface transports @libp2p/tcp @libp2p/webrtc @libp2p/websockets @libp2p/webtransport secure channels @chainsafe/libp2p-noise @libp2p/plaintext stream multiplexers @chainsafe/libp2p-yamux peer discovery @libp2p/bootstrap @libp2p/kad-dht @libp2p/mdns @chainsafe/discv5 content routing @libp2p/http-v1-content-routing @libp2p/delegated-content-routing @libp2p/kad-dht peer routing @libp2p/delegated-peer-routing @libp2p/kad-dht utilities @libp2p/crypto data types @libp2p/peer-id @libp2p/peer-record pubsub @ChainSafe/libp2p-gossipsub @libp2p/floodsub

Used by

And many others…

Contribute

See CONTRIBUTING.md.

API Docs

• https://libp2p.github.io/js-libp2p

License

Licensed under either of

• Apache 2.0, (LICENSE-APACHE / http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0)
• MIT (LICENSE-MIT / http://opensource.org/licenses/MIT)