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6 Interfaces

⚠️ Warning: this section is incomplete, and parts of it are out of date. Please see this issue to track progress on improving it. ⚠️

libp2p is a collection of several protocols working together to offer a common solid interface that can talk with any other network addressable process. This is made possible by shimming currently existing protocols and implementations into a set of explicit interfaces: Peer Routing, Discovery, Stream Muxing, Transports, Connections and so on.

6.1 libp2p

libp2p, the top module that provides an interface to all the other modules that make a libp2p instance, must offer an interface for dialing to a peer and plugging in all of the modules (e.g. which transports) we want to support. We present the libp2p interface and UX in section 6.6, after presenting every other module interface.

6.2 Peer Routing

A Peer Routing module offers a way for a libp2p Node to find the PeerInfo of another Node, so that it can dial that node. In its most pure form, a Peer Routing module should have an interface that takes a 'key', and returns a set of PeerInfos. See https://github.com/libp2p/interface-peer-routing for the interface and tests.

6.3 Swarm

Current interface available and updated at:

https://github.com/libp2p/js-libp2p-swarm#usage

6.3.1 Transport

https://github.com/libp2p/interface-transport

6.3.2 Connection

https://github.com/libp2p/interface-connection

6.3.3 Stream Muxing

https://github.com/libp2p/interface-stream-muxer

6.4 Distributed Record Store

https://github.com/libp2p/interface-record-store

6.5 Peer Discovery

A Peer Discovery module interface should return PeerInfo objects, as it finds new peers to be considered by our Peer Routing modules.

6.6 libp2p interface and UX

libp2p implementations should enable it to be instantiated programmatically, or to use a previous compiled library with some of the protocol decisions already made, so that the user can reuse or expand.

Constructing a libp2p instance programatically

Example made with JavaScript, should be mapped to other languages:

var Libp2p = require('libp2p')

var node = new Libp2p()

// add a swarm instance
node.addSwarm(swarmInstance)

// add one or more Peer Routing mechanisms
node.addPeerRouting(peerRoutingInstance)

// add a Distributed Record Store
node.addDistributedRecordStore(distributedRecordStoreInstance)

Configuring libp2p is quite straightforward since most of the configuration comes from instantiating the several modules, one at a time.

Dialing and Listening for connections to/from a peer

Ideally, libp2p uses its own mechanisms (PeerRouting and Record Store) to find a way to dial to a given peer:

node.dial(PeerInfo)

To receive an incoming connection, specify one or more protocols to handle:

node.handleProtocol('<multicodec>', function (duplexStream) {

})

Finding a peer

Finding a peer is done through Peer Routing, so the interface is the same.

Storing and Retrieving Records

Like Finding a peer, Storing and Retrieving records is done through Record Store, so the interface is the same.