Arcane Commons Mesh / 魔法網

Arcane Commons Mesh v0.1 is a local, independently verifiable MVP for a members-only cooperative backup mesh. It encrypts data before storage, places ciphertext on three local storage-node processes, restores through an outage, rejects corruption, and recovers from an encrypted recovery file.

The source is published under the MIT License so anyone may fork, modify, redistribute, or continue the project. Contributions are welcome, but this repository is currently a research/development handoff—not a finished backup product.

This is not production-ready, fully decentralized, anonymous, or independently security-audited. It has no cryptocurrency, transferable credit, wallet, or real blockchain connection.

Do not use this as the only copy of valuable data. The current three-node demo runs on one computer and does not survive loss of that computer.

Prerequisites

• macOS or Linux
• Node 22.13 and pnpm 10.13
• Rust 1.91

Verify locally

pnpm install
pnpm lint
pnpm format:check
pnpm typecheck
pnpm test
pnpm build
pnpm verify:mvp

No external deployment, account, token, relay, or blockchain is required. See docs/EXECUTION_PLAN.md, docs/THREAT_MODEL.md, and docs/RECOVERY.md.

pnpm verify:mvp performs all fifteen local acceptance steps: fixture creation, owner-side encryption, three placements, source isolation, node outage, restore, deliberate corruption, healthy fallback and repair, provider earning, owner consumption, forbidden financial-route checks, one-member-one-vote, clean Recovery Kit restore, plaintext absence checks, and audit-chain/Merkle verification. Evidence is written to .verify/verify-mvp-report.json.

Run the local demo

pnpm demo:up
curl http://127.0.0.1:8787/health
pnpm demo:smoke
pnpm demo:down

This starts a local Worker with D1, three storage node processes, and one auditor process. Each node has a separate iroh endpoint, identity, replay database, and object store. demo:smoke sends random ciphertext through authenticated QUIC, stores it on all three nodes, reads it back, and verifies all three CIDs. All state and logs stay under .demo/. demo:down stops recorded processes and removes that directory. See docs/NETWORK_LOCAL.md.

Exercise the encrypted CLI vault

Vault commands read the passphrase from standard input. This example uses a shell prompt so the passphrase is not placed in command history:

read -s ACM_PASSPHRASE
printf '%s\n' "$ACM_PASSPHRASE" | cargo run -p arcane-mesh-cli -- vault create
printf '%s\n' "$ACM_PASSPHRASE" | cargo run -p arcane-mesh-cli -- vault add ./example.pdf
printf '%s\n' "$ACM_PASSPHRASE" | cargo run -p arcane-mesh-cli -- vault list
unset ACM_PASSPHRASE

Local vault state stays in ignored .acm/. Data chunks use three local replicas; encrypted manifests and signed encrypted catalogs use five. Keep the generated Recovery Kit somewhere separate from the computer.

To rebuild in a clean directory from an external Kit and mounted/exported node stores:

printf '%s\n' "$ACM_PASSPHRASE" | cargo run -p arcane-mesh-cli -- \
  recovery import /Volumes/Backup/owner.acm-recovery \
  --source /Volumes/Node-A/storage \
  --source /Volumes/Node-B/storage \
  --source /Volumes/Node-C/storage

The unsigned local desktop artifact is built with:

pnpm --filter @arcane-commons/desktop tauri build --no-bundle

The current development binary is placed under target/release/. Onboarding writes an encrypted Recovery Kit to Downloads and stores identity/vault keys in a Stronghold snapshot. After pnpm demo:up, the desktop can discover the local demo from the active clone and send encrypted catalogs, manifests, and chunks to three separate loopback QUIC storage-node processes. It verifies replica health and restores from a healthy CID-verified copy. Without that connection it uses app-local object stores. Neither mode is geographic redundancy. The onboarding screen can import a Kit from explicitly supplied storage-node folders; automatic remote-node discovery is not part of this local artifact. It is an unaudited development artifact and must not be treated as the only copy of valuable data.

The local public-information site is built as static files with:

pnpm --filter @arcane-commons/site build

Its output is placed under apps/site/dist/. The site makes no network calls and does not imply that a signed public release or geographically independent mesh already exists.

What help is needed

The most useful next milestones are:

1. replace deterministic demo enrollment with secure invitation and membership issuance;
2. build and verify a Windows storage-node and desktop distribution;
3. add LAN discovery, then test direct connections between separate machines;
4. add an explicitly operated encrypted relay path for different networks;
5. obtain an independent cryptography, recovery, and data-loss review;
6. prove recovery after the original owner computer is unavailable.

See CONTRIBUTING.md, SECURITY.md, the threat model, and the local-network guide before changing security or protocol behavior.