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78 changes: 15 additions & 63 deletions README.md
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Expand Up @@ -2,14 +2,6 @@

**Don't read the specs here! Go to [specs.ipfs.tech](https://specs.ipfs.tech/), it's a much better experience!**

> 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?
Expand All @@ -31,66 +23,26 @@ We use the following label system to identify the state of each spec:

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 (Historical Notes from ~2015)](./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](https://specs.ipfs.tech/unixfs/).
- [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](https://specs.ipfs.tech/unixfs/)
- 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](https://github.com/ipfs/kubo/blob/master/docs/specifications/repository.md) - Kubo-specific local repository implementation details
- [FileSystem Repo](https://github.com/ipfs/kubo/blob/master/docs/specifications/repository_fs.md) - Kubo-specific filesystem repository implementation
- **Block Exchanges:**
- [Bitswap](https://specs.ipfs.tech/bitswap-protocol/) - BitTorrent-inspired exchange
- **Key Management:**
- [KeyStore](https://github.com/ipfs/kubo/blob/master/docs/specifications/keystore.md) - Kubo-specific key management implementation
- [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-record/)
- [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:
This works through the **InterPlanetary Improvement Process (IPIP)**. 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)

If you are wondering how to decide between an issue and an IPIP:

- **Does Not Need an IPIP**:
- The spec has a bug - something that is plainly a mistake.
- Adding more details, test vectors, and editorials/cosmetic changes.
- **Needs an IPIP**:
- An addition to the protocol that could cause an interop issues.

[![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).
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