iroh

<h1 align="center"><a href="https://iroh.computer"><img alt="iroh" src="./.img/iroh_wordmark.svg" width="100" /></a></h1>

<h3 align="center">
less net work for networks
</h3>

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<div align="center">
  <h3>
    <a href="https://iroh.computer/docs">
      Docs Site
    </a>
    <span> | </span>
    <a href="https://docs.rs/iroh">
      Rust Docs
    </a>
  </h3>
</div>
<br/>

## What is iroh?

Iroh gives you an API for dialing by public key.
You say “connect to that phone”, iroh will find & maintain the fastest connection for you, regardless of where it is.

### Hole-punching

The fastest route is a direct connection, so if necessary, iroh tries to hole-punch.
Should this fail, it can fall back to an open ecosystem of public relay servers.
To ensure these connections are as fast as possible, we [continuously measure iroh][iroh-perf].

### Built on [QUIC]

Iroh uses [noq] to establish [QUIC] connections between endpoints.
This way you get authenticated encryption, concurrent streams with stream priorities, a datagram transport and avoid head-of-line-blocking out of the box.

## Compose Protocols

Use pre-existing protocols built on iroh instead of writing your own:
- [iroh-blobs] for [BLAKE3]-based content-addressed blob transfer scaling from kilobytes to terabytes
- [iroh-gossip] for establishing publish-subscribe overlay networks that scale, requiring only resources that your average phone can handle
- [iroh-docs] for an eventually-consistent key-value store of [iroh-blobs] blobs

## Getting Started

### Rust Library

It's easiest to use iroh from rust.
Install it using `cargo add iroh`, then on the connecting side:

```rs
const ALPN: &[u8] = b"iroh-example/echo/0";

let endpoint = Endpoint::bind().await?;

// Open a connection to the accepting endpoint
let conn = endpoint.connect(addr, ALPN).await?;

// Open a bidirectional QUIC stream
let (mut send, mut recv) = conn.open_bi().await?;

// Send some data to be echoed
send.write_all(b"Hello, world!").await?;
send.fin