Extract the shared JS+wgpu substrate (verified by the alknet-desktop POCs) as alknet-runtime — the generalized QuickJS-NG + wgpu runtime that both alknet-desktop (render) and alknet-compute (tensor compute) build on. Key property driving the split: wgpu on llvmpipe is genuinely useful compute with no physical GPU (WGSL → optimized SIMD beats JS for non-trivial workloads), so wgpu is unconditional in the runtime rather than a feature flag. Reframes the original alknet-tensor architecture-summary as alknet-compute (builds on alknet-runtime + alknet-tensor) with ShaderGenerator as a trait (WGSL first impl, SPIR-V/GLSL/naga-IR later per wgpu multi-input-language support). alknet-tensor/metatensor-format.md is now clearly the pure binary format crate (no JS or wgpu dep), usable standalone by a pure-Rust model server. Layering: alknet-runtime depends on alknet-call (registry authority stays per ADR-013); alknet-compute and alknet-desktop depend on alknet-runtime; alknet-tensor is a pure-format sibling.
Alknet
Status: Pre-alpha — This project is undergoing a major architectural pivot to an ALPN-as-service model. The previous implementation has been archived and a greenfield rebuild is in progress.
A self-hostable networking toolkit built on QUIC+TLS with ALPN-based protocol dispatch. Each protocol handler (SSH, SFTP, Git, HTTP, DNS, messaging, call protocol) registers an ALPN string on a shared endpoint. The ALPN negotiation during the TLS/QUIC handshake routes connections to the correct handler before any application bytes are read.
Core Insight
A service IS an ALPN. One endpoint, one port, many protocols — dispatched by the TLS handshake, not by application-level peeking or separate listeners.
Crates
| Crate | Status | Description |
|---|---|---|
alknet-vault |
stable | Local key vault: BIP39/SLIP-0010/AES-GCM key derivation and encryption |
alknet-core |
planned | ProtocolHandler trait, ALPN router, auth/identity, config |
alknet-ssh |
planned | SSH handler (russh), SOCKS5, port forwarding |
alknet-call |
planned | JSON-RPC call protocol (EventEnvelope framing) |
alknet-fs |
planned | Content-addressed file storage (iroh-blobs backend) |
alknet-sftp |
planned | SFTP handler (russh-sftp protocol core) |
alknet-git |
planned | Git smart protocol handler (gix) |
alknet-http |
planned | HTTP handler (axum, REST API, MCP) |
alknet-dns |
planned | DNS handler (hickory-proto, pkarr) |
alknet-msg |
planned | E2E encrypted messaging, mixnet support |
alknet |
planned | CLI binary (assembles and registers handlers) |
Documentation
- ALPN-as-service architecture — pivot proposal
- Cleanup plan — greenfield transition plan
- SDD process — spec-driven development process
- Research references — iroh, russh, russh-sftp deep dives
Reference implementation (previous architecture) is preserved at /workspace/@alkdev/alknet-main/.
License
Licensed under either of
- Apache License, Version 2.0 (LICENSE-APACHE or http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0)
- MIT license (LICENSE-MIT or http://opensource.org/licenses/MIT)
at your option.
Unless you explicitly state otherwise, any contribution intentionally submitted for inclusion in this work by you, as defined in the Apache-2.0 license, shall be dual licensed as above, without any additional terms or conditions.