Incorporates the completed de-risk POC (poc-summary.md, 28 tests passing)
into phase-0-findings.md:
- Marks OQ-CH-12 RESOLVED (lenient drop, validated by POC), OQ-CH-13
CONFIRMED +EV (do the BidiStreamSource refactor), and clarifies OQ-CH-14
with the AlknetClient context: a general downstream-facing client in
alknet-core paired with whichever ALPN handler a crate provides, with
server/client bidirectionality preserved (hub/worker can act as both,
each side fills its registry with the other's resources).
- Adds §POC-Validated Requirements carrying the POC's surfaced invariants
into Phase 1 as requirements (not open questions):
- REQ-CH-01..07: wire-level invariants for the channels crate spec
(shutdown emits zero-length sentinel, transport close drops all
senders, mux handle/runner split, lenient unknown channel_id, bounded
backpressure, two-pump shutdown-on-completion, PollSender adapter).
- REQ-CORE-01..04: the light alknet-core refactor to land alongside the
channels crate (BidiStreamSource trait, Connection::close fix,
AuthContext test helper, AlknetClient).
- Updates the De-risk POC section to COMPLETE status with what was
validated, what was surfaced, and what remains out of scope.
- Updates the opening revision note to reflect the POC pushed the core
mechanics beyond speculation into validated territory.
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 The previous implementation has been archived and a greenfield rebuild is in progress.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.