Grounded in the alknet-docker POC (seed codec) and the alknet-tty POC (2026-07-05, validated the control channel, the local-PTY blocking→async bridge, and the signal-delivery contract). Four ADRs: - ADR-052: wire format — alknet/tty ALPN, two-carriage (JSON negotiation then raw chunks), fixed channel set 0-3, control as JSON, negotiation- error framing disambiguation - ADR-053: TtyBackend trait + TtyHandle — the backend inversion point; exit_code as a Future; REQ-TTY-01 (backends need not be natively async) - ADR-054: local backend as alknet-tty-local sibling crate behind a feature re-export; PTY vs pipe per-session; runner pattern preserved - ADR-055: exit code on a stream_type 3 control chunk; "exit chunk is last" invariant; adapter owns the ordering Five component specs (crates/tty/): README, overview, tty-wire, tty- backend, tty-adapter, tty-local. The docker/SSH backends are future crates (out of scope); the trait shape is committed so they can be built against it. Five OQs (OQ-43…47): two resolved (TtyControl Clone, stdin closure), two deferred(scope) (terminal modes, runner API surface), one open low-risk (flow control). Zero critical issues from a general-subagent architecture review; warnings addressed (inline rationale trimmed to ADR refs, TtyError and StdinCmd defined, framing disambiguation documented, missing ADRs added to index tables).
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 The previous implementation has been archived and a greenfield rebuild is in progress.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.