CORVAX

Find any peer by its key or by a topic, from any runtime, and open an encrypted WebRTC DataChannel to it: direct when possible, otherwise relayed through another peer.

• Addresses are keys (Ed25519, 52 chars). Nothing to register, and they never expire.
• No central server required. Anchors are ordinary peers that others can reach; anyone can run one, none is trusted, and they only introduce peers (never in the data path).
• Topics: leased, signed presence plus short best-effort broadcasts.
• Zero runtime dependencies, no build step. Runs in browsers, Node ≥ 22, Bun and Deno.

flowchart LR
    A[Peer A] -. find + signal .-> N[Anchor]
    B[Peer B] -. find + signal .-> N
    A <== "WebRTC DataChannel (direct, or relayed by a peer)" ==> B

Use

Browsers, no build step:

<script type="module">
  import { Peer } from 'https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/@sloev/[email protected]/dist/corvax.min.js'
</script>

Node ≥ 22, Bun, Deno and bundlers:

npm i @sloev/corvax   # then: import { Peer } from '@sloev/corvax'   (Deno: 'npm:@sloev/corvax')

Every green push to main releases 0.1.N (npm, plus a GitHub release with the bundle; the 10 newest are kept, latest tags the newest). @sloev/[email protected] follows them; pin with @sloev/[email protected]. The full JS reference is on every anchor's homepage under DOX.

const me = await Peer.create()                 // bootstraps from known anchors
await me.publish()                             // make your address resolvable
me.accept(({ from, channel }) => channel.onmessage = e => console.log(from, e.data))
const { channel } = await me.connect('<address>')
channel.send('hello')

const chess = await me.topic('chess')
await chess.publish()                          // presence: a 10-minute lease, renewed automatically
chess.subscribe({ presence: e => {}, message: m => {} })
await chess.search()                           // [{ address, presence: 'recent', expires }]
await chess.broadcast({ move: 'e4' })          // ≤ 1 KB, best-effort, never stored

Helpers

A whole page with a live visitor counter (open it in two tabs):

<p><b id="count">…</b> people here now</p>

<script type="module">
  import { presence } from
    'https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/@sloev/[email protected]/dist/corvax.min.js'

  presence(n => count.textContent = n)
</script>

And a chat room: const chat = await room('my-chat', (body, from) => …), then chat.send({ text: 'hi' }).

Trystero

Trystero rooms can signal over CORVAX instead of a relay server (@sloev/trystero-corvax):

import { joinRoom } from '@sloev/trystero-corvax'   // npm i @trystero-p2p/core @sloev/trystero-corvax
const room = joinRoom({ appId: 'my-app' }, 'lobby')

Members are found by CORVAX presence, and signals travel over the room's own mesh when they can, so rooms keep re-signalling with no anchor at all. Two browsers join in about 0.3 s.

A node on this device

Apps find a CORVAX node running on the same device (http://127.0.0.1:4799) by themselves and use it first: native runtimes by default, browsers with Peer.create({ local: true }).

Outside browsers, WebRTC comes from werift (an optional dependency); pass your own with Peer.create({ RTCPeerConnection }). STUN uses anchors that answer UDP plus stun:stun.cloudflare.com:3478 (Peer.create({ stun })). When no given or cached anchor answers, peers fall back to https://corvax.sloev.workers.dev/ (Peer.create({ fallback })).

Run a node

Apps: download for Windows, macOS, Linux and Android. They run a node in the background, and other apps on the device use it automatically (source).

npx @sloev/corvax node               # becomes an anchor when strangers can reach UDP+TCP 4799
npx @sloev/corvax anchor --public-host IP   # the first anchors of a network
npx @sloev/corvax anchors           # print the anchor book

Running a public anchor? Add it to anchors.txt: the issue checks it live, and every release ships the listed anchors that answer at release time (node scripts/anchors.js check checks the list by hand).

• Browsers opening a node's / get the CORVAX app: DOX (an overview and the JS API reference; shown first, then the last view is remembered), APP (identity, peers, messages, topics, follows, updates) and STATS (this anchor and your node).
• curl -s http://node:4799/ gets the plain anchor list.
• Cloudflare Worker anchor: npx wrangler deploy in this repo (HTTPS only: inboxes, topic storage, Beacons mirrored to Mainline via pkarr, and a rate-limited WebSocket relay as a last resort; no UDP, so no DHT routing or STUN). Optional fixed key: wrangler secret put CORVAX_SEED (64 hex chars). Check it with node test/worker-check.js https://corvax.<account>.workers.dev.
• HTTPS pages need an anchor with an HTTPS origin: cloudflared tunnel --url http://localhost:4799, then --web https://….
• A direct connection reveals your IP to the peer you connect to.

Test

npm run build && npm test                     # bundle, then Node incl. Chromium (Playwright)
bun test/runtime-smoke.js; deno run -A test/runtime-smoke.js
node test/live/pkarr.js                       # internet: Mainline compatibility via the pkarr relay

SPEC.md is the wire protocol. PLAN.md holds scope and decisions. Logo sizes are in assets/logo.