Gip Transport

Git remote helper for P2P remotes — no server, just peers.

Uses gip-remote for the underlying Git-in-Pear database.

Installation

Install the git remote helper globally:

npm i -g gip-transport

This installs git-remote-git+pear which git will automatically use when accessing git+pear:// remotes, and the gip CLI for managing repositories and configuration.

Usage

Creating a Repository

gip new my-repo

Adding a Remote

git remote add origin git+pear://<key>/my-repo

Push & Fetch

Works like any git remote:

git push origin main
git fetch origin
git clone git+pear://<key>/my-repo
git push origin --delete my-branch

Seeding

Keep your repositories available to peers:

gip seed

Prints your public key and lists the repositories being seeded. Logs peer connections and block transfers as they happen:

Seeding — Public key: 38ue8c5euscbjm8cqhan7psmgx9jpji5iey9aqjzf84749ghoqpo

  my-repo — 42 blocks

+ Peer connected 7xk9m3f2
  ↑ my-repo block 0 → 7xk9m3f2
  ↑ my-repo block 1 → 7xk9m3f2

Your Public Key

Print your public key to share with blind peer operators:

gip id

Configuration

Configuration is stored in the local HyperDB database.

Blind Peers

Blind peers relay your data for discoverability without seeing its contents. Add a blind peer mirror:

gip config add blind-peers <z32-key>

Remove one:

gip config remove blind-peers <z32-key>

View current config:

gip config
gip config get blind-peers

Progress Output

The transport provides git-like progress output during push and fetch operations:

• Enumerating objects: Counts objects being prepared for transfer
• Writing objects: Shows percentage complete, object count, data size, and transfer rate
• Receiving objects: Similar progress for fetch/clone operations

Progress is written to stderr to avoid interfering with git protocol communication on stdout.

Development

Link the remote helper so git can find it:

sudo ln -s $(pwd)/remote.js /usr/local/bin/git-remote-git+pear

Git automatically looks for git-remote-<protocol> when accessing a remote.

ToDo

• [ ] Multi-signer
• [x] Deduplication — objects are not pushed if they already exist on the remote
• [x] In-memory git packing via rebuild-git
• [x] Blind peer support
• [x] Branch deletion