Two halves of the same twin-resolution gap, found live while testing images between archi-dev-box and archy-x250-dev: - peer_dest_prefix resolved the given contact row's own pubkey. For the UI's merged conversation (the federation-synthetic id) that's the Archipelago ed25519 identity key, NOT a radio routing key — so every Reticulum resource send (images/files over LoRa) failed with 'Unknown Reticulum prefix' while the UI showed the message as sent. It now resolves through the radio twin (same arch identity, radio-range id). - send_typed_wire sent EVERY federation-synthetic contact over the federation path (FIPS→Tor), even with the same node one LoRa hop away. Policy per operator: LoRa first when the payload fits and the radio twin is reachable, then FIPS, then Tor. Verified live: text to the merged contact now logs 'Radio-first routing' and lands with transport=reticulum on the peer. Also restyles the mesh-chat attachment download controls: the pre-fetch button was a bare .btn that squished to text width in the narrow mobile bubble; now a full-width glass pill with a download icon and fetch spinner, and the on-image overlay swaps the emoji glyph for a crisp SVG in a properly-sized glass circle. Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Archipelago
Self-sovereign Bitcoin node OS and manifest-driven app platform.
Archipelago is a bootable personal server OS for Bitcoin infrastructure,
self-hosted apps, mesh communication, decentralized identity, and federation.
Apps are packaged as declarative manifest.yml files and run as rootless
Podman containers managed by the Rust backend.
What is here
core/- Rust workspace: backend API, container runtime, security, OpenWrt helpers, and performance/resource management.neode-ui/- Vue 3 + TypeScript frontend.apps/- app manifests and custom app container sources.docker/- supporting container build contexts for UI companion surfaces.image-recipe/- bootable image/ISO build inputs.Android/- Android companion app.scripts/- development, release, deployment, and validation tooling.docs/- architecture, app packaging, operations, API, and roadmap docs.
Platform model
Archipelago is built as a developer-ready app platform, not a fixed appliance:
- Apps are declared in
apps/<app-id>/manifest.yml. - The Rust parser in
core/container/src/manifest.rsis the canonical schema. - The orchestrator compiles manifests to rootless Podman/Quadlet runtime state.
- App data lives under
/var/lib/archipelago/<app-id>/. - Secrets are generated or read from
/var/lib/archipelago/secrets/and injected through Podman secrets rather than static environment values. - Release and app catalogs are signed and verified against a pinned trust anchor.
Start with:
- Architecture
- Developer Guide
- App Developer Guide
- App Manifest Spec
- Nostr Git Source Hosting Plan
- Operations Runbook
- Troubleshooting
Quick start
Frontend
cd neode-ui
npm install
npm start
The dev UI runs at http://localhost:8100 with a mock backend on :5959.
Backend
cd core
cargo build
cargo test --all-features
Linux is the supported backend runtime and release-build target. macOS is fine for frontend work and many Rust compile/test loops, but host integration tests that touch Podman, systemd, networking, or image build paths require Linux.
App manifests
./scripts/validate-app-manifest.sh apps/filebrowser/manifest.yml
python3 scripts/generate-app-catalog.py
python3 scripts/check-app-catalog-drift.py --release --strict
scripts/generate-app-catalog.py requires Python with PyYAML installed.
Documentation map
| Doc | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Architecture | System layers, crates, data paths, security model |
| Developer Guide | Local setup, code workflow, testing |
| API Reference | JSON-RPC API overview |
| App Developer Guide | How to package and test apps |
| App Manifest Spec | Manifest schema and validation rules |
| Nostr Git Source Hosting Plan | ngit/NIP-34 contribution workflow and maintainer model |
| Apps README | Packaged app catalog overview |
| Image Recipe | Bootable image build flow |
| Operations Runbook | Production operations and recovery |
| Open Source Readiness | Public-release cleanup checklist |
| Roadmap | Shipped, in-progress, and planned work |
| Unified Task Tracker | Launch hardening task list |
| Archive | Historical plans, audits, and handoffs |
Contributing
Read CONTRIBUTING.md before opening a pull request. For security issues, follow SECURITY.md and do not open a public issue.
License
Archipelago is licensed under the MIT License. Third-party notices are listed in NOTICE and generated license inventories in component release artifacts.