n0-computer/iroh

IP addresses break, dial keys instead. Modular networking stack in Rust.

Source code at GitHub https://iroh.computer

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  "description": "IP addresses break, dial keys instead. Modular networking stack in Rust.",
  "fullName": "n0-computer/iroh",
  "homepage": "https://iroh.computer",
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  "pushedAt": "2026-06-23T15:43:10Z",
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    "holepunching",
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  "updatedAt": "2026-06-24T00:14:46Z",
  "url": "https://github.com/n0-computer/iroh"
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less net work for networks

[]!(LICENSE-MIT) []!(LICENSE-APACHE)

Docs Site | Rust Docs

What is iroh?

Iroh gives you an API for dialing by public key. You say “connect to that phone”, iroh will find & maintain the fastest connection for you, regardless of where it is.

Hole-punching

The fastest route is a direct connection, so if necessary, iroh tries to hole-punch. Should this fail, it can fall back to an open ecosystem of public relay servers. To ensure these connections are as fast as possible, we [continuously measure iroh][iroh-perf].

Built on [QUIC]

Iroh uses [noq] to establish [QUIC] connections between endpoints. This way you get authenticated encryption, concurrent streams with stream priorities, a datagram transport and avoid head-of-line-blocking out of the box.

Compose Protocols

Use pre-existing protocols built on iroh instead of writing your own:

[iroh-blobs] for [BLAKE3]-based content-addressed blob transfer scaling from kilobytes to terabytes
[iroh-gossip] for establishing publish-subscribe overlay networks that scale, requiring only resources that your average phone can handle
[iroh-docs] for an eventually-consistent key-value store of [iroh-blobs] blobs

Getting Started

Rust Library

It’s easiest to use iroh from rust. Install it using cargo add iroh, then on the connecting side:

const ALPN: &[u8] = b"iroh-example/echo/0";

let endpoint = Endpoint::bind().await?;

// Open a connection to the accepting endpoint
let conn = endpoint.connect(addr, ALPN).await?;

// Open a bidirectional QUIC stream
let (mut send, mut recv) = conn.open_bi().await?;

// Send some data to be echoed
send.write_all(b"Hello, world!").await?;
send.finish()?;

// Receive the echo
let response = recv.read_to_end(1000).await?;
assert_eq!(&response, b"Hello, world!");

// As the side receiving the last application data - say goodbye
conn.close(0u32.into(), b"bye!");

// Close the endpoint and all its connections
endpoint.close().await;

And on the accepting side:

let endpoint = Endpoint::bind().await?;

let router = Router::builder(endpoint)
    .accept(ALPN.to_vec(), Arc::new(Echo))
    .spawn()
    .await?;

// The protocol definition:
#[derive(Debug, Clone)]
struct Echo;

impl ProtocolHandler for Echo {
    async fn accept(&self, connection: Connection) -> Result<()> {
        let (mut send, mut recv) = connection.accept_bi().await?;

        // Echo any bytes received back directly.
        let bytes_sent = tokio::io::copy(&mut recv, &mut send).await?;

        send.finish()?;
        connection.closed().await;

        Ok(())
    }
}

The full example code with more comments can be found at [echo.rs][echo-rs].

Or use one of the pre-existing protocols, e.g. [iroh-blobs] or [iroh-gossip].

Other Languages

If you want to use iroh from other languages, make sure to check out [iroh-ffi], the repository for FFI bindings.

Repository Structure

This repository contains a workspace of crates:

iroh: The core library for hole-punching & communicating with relays.
iroh-relay: The relay client and server implementation. This is the code we run in production for the public relays (and you can, too!).
iroh-base: Common types like EndpointId or RelayUrl.
iroh-dns-server: DNS server implementation powering the DNS/Pkarr address lookup for EndpointIds, running at dns.iroh.link.

License

This project is licensed under either of

Apache License, Version 2.0, ([LICENSE-APACHE]!(LICENSE-APACHE) or https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0)
MIT license ([LICENSE-MIT]!(LICENSE-MIT) or https://opensource.org/licenses/MIT)

at your option.

Contribution

Unless you explicitly state otherwise, any contribution intentionally submitted for inclusion in this project by you, as defined in the Apache-2.0 license, shall be dual licensed as above, without any additional terms or conditions.