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Aleph Bootstrap

@le-space/aleph-bootstrap is the shared package for relay bootstrap registration and discovery on Aleph.

It covers two sides of the flow:

  1. relay deployment paths publish fresh public multiaddrs as Aleph POST messages
  2. browser or Node libp2p apps query those posts before creating their bootstrap peer discovery service

Shared Defaults​

@le-space/aleph-bootstrap is a shared package, not a simple-todo-specific integration.

Today it is used by:

The package still ships with a backward-compatible default namespace rooted in the earliest simple-todo integration:

  • channel: simple-todo
  • ref: simple-todo-bootstrap
  • compact post type: relay-bootstrap-v2
  • legacy post type: relay-bootstrap

These defaults are exported for compatibility, but every value can be overridden when a consumer needs an app-specific namespace or stronger isolation between environments.

Relay Registration​

The shared deploy flows now register relay bootstrap addresses automatically for the uc-go-peer and orbitdb-relay RootFS profiles when they are launched through:

  • the shared GitHub Action VM deploy path
  • the Sponsor Relay browser UI path

ucan-store is also a shared RootFS/deployment profile, but it intentionally does not publish relay bootstrap records. It exposes service discovery through guest metadata and /.well-known/ucan-store.json instead.

New registrations prefer the compact relay-bootstrap-v2 shape. It stores the browser-ready bootstrap list directly in multiaddrs, caps it to the best public browser-dialable candidates, and omits the old duplicate browserMultiaddrs array. Legacy relay-bootstrap records are still supported and keep the full diagnostic shape.

The legacy registration payload stores:

  • peerId
  • multiaddrs
  • browserMultiaddrs
  • registrationId when a producer can provide a stable relay identity
  • profile
  • version
  • updatedAt

Only public multiaddrs are published. Loopback, RFC1918, link-local, and localhost-style addresses are filtered out before the Aleph POST is signed. For compact v2 records, browser transports are preferred in this order: /tcp/443/tls/ws, other /tls/ws, WebTransport, WebRTC direct, then other websocket addresses.

For uc-go-peer, the browser Sponsor Relay flow is now a staged handoff rather than a single direct bootstrap publish:

  1. the browser waits for Aleph runtime networking and mapped ports
  2. if Aleph reserved a 2n6 hostname, the browser waits for that HTTPS route to become active before handing proxyUrl to the guest
  3. the browser publishes a short-lived vm-bootstrap-config aggregate keyed by the deployment token
  4. the guest consumes that aggregate and emits a vm-bootstrap-config-status signal
  5. the browser prefers relay metadata from that guest signal when it already contains peerId and public multiaddrs
  6. otherwise the browser polls relay metadata, preferring the secure https://relay-name.2n6.me/bootstrap/metadata endpoint when available
  7. the browser waits for the guest to publish its own relay-bootstrap-v2 POST on Aleph
  8. if that guest registration is delayed, the browser publishes a fallback bootstrap record from the owner wallet using the same registrationId
  9. after success, the temporary bootstrap-config aggregate is removed

This matters because the relay bootstrap record is now tied to the actual runtime addresses seen after deployment, not just to the deployment wallet or to build-time assumptions.

Browser Path And Workflow Path​

The browser UI path and the GitHub workflow path now converge on the same final bootstrap registration shape, but they still differ in how they hand off guest configuration:

  • browser uc-go-peer
    • publishes runtime networking into Aleph via vm-bootstrap-config
    • waits for the guest vm-bootstrap-config-status signal
    • can continue without HTTPS if the 2n6 route never activates
  • Node/workflow deploy path
    • configures the guest directly through the temporary setup endpoint on the mapped host port
    • polls guest /metadata until public relay multiaddrs are ready
    • publishes the final bootstrap registration from the deploy runner

Both paths ultimately use the same shared registration primitives:

  • createRelayBootstrapRegistrationId(...)
  • publishRelayBootstrapRegistration(...)
  • waitForRelayBootstrapRegistration(...)

Runtime Suitability Checks​

Proxy-backed HTTPS activation is only usable when the runtime exposes a public guest IPv6. If a CRN reports a private or otherwise non-globally-routable guest IPv6, the deploy code now treats that runtime as unsuitable for proxy-backed HTTPS:

  • the browser UI marks the runtime as unusable, cleans up the failed attempt, and retries another CRN when possible
  • the workflow path does the same cleanup-and-retry behavior before treating that attempt as successful

This is not just a browser fetch quirk. It is a runtime suitability problem for the proxy-backed HTTPS path itself.

Current Signing Model​

Today the codebase supports two bootstrap signing shapes:

  • legacy wallet-signed records
  • dual-key records with owner authorization plus relay proof

Current profile behavior:

  • uc-go-peer
    • when ALEPH_VM_BOOTSTRAP_PUBLISHER_PRIVATE_KEY is supplied, the deploy flow derives a libp2p secp256k1 identity from that same publisher key B
    • that protobuf-encoded libp2p key is written into the guest before first start, so the relay peerId comes from the same underlying key material as the Aleph publisher identity
    • if owner key A is also supplied, the owner authorization can be minted up front and stored in the first guest configure call
  • orbitdb-relay
    • now also accepts a preseeded libp2p secp256k1 identity derived from publisher key B
    • when publisher key B is supplied, the relay peerId comes from the same underlying key material as the Aleph publisher identity
    • keeps libp2p AutoTLS enabled by default; the guest first advertises direct plain websocket candidates, then the AutoTLS refresh service appends *.libp2p.direct secure websocket addresses after the relay exposes its serving zone
    • when Aleph reserves a 2n6 proxy hostname, Caddy only serves that hostname and uses HTTP-01 certificate validation, leaving libp2p AutoTLS to manage the direct secure websocket hostnames
    • when publisher key B is not supplied, it falls back to the older self-generated Ed25519 relay identity
    • in that fallback mode, owner authorization is still written back into the guest with a second no_start configure call after runtime metadata is known

So the remaining trust gap is now narrower than before:

  • uc-go-peer can already bind publisher key B and relay peerId to the same secp256k1 root
  • orbitdb-relay can now do the same when publisher key B is supplied
  • legacy wallet-signed records are still accepted by default for backward compatibility

Target Signing Model​

The intended next model is a dual-key relay bootstrap record.

Roles:

  • owner key A: the deployment wallet that creates or sponsors the Aleph VM
  • relay key B: a separate key held by the running relay VM

Target proof chain:

  1. owner key A signs an authorization statement for relay key B
  2. relay key B signs the current bootstrap record payload
  3. the bootstrap POST is published by relay key B
  4. readers verify both signatures before trusting the record

This gives the relay enough autonomy to refresh its own bootstrap record while still preserving a cryptographic relationship to the original deployment wallet.

Important design note:

  • this is intentionally a dual-key model
  • it replaces earlier ideas about reusing the deployer wallet directly or relying on Aleph-specific publish-on-behalf delegation as the primary long term design
  • if the relay peer identity is later made compatible with the same signing key material, that can simplify verification further, but the baseline plan is still dual-key authorization plus relay-side signing

Current Transport Reality​

Today, relay-button submits those signed Aleph POST messages through Aleph's HTTP/Core Channel Node gateway.

Aleph's platform documentation also describes peer-to-peer message broadcast as another supported transport, but the practical first-party integration surface we found for that path is Aleph's separate p2p-service bridge rather than a browser-ready TypeScript SDK.

That means the current implementation should be understood as:

  • decentralized at the wallet-signing layer
  • gateway-based at submission time
  • public and REST-queryable at read time

App Discovery​

Typical discovery looks like this:

import { createLibp2pAlephBootstrap } from '@le-space/aleph-bootstrap'

const alephBootstrap = await createLibp2pAlephBootstrap()

If an app wants only the raw multiaddr list, call:

import { discoverAlephBootstrapMultiaddrs } from '@le-space/aleph-bootstrap'

const list = await discoverAlephBootstrapMultiaddrs()

By default, discovery:

  • queries https://api2.aleph.im/api/v0/posts.json
  • loads compact relay-bootstrap-v2 posts first, then falls back to legacy relay-bootstrap posts when v2 has no usable addresses
  • skips entries older than 7 days
  • keeps only the newest fresh record per relay identity
  • sorts fetched records by recency client-side, even though Aleph currently returns page 1 newest-first for this query
  • deduplicates the returned multiaddrs
  • prefers browserMultiaddrs for legacy records when available
  • verifies dual-key records when they are present

Important caveat:

  • the 7-day cutoff is our application-level freshness rule
  • we still do not have source-backed proof from Aleph's public docs about when ordinary bootstrap POST messages are automatically pruned, if ever
  • relays should eventually republish and forget their own old bootstrap records instead of assuming network-side cleanup

Current implementation detail:

  • when a bootstrap record includes registrationId, discovery collapses to the newest fresh record for that relay identity
  • otherwise discovery falls back to the newest fresh record per sender address
  • invalid dual-key records are ignored during discovery
  • legacy wallet-signed records are still accepted by default

Current UI state handling also relies on registrationId:

  • the Sponsor Relay panel marks registrations that match a live instance as confirmed instance-linked registrations
  • registrations for the current wallet that no longer match any instance are shown as orphan bootstrap registrations
  • deleting an instance now forgets the instance and its linked bootstrap registration records together
  • orphan registrations can be forgotten independently from the panel

Discovery can be tightened further with:

  • verifyDualKeyAttestation: true This is the default behavior for posts that already carry dual-key proof objects.
  • requireDualKeyAttestation: true This rejects legacy wallet-signed records and only accepts dual-key-attested relay registrations.

Example:

import { discoverAlephBootstrapMultiaddrs } from '@le-space/aleph-bootstrap'

const list = await discoverAlephBootstrapMultiaddrs({
  requireDualKeyAttestation: true,
})

Dual-Key Helpers​

The package now also exposes low-level helpers for dual-key record creation and verification:

  • signRelayBootstrapAuthorization(...)
  • signRelayBootstrapProof(...)
  • verifyRelayBootstrapAuthorization(...)
  • verifyRelayBootstrapProof(...)
  • verifyRelayBootstrapDualKeyContent(...)
  • relayBootstrapTrustMode(...)

Validation​

The shared monorepo now has two validation layers for this flow:

  • local unit coverage in packages/aleph-bootstrap/test and packages/core/test/bootstrap-registration.test.ts
  • an opt-in live round-trip script at scripts/test-aleph-bootstrap-live.mjs

Run the deterministic local checks with:

pnpm --filter @le-space/aleph-bootstrap test
pnpm --filter @le-space/core test

Run the live Aleph round-trip with a funded or otherwise valid wallet key:

ALEPH_BOOTSTRAP_TEST_PRIVATE_KEY=0xyourkey pnpm test:aleph-bootstrap:live

The live check:

  • publishes dummy public multiaddrs into Aleph as a relay-bootstrap-v2 POST
  • republishes the same relay identity with refreshed public multiaddrs
  • requests FORGET for the older bootstrap record
  • polls posts.json until the refreshed post is visible
  • re-runs discovery through discoverAlephBootstrapMultiaddrs()
  • verifies that private and localhost multiaddrs were filtered out
  • verifies that discovery selects the refreshed browser bootstrap addrs instead of the older ones

An optional variant also uses a fresh random ephemeral wallet key:

ALEPH_BOOTSTRAP_TEST_USE_EPHEMERAL_KEY=true pnpm test:aleph-bootstrap:live

In our live testing, that ephemeral-key mode was also accepted by Aleph for the same bootstrap POST and FORGET lifecycle. For this bootstrap flow, that is strong evidence that public write access is effectively open to arbitrary valid keys, which reinforces the need for consumer-side anti-spam handling.

Periodic Refresh​

Two refresh paths now exist:

  • external @le-space/node refresh-bootstrap mode
  • in-guest periodic refresh from the relay VM itself

@le-space/node now supports:

ALEPH_VM_MODE=refresh-bootstrap

Expected environment inputs:

  • ALEPH_VM_PRIVATE_KEY
  • ALEPH_VM_NAME
  • ALEPH_VM_PROFILE
  • ALEPH_VM_RELAY_PEER_ID
  • ALEPH_VM_PROBE_MULTIADDRS_JSON
  • ALEPH_VM_BROWSER_BOOTSTRAP_MULTIADDRS_JSON
  • optional ALEPH_VM_ROOTFS_VERSION
  • optional ALEPH_VM_BOOTSTRAP_REGISTRATION_ID
  • optional ALEPH_VM_BOOTSTRAP_FORGET_PREVIOUS
  • optional ALEPH_VM_PUBLISHER_PRIVATE_KEY
  • optional ALEPH_VM_OWNER_PRIVATE_KEY

That mode republishes the relay bootstrap registration and, by default, forgets older self-owned records for the same registration ID.

Current dual-key behavior in external refresh-bootstrap:

  • if only ALEPH_VM_PRIVATE_KEY is set, refresh behaves like the legacy wallet-signed model
  • if ALEPH_VM_PUBLISHER_PRIVATE_KEY is set, the relay bootstrap POST is published by that publisher identity
  • if ALEPH_VM_OWNER_PRIVATE_KEY is also set, the refresh path embeds the owner authorization plus relay proof objects automatically

This external mode remains useful for one-off repair or manual refresh, but it is no longer the only heartbeat path.

Current in-guest refresh behavior:

  • deploy/configure stores ALEPH_BOOTSTRAP_PUBLISHER_PRIVATE_KEY, ALEPH_BOOTSTRAP_REGISTRATION_ID, and a base64-encoded ALEPH_BOOTSTRAP_OWNER_AUTHORIZATION_B64 record in the relay VM env file
  • both relay profiles can additionally store a precomputed libp2p secp256k1 identity derived from publisher key B, so the runtime peerId is known before the relay first starts
  • if orbitdb-relay is deployed without publisher key B, it still generates owner authorization after the real relay peerId is known and writes it back into the guest with a second no_start configure call
  • the guest runs a systemd timer:
    • uc-go-peer-bootstrap-refresh.timer
    • orbitdb-relay-bootstrap-refresh.timer
  • the timer invokes a local Python refresher that:
    • calls the profile-specific *-describe.py helper
    • signs the relay proof with publisher key B
    • republishes the bootstrap POST
    • forgets older self-owned records for the same registration ID

This keeps the owner key A out of the long-lived guest state once the authorization record has been minted.

P2P Direction​

The current architectural direction is not to replace REST reads immediately, but to investigate a hybrid model:

  • P2P or P2P-bridge publication for live bootstrap announcements
  • REST posts.json discovery for startup, history, pagination, and browser backfill

This is based on the current Aleph ecosystem shape:

  • Aleph documents P2P broadcast as a supported message transport
  • Aleph maintains a Rust p2p-service that exposes gossipsub publication and subscription over HTTP and RabbitMQ
  • we do not yet have source-backed evidence that raw pubsub alone gives us the same durable indexed behavior as the current REST/CCN write path

Remaining Requirements​

The main requirements and caveats left for end-to-end live validation are:

  • an EVM private key available as ALEPH_BOOTSTRAP_TEST_PRIVATE_KEY or ALEPH_PRIVATE_KEY
  • small indexing delay on Aleph before a newly published POST appears in posts.json
  • dedicated channel and ref values if you want isolation from the shared simple-todo namespace during testing
  • browser consumers still need their own project-level checks because bootstrap discovery can be correct while unrelated app type errors still exist

Next Implementation Focus​

The main unfinished work for this feature is no longer basic publish/discover mechanics. It is completing the stronger same-root signing path across all relay profiles:

  • the wallet that deployed the relay VM
  • the key that refreshes the bootstrap record from the relay
  • the peerId that other relays and clients actually dial

The planned implementation direction is:

  1. keep the current dual-key authorization payload from owner key A to relay key B
  2. keep the relay-signed bootstrap payload that key B refreshes
  3. validate the new same-root peerId <- B model on real deployments for both relay profiles
  4. teach consumers to require dual-key verification by default once the relay producers all emit it
  5. keep actual liveness checks at dial time rather than trying to prove liveness from Aleph alone

Consumer Notes​

universal-connectivity/js-peer and simple-todo should use this package in place of hardcoded bootstrap multiaddrs or direct @libp2p/bootstrap static lists.

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