Obsidian Red Signer (Project R.E.D. Network)

The official authoring bridge for the Project R.E.D. decentralized knowledge base.

This plugin allows maintainers to cryptographically sign their Markdown notes with Ed25519 directly inside Obsidian. It automatically generates and updates the network's manifest.json, securely storing the file hash, your public key, and your cryptographic signature.

---

🦅 The Philosophy: Why We Built This

Project R.E.D. is built on a strict engineering philosophy: stateless, lightweight, and execution-focused. When we designed the security grid for the network, we needed a visual interface for maintainers to hash, sign, and manage their guides. The standard industry reaction is to reinvent the wheel—to waste weeks building a bloated, custom desktop application in C++ and Qt6 just to render a file tree and click a "Sign" button.

We rejected that.

Instead of building an authoring environment from scratch, we simply made use of one of the best local-first Markdown editor in the world: Obsidian. By turning our signing tool into an Obsidian plugin, we achieved zero context-switching. Maintainers can write their guides, hit a hotkey, and have the Ed25519 cryptography handled completely invisibly in the background.

We build tools that work. We don't reinvent the wheel.

---

⚡ Features

• Zero-Friction Signing: Sign your files with one click via the ribbon icon, editor menu, or command palette.
• The Sovereign Identity Vault: Automatically generates and stores your permanent maintainer.key safely outside your working directory.
• Network Manifest Injection: Automatically discovers and updates the manifest.json at your vault root, formatting the keys exactly as the Project R.E.D. Go engine requires.
• Real-Time Security Status: A status bar indicator that displays ✓ Signed (green) or Unsigned (gray) by dynamically comparing your live file hash against the manifest.
• Public Key Clipboard: Instantly copy your public key to add to the server’s TrustedMaintainers ring.

---

We need to rewrite the Installation & Setup section of the README to match the updated plugin logic (no renaming required, platform‑specific binary names). Also, we must provide two clear methods: a simple drag‑and‑drop for inexperienced users, and a lightweight method that avoids downloading the whole zip.

Below is the updated section. Replace the existing ## Installation & Setup in your README.md with this:

markdown

🛠️ Installation & Setup

Choose the method that fits your workflow.

---

1. Script (recommended)

• Before you begin installation make sure you have npm installed.

macOS / Linux

Open a terminal and run:

bash <(curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/StandardCodebase/obsidian-red-signer/main/install-red-signer.sh)

Windows

Open PowerShell as Administrator and run:

iex (iwr -UseBasicParsing https://raw.githubusercontent.com/StandardCodebase/obsidian-red-signer/main/install-red-signer.ps1).Content

2.Manual Installation

1. Go to the Releases page.

2. Download the latest red-signer.zip and the binary for your operating system:

Your OS	Binary Name
Linux	signer-linux-x64
macOS(Intel)	signer-windows-x64.exe
macOS(Apple Silicon)	signer-macos-arm64
Windows	signer-windows-x64

3. Extract red-signer.zip → you get a folder named red-signer.

4. Move the downloaded binary (e.g., signer-linux-x64) inside that red-signer folder.

5 Move the whole red-signer folder into your Obsidian vault’s plugins directory: YourVault/.obsidian/plugins/

macOS / Linux only – make the binary executable:

chmod +x /path/to/YourVault/.obsidian/plugins/red-signer/signer-*

6. Restart Obsidian (or reload community plugins) and enable Red Signer in Settings → Community plugins.

✅ No renaming needed – the plugin now uses the exact binary names listed above.

Next Steps

• Open any Markdown note in your vault.

• Click the signature icon (✍️) in the left ribbon, or use the command palette.

• Copy your public key and add it to your Project R.E.D. node’s TrustedMaintainers.

• Sign your first note – the status bar will show ✓ Signed.

• That’s it. You’re ready to contribute to the network.

---

🚀 The Genesis Workflow (First Use)

1. Open any Markdown guide in your vault.
2. Click the Signature Icon (✍️) in the left ribbon.
3. A modal will display your newly generated Public Key. Copy this and add it to your Project R.E.D. node's TrustedMaintainers map.
4. Click Sign this note.

What happens under the hood:

• If you are a new contributor/maintainer, the engine generates your private key at ~/.red-network/maintainer.key (with strict 0600 permissions).
• It creates or locates the manifest.json in your vault root.
• The guide is cryptographically hashed, signed, and instantly injected into the network ledger.

Once signed, the bottom status bar will glow Signed. If you modify a single character in that file, the hash changes, and the status will immediately revert to Unsigned until you authorize the changes.

---

🛡️ Security Architecture

• The Private Key: Your maintainer.key is stored at ~/.red-network/maintainer.key (owner read/write only). Never upload this or share it.
• The Verification: The Obsidian plugin only signs the files. Verification happens strictly on the Project R.E.D. Go server side, ensuring no compromised files are ever rendered to the end-user.

---

💻 Building from Source (For Contributors)

If you want to audit or modify the plugin's TypeScript architecture:

git clone [https://github.com/StandardCodebase/obsidian-red-signer](https://github.com/StandardCodebase/obsidian-red-signer)
cd obsidian-red-signer
npm install
npm install typescript
npm run build   # or `npx tsc`