Welcome to libp2p! This guide will walk you through setting up a fully functional libp2p node 🚀
The first step is to install libp2p in your project:
npm install libp2pIf you're new to libp2p, we recommend configuring your node in stages, as this can make troubleshooting configuration issues much easier. In this guide, we'll do just that. If you're more experienced with libp2p, you may wish to jump to the Configuration readme.
Now that we have libp2p installed, let's configure the minimum needed to get your node running. The only modules libp2p requires are a Transport and Crypto module. However, we recommend that a basic setup should also have a Stream Multiplexer configured, which we will explain shortly. Let's start by setting up a Transport.
Libp2p uses Transports to establish connections between peers over the network. Transports are the components responsible for performing the actual exchange of data between libp2p nodes. You can configure any number of Transports, but you only need 1 to start with. Supporting more Transports will improve the ability of your node to speak to a larger number of nodes on the network, as matching Transports are required for two nodes to communicate with one another.
You should select Transports according to the runtime of your application; Node.js or the browser. You can see a list of some of the available Transports in the configuration readme. For this guide let's install libp2p-websockets, as it can be used in both Node.js and the browser.
Start by installing libp2p-websockets:
npm install libp2p-websocketsNow that we have the module installed, let's configure libp2p to use the Transport. We'll use the Libp2p.create method, which takes a single configuration object as its only parameter. We can add the Transport by passing it into the modules.transport array:
const Libp2p = require('libp2p')
const WebSockets = require('libp2p-websockets')
const node = await Libp2p.create({
modules: {
transport: [WebSockets]
}
})There are multiple libp2p transports available, you should evaluate the needs of your application and select the Transport(s) that best suit your requirements. You can add as many transports as you like to modules.transport in order to establish connections with as many peers as possible.
Read More
If you want to know more about libp2p transports, you should read the following content:Encryption is an important part of communicating on the libp2p network. Every connection must be encrypted to help ensure security for everyone. As such, Connection Encryption (Crypto) is a required component of libp2p.
There are a growing number of Crypto modules being developed for libp2p. As those are released they will be tracked in the Connection Encryption section of the configuration readme. For now, we are going to configure our node to use the libp2p-noise module.
npm install libp2p-noiseWith libp2p-noise installed, we can add it to our existing configuration by importing it and adding it to the modules.connEncryption array:
const Libp2p = require('libp2p')
const WebSockets = require('libp2p-websockets')
const { NOISE } = require('libp2p-noise')
const node = await Libp2p.create({
modules: {
transport: [WebSockets],
connEncryption: [NOISE]
}
})Read More
If you want to know more about libp2p connection encryption, you should read the following content:While multiplexers are not strictly required, they are highly recommended as they improve the effectiveness and efficiency of connections for the various protocols libp2p runs. Adding a multiplexer to your configuration will allow libp2p to run several of its internal protocols, like Identify, as well as allow your application to easily run any number of protocols over a single connection.
Looking at the available stream multiplexing modules, js-libp2p currently only supports libp2p-mplex, so we will use that here. Bear in mind that future libp2p Transports might have multiplexing capabilities already built-in (such as QUIC).
You can install libp2p-mplex and add it to your libp2p node as follows in the next example.
npm install libp2p-mplexconst Libp2p = require('libp2p')
const WebSockets = require('libp2p-websockets')
const { NOISE } = require('libp2p-noise')
const MPLEX = require('libp2p-mplex')
const node = await Libp2p.create({
modules: {
transport: [WebSockets],
connEncryption: [NOISE],
streamMuxer: [MPLEX]
}
})Read More
If you want to know more about libp2p stream multiplexing, you should read the following content:Now that you have configured a Transport, Crypto and Stream Multiplexer module, you can start your libp2p node. We can start and stop libp2p using the libp2p.start() and libp2p.stop() methods.
const Libp2p = require('libp2p')
const WebSockets = require('libp2p-websockets')
const { NOISE } = require('libp2p-noise')
const MPLEX = require('libp2p-mplex')
const node = await Libp2p.create({
addresses: {
listen: ['/ip4/127.0.0.1/tcp/8000/ws']
},
modules: {
transport: [WebSockets],
connEncryption: [NOISE],
streamMuxer: [MPLEX]
}
})
// start libp2p
await node.start()
console.log('libp2p has started')
const listenAddrs = node.transportManager.getAddrs()
console.log('libp2p is listening on the following addresses: ', listenAddrs)
const advertiseAddrs = node.multiaddrs
console.log('libp2p is advertising the following addresses: ', advertiseAddrs)
// stop libp2p
await node.stop()
console.log('libp2p has stopped')Once your libp2p node is running, it is time to get it connected to the public network. We can do this via peer discovery.
Peer discovery is an important part of creating a well connected libp2p node. A static list of peers will often be used to join the network, but it's useful to couple other discovery mechanisms to ensure you're able to discover other peers that are important to your application.
For each discovered peer libp2p will emit a peer:discovery event which includes metadata about that peer. You can read the Events in the API doc to learn more.
Looking at the available peer discovery protocols, there are several options to be considered:
- If you already know the addresses of some other network peers, you should consider using
libp2p-bootstrapas this is the easiest way of getting your peer into the network. - If it is likely that you will have other peers on your local network,
libp2p-mdnsis a must if you're node is not running in the browser. It allows peers to discover each other when on the same local network. - If your application is browser based you can use the
libp2p-webrtc-starTransport, which includes a rendezvous based peer sharing service. - A random walk approach can be used via
libp2p-kad-dht, to crawl the network and find new peers along the way.
For this guide we will configure libp2p-bootstrap as this is useful for joining the public network.
Let's install libp2p-bootstrap.
npm install libp2p-bootstrapWe can provide specific configurations for each protocol within a config.peerDiscovery property in the options as shown below.
const Libp2p = require('libp2p')
const WebSockets = require('libp2p-websockets')
const { NOISE } = require('libp2p-noise')
const MPLEX = require('libp2p-mplex')
const Bootstrap = require('libp2p-bootstrap')
// Known peers addresses
const bootstrapMultiaddrs = [
'/dnsaddr/bootstrap.libp2p.io/p2p/QmbLHAnMoJPWSCR5Zhtx6BHJX9KiKNN6tpvbUcqanj75Nb',
'/dnsaddr/bootstrap.libp2p.io/p2p/QmNnooDu7bfjPFoTZYxMNLWUQJyrVwtbZg5gBMjTezGAJN'
]
const node = await Libp2p.create({
modules: {
transport: [WebSockets],
connEncryption: [NOISE],
streamMuxer: [MPLEX],
peerDiscovery: [Bootstrap]
},
config: {
peerDiscovery: {
autoDial: true, // Auto connect to discovered peers (limited by ConnectionManager minConnections)
// The `tag` property will be searched when creating the instance of your Peer Discovery service.
// The associated object, will be passed to the service when it is instantiated.
[Bootstrap.tag]: {
enabled: true,
list: bootstrapMultiaddrs // provide array of multiaddrs
}
}
}
})
node.on('peer:discovery', (peer) => {
console.log('Discovered %s', peer.id.toB58String()) // Log discovered peer
})
node.connectionManager.on('peer:connect', (connection) => {
console.log('Connected to %s', connection.remotePeer.toB58String()) // Log connected peer
})
// start libp2p
await node.start()Read More
If you want to know more about libp2p peer discovery, you should read the following content:There are a lot of other concepts within libp2p, that are not covered in this guide. For additional configuration options we recommend checking out the Configuration Readme and the examples folder. If you have any problems getting started, or if anything isn't clear, please let us know by submitting an issue!