SSB metafeed migration path

In this document we will describe how to migrate classic SSB, with one feed per device, to a world with multiple feeds using metafeeds. We will also define what that means in terms of ID. Note, this document does not define behavior for applications that do not have to interact with classic SSB.

Classic SSB

Classic SSB refers to feeds as defined in the protocol guide, and the key used to sign these feeds. In most cases people only have one feed per device, so let us assume that model in this document. The key used to sign messages on a feed is the identity of the device, the id when connecting to other peers using muxrpc. Finally it is also used for mentions and contacts messages to define the friend relationship.

Metafeeds

A metafeed is a tree of feeds per device. There is a single feed at the root of the tree and from this any number of nested subtrees or subfeeds can exist. These subfeeds can either be new feeds or existing feeds as defined in the metafeeds spec.

In order to signal that someone has started using metafeeds, a classic SSB feed is linked to a metafeed as described in the existing SSB identity part of the metafeeds spec. After migrating, the identity of the device ought to be the feed id of the root metafeed, but in order to ease the transition, the classic ID is used until such a time as the main feed is no longer the classic feed. The identity section in this specification further refines the ID concept into multiple areas.

Identity

As described earlier the ID of a device can now be seen as:

• The signing key, because we have many feeds, there are now multiple signing keys one for each feed.
• The DM key used to encrypt and decrypt private messages.
• The external identity used to describe yourself to people wanting to connect to you, is still the classic ID of the main feed.
• The network identity will for now be the classic ID. When the network identity spec is implemented there can be multiple identities all tying back to the same metafeed. Note that this might cause connection problems with older clients, so should only be implemented at such a time when a majority of the network supports metafeeds.
• Mentions should for now also still use the classic ID.
• The friend relationship as defined by contacts messages should similar to mentions use the classic SSB id for now. What happens after the main feed is changed has not yet been defined.

For multiple devices to act as a single identity the fusion identity spec should be used. This spec defines a new fusion identity that can be used for: private messages, external identity, mentions and friend relationship.

Tree structure v1

The tree should be structured as defined in the v1 part of the metafeeds spec. Like this example:

graph TB;
  root --> v1
  v1 --> 8 & a & c & 3
  8 --> GA(group: aalborg)
  a --> G(group invitations)
  a --> I(index feed about)
  c --> M(main feed)
  3 --> GB(group: batts)

Main feed

There should only be 1 (non-tombstoned) main feed in the tree and it should use the purpose 'main' to define its position in the tree. See v1 section above.

Example of adding an existing feed:

{
  "type" => "metafeed/add/existing",
  "feedpurpose" => "main",
  "subfeed" => (BFE-encoded feed ID for the 'main' feed),
  "metafeed" => (BFE-encoded Bendy Butt feed ID for the shard metafeed),
  "tangles" => {
    "metafeed" => {
      "root" => null,
      "previous" => null
    }
  },
}

Indexes

Applications should define one v1 index feed, an index of their classic SSB main feeds about messages. The purpose 'index feed about' should be used to define its position in the tree. See v1 section above.

Example of adding a new index feed:

{
  "type" => "metafeed/add/derived",
  "feedpurpose" => "index feed about",
  "subfeed" => (BFE-encoded feed ID for the 'about' feed),
  "metafeed" => (BFE-encoded Bendy Butt feed ID for the shard metafeed),
  "tangles" => {
    "metafeed" => {
      "root" => null,
      "previous" => null
    }
  },
}

Private groups

For private groups the group invite feed should always to be included in the tree as defined in the group spec. The tree also includes individual group feeds for each group the device is a member of.

Network replication

In classic SSB you replicate feeds in full as defined by your hops settings. Metafeeds allows one to do partial replication. This could be both a part of the tree for feeds within your hops distance, such as not replicating private group feeds you are not a part of, or it could be only replicating the index feed and common private groups for feeds outside of your hops range. Clients are expected to replicate as much of the tree that they can within their hops range to increase the likelihood that content will be available when replicating with peers.

Lets consider the scenarios:

• full replication: you start out by replicating the main feed as you know this id from the friend relationship. Once you discover a message with type 'metafeed/announce' on the main feed, you start replicating this metafeed and in turn all subfeeds including index feeds using normal EBT replication.
• partial replication of a device with private groups in common: the root metafeed id should be given from a group/add-member message. From this the tree structure of the metafeed can be replicated including index feeds and the feeds of private groups in common, but not the main feed. To replicate the main feed you follow them.
• partial replication of a device outside your hops range: a client can choose to replicate feeds at max hops + 1 using partial replication. To discover the metafeed id we use the RPC getSubset from subset replication on any connected peer, asking for a message of type 'metafeed/announce' on the main feed. If connected peers do not support this RPC, then we can fallback to createHistoryStream to fetch the full feed in memory (i.e. without persisting it to the log). From this we persist the 'metafeed/announce' message and from there we can replicate the metafeeds tree and the about index feed.

When replicating index feeds using EBT it is important to make sure that you don't get duplicate messages in your database, this is similar to adding messages out-of-order (ooo). This can either be done by checking the local database before inserting the indexed message or by keeping track of what messages you already have on the main feed. Similarly if you start replicating a feed in full that you previously only partially replicated, you also need to be careful not to end up with duplicates.