pqforge vs pqcrypto

pqforge vs pqcrypto

pqforge and pqcrypto are sibling Dart packages that solve different layers of the same problem. They are designed to be used together: pqforge depends on pqcrypto and never reimplements the post-quantum primitives.

One sentence each

• pqcrypto is the primitives. Pure-Dart NIST FIPS 203 ML-KEM and FIPS 204 ML-DSA, plus SHA-2 and SHA-3/SHAKE, with zero runtime dependencies. It gives you raw key generation, encapsulation/decapsulation, and sign/verify over byte arrays.
• pqforge is the application toolkit. It turns those primitives into encrypted files, folders, text, media, signed documents, webhooks, tokens, hybrid sessions, wrapped key custody, streaming, multi-recipient envelopes, and a CLI.

Which one do I want?

You want to…	Use
Call ML-KEM / ML-DSA directly over Uint8List	pqcrypto
Build your own protocol from the raw KEM/signature	pqcrypto
Encrypt a file, folder, or gigabyte media stream	pqforge
Sign a document, release artifact, webhook, or token	pqforge
Add an X25519/Ed25519/ECDSA-P256 hybrid leg	pqforge
Wrap secret keys with a passphrase (Argon2id + AES-GCM)	pqforge
Encrypt once for many recipients	pqforge
Ship a CLI to ops or a release pipeline	pqforge

If you only need the algorithms, depend on pqcrypto and stop there. If you need to ship a feature, reach for pqforge.

What pqforge adds on top of pqcrypto

pqcrypto deliberately stops at the post-quantum primitives. pqforge supplies the rest of the stack a real application needs:

• KEM-DEM envelopes — .pqf one-shot and .pqfs streaming containers.
• Symmetric AEAD — AES-256-GCM and ChaCha20-Poly1305, on a pure-Dart (PointyCastle) or native (package:cryptography) engine.
• Classical hybrid tier — X25519 key agreement, Ed25519 and ECDSA-P256 signatures, combined with ML-KEM/ML-DSA so security holds if either the post-quantum or the classical assumption survives.
• Key custody — Argon2id + AES-256-GCM wrapped keys (PBKDF2 under FIPS mode) and pluggable stores.
• Streaming and packing — bounded-memory gigabyte files and one-archive folder pack/unpack.
• Named recipes — documents, text, media, email, records, logs, artifacts, identity bindings.
• A universal CLI plus AOT release binaries.

What they share

• Both are pure Dart and web-safe — neither ships dart:ffi in its published package, so both run on the Dart VM, Flutter, and the web.
• Both prove byte-compatibility with the system OpenSSL using a separate, publish_to: none dev-only interop harness that is never shipped.
• Both refuse RC4 and unauthenticated encryption.

Boundary it does not cross

pqforge's post-quantum security claim is inherited from pqcrypto. pqforge is not a CMVP/FIPS 140 validated module, and neither package provides public-key trust, identity vetting, replay protection, authorization policy, or TLS — those remain the application's responsibility. See Claim Boundary.

Links

• pqcrypto on pub.dev: https://pub.dev/packages/pqcrypto
• pqcrypto repository: https://github.com/turkananation/pqcrypto
• pqforge coverage audit against pqcrypto: HYBRID_AUDIT.md