speer

a small libp2p-ish stack in c. solo-maintained; scope is a lot for one person but here we are.

two entrypoints (same repo, different wire):

api	wire	peers
speer.h	udp + speer packet.c format (noise xx embedded; not libp2p tcp/quic)	native speer only
speer_libp2p_tcp.h	tcp + multistream + noise xx + yamux	kubo, py-libp2p, rust-libp2p, … on tcp

examples/libp2p_tcp_full_session.c dials a normal libp2p tcp host (noise → yamux → stream proto); it has been checked against py-libp2p.

it has noise xx, libp2p over tcp, yamux, mdns, dht bits, partial quic, and a tls 1.3 core. no external deps.

source size: 19,180 lines across 121 .c/.h files in src/ and include/ (16,747 nonblank). tests, examples, rust, and build output are not counted.

more detail:

• architecture
• security

build

make
make examples
make test

windows with mingw:

mingw32-make
.\tests\run_tests.ps1

quick use

native speer host over udp (speer-to-speer only on the wire):

#include "speer.h"

speer_host_t* host = speer_host_new(seed, NULL);
speer_peer_t* peer = speer_connect(host, peer_pk, "1.2.3.4:4242");
speer_stream_t* s = speer_stream_open(peer, 0);
speer_stream_write(s, (uint8_t*)"hello", 5);

while (running) speer_host_poll(host, 100);

libp2p-over-tcp session (interop with other libp2p implementations on tcp):

#include "speer_libp2p_tcp.h"
#include "transport_tcp.h"

speer_libp2p_identity_t id;
/* fill id from keys - copy pattern in examples/libp2p_tcp_full_session.c */
int fd;
speer_tcp_dial(&fd, "127.0.0.1", 4001);
speer_libp2p_tcp_session_t session;
speer_libp2p_tcp_session_init_dialer(&session, fd, &id);
/* then yamux + multistream per stream - same example file */

full bootstrap including yamux + protocol open is in examples/libp2p_tcp_full_session.c.

examples

./examples/echo_server
./examples/chat <peer_pubkey> <host:port>
./examples/libp2p_ping demo
./examples/libp2p_quic_ping

the terminal chat demo with mdns/tcp/noise/yamux lives in the rust workspace crate speer-chat (rust/speer-chat).

install

cmake install exports both cmake and pkg-config metadata:

cmake -S . -B build -DSPEER_BUILD_TESTS=OFF
cmake --build build
cmake --install build

then consumers can use either find_package(speer) or pkg-config speer.

rust

rust repos:

• speer-sys-rust - raw ffi
• speer-rust - safe rust wrapper
• speer-rust-chat - terminal chat app

status

• noise xx: full
• yamux: full
• mdns: full, but treat records as hints
• dht: practical core
• tls 1.3: core pieces
• quic v1: packet codec, not a full connection stack yet
• relay / dcutr: partial; v2 hop reserve: relay_public_hop_check (network, public relays).

license

MIT