Voyager

A storage service for OrbitDB peer-to-peer databases.

Voyager replicates and stores OrbitDB databases and makes them available to others when the database's originating peer is offline.

It is designed to run on systems with guaranteed uptime and public availability and can be seen as a "data availability node" for OrbitDB. For example, a browser-based app running a OrbitDB database may rely on one or more Voyager peers to ensure the database is available when the browser peer is unreachable.

Note! This software is currently in alpha version status and thus may change, break backwards compatibility or contain major issues. It has not been security audited. Use it accordingly.

Installation

To use Voyager as a module:

npm i @orbitdb/voyager

To use Voyager from the CLI:

npm i -g @orbitdb/voyager

Usage

CLI

The voyager CLI tool can be used to manage a Voyager instance. Run voyager on the command line to get started.

Currently the following commands are available:

voyager daemon   Launch Voyager
voyager id       Show the voyager's id
voyager address  Show the voyager's network addresses
voyager auth     Add or remove authorized user

Daemon

Voyager can be run as a daemon process. You can install the package globally and run it using the voyager CLI binary:

voyager daemon

To store Voyager's configuration and data to a different directory, use the -d or --directory flag or VOYAGER_PATH environment variable:

voyager daemon -d /path/to/voyager

VOYAGER_PATH=/path/to/voyager voyager daemon

Docker

You can run an Voyager storage service using a pre-configured Docker image.

Once you have cloned this repo, cd into the voyager directory root and run:

docker build -t orbitdb-voyager ./
docker run --rm -d -p 8000:8000 orbitdb-voyager

Adjust the port if required.

Managing Voyager Access

Voyager will deny all requests by default. To allow a user to interact with Voyager, the (requesting) user's id must be added to Voyager's "allow" list.

Access can be configured in two ways; from the terminal and programmatically, using RPC.

NOTE The user's id used in the examples below can be retrieved using orbitdb.identity.id, which is available from the user's OrbitDB instance.

Managing access from the terminal

To add an authorized user to Voyager:

voyager auth add <id>

where <id> identifies a user who can add databases to this Voyager instance. The <id> is the string from user's OrbitDB instance orbitdb.identity.id.

To remove an authorized user from Voyager:

voyager auth del <id>

where <id> identifies a user who can add databases to this Voyager instance. The <id> is the string from user's OrbitDB instance orbitdb.identity.id.

List authorized users:

voyager auth list

If Voyager is deployed to a custom directory, call Voyager with the -d or --directory flag, or VOYAGER_PATHenvironment variable, and specify the directory:

voyager auth add -d /custom/voyager/path <id>
voyager auth remove -d /custom/voyager/path <id>
voyager auth list -d /custom/voyager/path

VOYAGER_PATH=/custom/voyager/path voyager auth add <id>
VOYAGER_PATH=/custom/voyager/path voyager auth remove <id>
VOYAGER_PATH=/custom/voyager/path voyager auth list

Managing access using RPC

Authorizing users can be carried out programmatically using Voyager's RPC function.

Start by instantiating the rpc:

import { RPC } from '@orbitdb/voyager'

const rpc = await RPC({ directory: '' })

To add an authorization:

const id = '037ba2545db2e2ec0ba17fc9b35fbbf6bc09db82c9ab324521e62693e8aa96ceb4'
await rpc.authAdd({ id })

To list all authorizations:

const { message } = await rpc.authList()
console.log(message)

And to remove an authorization:

await rpc.authDel()

Adding databases to Voyager

To make databases accessible from a Voyager storage service, the database needs to be added to a Voyager instance. This can be achieved programmatically by using the Voyager remote API module.

To use Voyager remote API, first install the @orbitdb/voyager package:

npm i @orbitdb/voyager

Next, instantiate Voyager remote API:

import { createLibp2p } from 'libp2p'
import { createHelia } from 'helia'
import { createOrbitDB } from '@orbitdb/core'
import { Voyager } from '@orbitdb/voyager'

// set up libp2p, helia and orbitdb
const libp2p = await createLibp2p()
const ipfs = await createHelia({ libp2p })
const orbitdb = await createOrbitDB({ ipfs })

// deployed voyager peer's listening address, it looks like this:
// /ip4/127.0.0.1/tcp/54322/p2p/16Uiu2HAmATMovCwY46yyJib7bGZF2f2XLRar7d7R3NJCSJtuyQLt
const address = '...'

const voyager = await Voyager({ orbitdb, address })

To add a database to voyager:

// create a db to be added to voyager
const db = await orbitdb.open('my-db')

// add the address to voyager (can also pass an array of addresses)
await voyager.add(db.address)

To remove a database from voyager:

// open an instance of the db you want to remove from voyager
const db = await orbitdb.open('my-db')

// remove the address from voyager (can also pass an array of addresses)
await voyager.remove(db.address)

The OrbitDB Voyager Protocol

Voyager uses Libp2p to add and remove databases to replicate to and from the storage service. A database can be added or removed by dialling the protocol and issuing a request message.

Protocol

The protocol identifier is:

/orbitdb/voyager/v1.0.0

Messages

Send one of the following messages to the protocol in order to communicate with the service:

Adding a DB for replication

type: 1 ("ADD")
id: The id of the requester
signature: One or more database addresses signed by the requester
addresses: One or more database addresses to add to the storage 

If successful, an OK response will be sent. If it fails, an error will be returned.

Removing a DB for replication

type: 2 ("REMOVE")
id: The id of the requester
signature: One or more database addresses signed by the requester
addresses: One or more database addresses to remove from the storage

If successful, an OK response will be sent. If it fails, an error will be returned.

Allowing and Denying User Access

Voyager uses simple ALLOW/DENY policies to authorize the messages received through the protocol.

Voyager can either be run in ALLOW ALL mode where anyone can send a message except those who appear in the denied list or DENY ALL mode which will only allow messages from an explicit list of users. The default access mode is DENY ALL.

License

MIT © 2024 OrbitDB Community