igc-net Protocol Specification

Open protocol for publishing, discovering, and governing IGC flight logs over a peer-to-peer network.

For normative protocol scope, terminology, invariants, document precedence, and the reading order, start with 00-overview.md.

Purpose and Motivation

igc-net defines a neutral, content-addressed exchange layer for IGC flight artifacts, ownership governance, and controlled access. It is protocol-first and implementation-language independent.

The protocol is designed so that:

• identical raw IGC bytes produce identical content identities across all publishers
• publication, serving, and indexing are not tied to a central registry or a single portal
• governance over ownership and access is explicit rather than implicit in one application's database state
• metadata, analytics, and operator tooling can evolve without redefining the base identity and transport model
• independent implementations in Rust, Python, Go, or other languages can interoperate from the specification alone

The specification formalises a two-plane architecture:

• a decentralised data plane for artifact announcement, discovery, and fetch
• a permissioned governance plane for ownership, policy, disputes, and sync

That separation is a protocol constraint, not a documentation convenience.

Status Snapshot

• Current release: v0.3
• Reference implementation: igc-net-rs v0.3.0, igc-net-py v0.1.0

How to Read This Repository

Normative specification

Read these in dependency order:

1. 00-overview.md
2. 10-core.md
3. 20-artifacts.md
4. 30-transport.md
5. 40-pilot-and-metadata.md
6. 50-governance.md
7. 55-governance-sync.md
8. 60-keys-and-access.md
9. 65-pilot-auth-did.md
10. 70-durability.md
11. 75-groups-and-social.md
12. 80-analytics.md
13. 90-conformance.md
14. 92-threat-model.md

The igc-net gRPC/protobuf contract lives in proto/ and is normative. Generated clients and reference implementations must track that contract.

Informative guides and contributor docs

• getting-started.md — implementer onboarding
• PILOT-GUIDE.md — pilot-facing operational guide
• NODE-OPERATOR-GUIDE.md — node operator guide
• PORTAL-OPERATOR-GUIDE.md — portal operator guide
• CONTRIBUTING.md — change and review rules

If this README conflicts with a numbered normative document or the normative igc-net proto contract, the numbered document or proto contract wins.

Interoperability Notes

The protocol's normative identifiers, hash rules, canonicalization rules, and key-derivation inputs are defined in the numbered specification documents.

• For cryptographic primitives, identity anchors, and record IDs, read 10-core.md.
• For interoperability-critical derivation strings and a minimal implementation path, read getting-started.md.

Repository Boundary

This repository defines protocol semantics and related implementation guidance. It does not define language-specific APIs. The exception is the normative igc-net gRPC/protobuf contract in proto/, which defines the implementation-language-independent service boundary.

Implementation repositories such as igc-net-rs and igc-net-py are informative with respect to the protocol. They may demonstrate feasible behavior, but they do not override the specification.