EpixNet

EpixNet lets you visit and build websites that live on people's own computers instead of on a big company's servers.

When you open an EpixNet site, your computer downloads its own copy and then helps share it with the next person. So the more people who visit a site, the stronger and faster it gets, and no single company can quietly take it down or watch who is reading it.

Privacy comes built in. EpixNet can send your traffic through Tor and I2P (two networks that hide where you are), and both are turned on for you out of the box.

What you get

• A web that nobody owns. Sites (EpixNet calls them xites) are signed by their author and copied from person to person, so they stay online even when computers switch off.
• Privacy without the setup. Tor and I2P run inside EpixNet and are on by default. There is nothing extra to download or configure.
• You help hold it up. Your node shares the sites you have visited and helps other people find each other, like a tiny piece of the network living on your machine.
• A dashboard. See the sites you keep, live network activity, and a world map of the people you are connected to.
• Built-in apps. A chat board, mail, and a newsfeed that all run on the network, with no account on anyone's server.
• Runs almost anywhere. Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and iOS.

Get started

EpixNet is built from its source code. Pick your system below. Each guide starts from a brand new machine with nothing installed yet and walks you through every step.

• Windows
• Linux
• macOS
• Android
• iOS

Ways to run it (desktop)

Once it is built, there are three ways to start it:

# 1. The full desktop app: opens a managed Firefox that understands .epix names,
#    so typing dashboard.epix or talk.epix just works.
cargo run -p epix-browser

# 2. Just the node, no Firefox wrapper: it opens the dashboard in your normal
#    browser. Good if you already have a browser you like.
cargo run -p epix-server

# 3. Headless, for a server or seedbox with no screen: serve the network but
#    do not open any browser. Then visit the dashboard yourself.
EPIX_HEADLESS=1 cargo run -p epix-server

The dashboard lives at http://127.0.0.1:42222/. Open a specific site by passing its name:

cargo run -p epix-server talk.epix

The wallet is pinned

epix-browser embeds the Epix Wallet build pinned by shells/wallet-ext.rev (an epix-wallet commit on its epix branch). build.rs downloads that build's immutable wallet-<rev> release when the staged copy is missing or does not match the pin, so a given EpixNet commit always embeds the same wallet. When the staged copy already matches the pin, the build reuses it with no network access.

To adopt a newer wallet, bump the pin to the new epix-wallet commit and open a PR:

echo <epix-wallet-commit> > shells/wallet-ext.rev   # 12-char short SHA
cargo build --release -p epix-browser               # re-fetches the pinned build

Testing a local wallet build

To test local, unpushed wallet changes, point the build at your wallet checkout with EPIX_WALLET_DIST (it re-copies whenever your build changes, and overrides the pin):

# 1. build the wallet (in your epix-wallet checkout)
cd ../epix-wallet
yarn install && yarn workspace @keplr-wallet/extension build   # yarn install only needed if deps changed

# 2. rebuild the browser against your build
cd ../EpixNet
EPIX_WALLET_DIST=../epix-wallet/apps/extension/build/firefox cargo run --release -p epix-browser

To go back to the pinned wallet, build without the env var; build.rs re-fetches the pinned wallet-<rev> release:

cargo build --release -p epix-browser

Command line actions

The same binary doubles as the authoring and diagnostics CLI, with the action name as the first argument (the EpixNet CLI shape):

epix-server siteCreate                          # new xite: address + private key
epix-server siteSign <address> [privatekey]     # re-sign after editing files
epix-server siteVerify <address>                # check files against the signed content.json
epix-server dbRebuild <address>                 # rebuild the xite's sql cache
epix-server dbQuery <address> "<sql>"           # query the xite db, JSON out
epix-server importBundle <bundle.zip>           # import xites from a zip

epix-server cryptSign <message> <privatekey>
epix-server cryptVerify <message> <sign> <address>
epix-server cryptGetPrivatekey <master_seed> [index]
epix-server cryptPrivatekeyToAddress <privatekey>

epix-server peerPing <ip> <port>                # wire-protocol ping
epix-server peerGetFile <ip> <port> <site> <inner_path>
epix-server peerCmd <ip> <port> <cmd> '<json params>'

The authoring actions work against the data dir directly (no running node needed). siteSign uses the key saved at siteCreate when you don't pass one. Anything that is not an action name is treated as a xite to open, as before.

Settings you can change

Set these before you start EpixNet to change how it runs:

Setting	What it does	Default
EPIX_HEADLESS=1	Serve the network but never open a browser (for servers).	off
EPIX_UI_ADDR	The address the dashboard listens on.	127.0.0.1:42222
EPIX_TOR	Tor mode: enable, disable, or always (route everything through Tor).	enable
EPIX_DATA_DIR	Where EpixNet keeps its data (sites, keys, settings).	see below

If port 42222 is already taken, EpixNet falls back to 43110.

Your data folder by default:

• Windows: %APPDATA%\EpixNet
• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/EpixNet
• Linux: ~/.local/share/EpixNet (or $XDG_DATA_HOME/EpixNet)

Checking which version you are running

Open the dashboard, then Settings. It shows the version and the exact code the build was made from, for example 0.3.0 (rev1a2b3c4). You can match that rev against the commits in this repository to confirm what you are running.

Under the hood (for the curious)

EpixNet is a set of small Rust pieces (in crates/) that fit together:

• epix-server is the node you run on a desktop.
• epix-browser wraps a real Firefox so .epix names load like normal web pages.
• epix-ffi is the same node packaged for Android and iOS.
• The rest handle the network, signing and verifying sites, storage, Tor, I2P, and the dashboard.

Contributor notes for the phone and Firefox shells live in shells/README.md.