---
title: How it works
description: Five ideas (node, log, pipe, session, service) and what happens when you type into a terminal on a machine across the world.
---

# How it works

Five ideas, and nothing else. Here is what happens when you type `ls` into a
browser tab and a laptop at home answers.

<Journey />

## Node

Anything with a key is a node: your laptop, a server, a browser tab, the
command line, an agent's door, a relay. A node is a key plus the list of
things it can do. The same core runs on all of them, written in Rust, native
on machines and WebAssembly in the browser.

## Log

Your account is a signed, grow-only list of which keys are yours: this laptop
was added on Tuesday, that phone was revoked on Friday. Every node keeps a
copy. A node learns its peers' keys only from the log, never from a server, so
no server can slip in a key of its own.

## Pipe

A pipe is any way bytes get from one node to another. There is always a
WebSocket to a relay, so you are reachable from any network that allows the
web. When a faster path appears, a direct WebTransport or WebRTC connection
joins it. The relay forwards by key and sees only sealed bytes.

## Session

Two nodes shake hands once, with X25519 and ML-KEM together. They check each
other's keys against the log and get session keys that belong to no pipe.
Every message after that is numbered and sealed on its own. When your wifi
drops and the phone moves to 5G, the session carries on over the new pipe
without a new handshake, and anything unacknowledged is sent again.

## Service

A service is what a node does when asked: a terminal, files, sync, a browser.
The node verifies who is calling and what they were granted, then hands the
request to the service. The core stays short enough to read in a sitting, and
everything else is a service.

## Where it can break

We write down where each idea fails, because that's what you're trusting.

- A stolen laptop is a valid key until its revocation reaches the machine
  holding your data.
- The relay is where availability depends, and it sees who talks to whom,
  when and how much, though not what.
- A machine that is offline misses revocations, so grants are short-lived.
- Lose every device that can sign for your account and you lose the account.
  Add a second one early.