Nara Network Specification

A distributed system with hazy memory.

This document is the authoritative, re-implementation-grade specification for the nara network.

Core Principles

• Memory is Social: RAM-only; state replicated to peers.
• Derived State: Events are the only facts; state is interpreted via replaying.
• Subjective Truth: Opinions are shaped by personality and local history.
• Hazy Memory: Intentional data loss and forgetting as a system feature.

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Spec Index

1. Identity & Being

• Overview: Network myth and principles.
• Styleguide: Terminology and aesthetics.
• Identity: Names, souls, and Ed25519 bonds.
• Personality: Deterministic character traits.
• Aura & Avatar: Visual representation.

2. Runtime Architecture

• Runtime & Primitives: Message primitives, nara OS, and adapters.
• Pipelines & Stages: Composable message processing.
• Behaviours & Patterns: Declarative Kind configuration.

3. Event & Memory Model

• Events: Immutable signed facts and ledger.
• Projections: Deriving state from event streams.
• Memory Model: Pruning, recovery, and forgetting.

4. Transport & Sync

• Plaza (MQTT): Public broadcasts and discovery.
• Mesh (HTTP): P2P authenticated transport.
• Sync Protocol: Historical reconciliation.

5. Features

• Zines: Hand-to-hand gossip bundles.
• Stash: Distributed encrypted storage.
• World Postcards: Signature-chained messages.
• Web UI: Real-time dashboard and inspection.

6. Services

• Presence: Discovery and liveness.
• Observations: Distributed state monitoring.
• Checkpoints: Multi-sig historical anchors.
• Social Events: Teasing, trends, and buzz.
• Clout: Subjective reputation ranking.
• Network Coordinates: Vivaldi latency mapping.

7. Operations & UI

• HTTP API: Public and Inspector endpoints.
• Boot Sequence: Transition to steady-state.
• Configuration: Flags and environment variables.
• Deployment: Build and orchestration.

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