ringdrop
rdrop is a streamed P2P file transfer tool with ring-based access control, built on iroh-blobs and iroh-rings.
To share a file, associate it with one or more rings and get back an rdrop:// ticket to hand to peers.
Only peers who are members of those rings can download it.
Transfers resume automatically if interrupted — no verified data is re-transferred after a crash or disconnect.
Access control is enforced at the connection level. Ring–resource associations carry typed permissions (Read, Write, Delete). When a peer requests to download a blob, the sender checks that the peer holds Read permission on it — either through ring membership or the built-in open ring — and denies the transfer before any data is sent if not.
Features
- Ring-based access control — share with specific peers or groups via private rings, or open to everyone
- Crash-safe resumption — BLAKE3 bitfield tracks verified chunks; interrupted downloads pick up where they left off
- Verified streaming — every 16 KiB chunk is verified against the BLAKE3 hash tree before being written to disk
- Directory support — import and share entire directories as a single ticket
Install
| Platform | Quick command |
|---|---|
| Linux | cargo install ringdrop |
| macOS | brew tap rikettsie/tap && brew install rdrop |
| Windows (PowerShell) | scoop bucket add rikettsie https://github.com/rikettsie/scoop-bucket; scoop install rdrop |
| All platforms (pre-built bin) | cargo binstall ringdrop |
For prerequisites, alternative methods, and troubleshooting see docs/install.md.
Commands
Full reference: docs/cli.md
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
rdrop id |
Print your peer-id so others can add you to their rings |
rdrop daemon |
Start, stop, and inspect the background daemon |
rdrop ring |
Manage rings (create, list, add/remove peers, view members) |
rdrop peer |
Manage the local peer address book with optional nicknames |
rdrop import |
Import a file or directory and get a shareable ticket |
rdrop blob |
Full blob lifecycle: import, list, remove |
rdrop tag |
Associate an already-imported blob with a ring (or mark it open) |
rdrop untag |
Remove ring associations from a blob (revoke access) |
rdrop receive |
Download from a ticket (automatically resumes if interrupted) |
rdrop grant |
Grant specific rights to remote peers on your local node |
rdrop remote |
Perform a command in a remote node |
Contributing
If you have ideas/contributions or anything is not working the way you expect (in which case, please include an output with RUST_LOG=debug) and feel free to open an issue or PR.
After cloning, activate the pre-commit hooks (it runs cargo fmt --check and cargo clippy before every commit, and tag verifications before every push):
Wire protocols
| ALPN | Purpose |
|---|---|
/iroh-rings/2 |
Blob transfer — gate enforces ring membership and Read permission before any data is transferred |
/ringdrop/catalog/0 |
Catalog queries — lets a peer list the blobs accessible to them on a remote node (requires blob-list grant) |
Notable dependencies
ringdrop is built on:
| Crate | Role |
|---|---|
| iroh | QUIC transport, NAT traversal, relay fallback |
| iroh-rings | Ring-based access control, grant management |
| iroh-blobs | BLAKE3 chunking, FsStore, verified streaming |
| bao-tree | bao encoding/decoding, ChunkRanges, bitfield conversion |
| redb | Embedded persistent store for the ring registry |
| tokio | Async runtime |
License
MIT — see LICENSE.