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description
IPFS Gateways and Browsers

HTTP Gateways

This is an annotated version of this doc

Gateways are provided strictly for convenience: in other words, they help tools that speak HTTP but do not speak distributed protocols (such as IPFS) to communicate. They are the first stage of the upgrade path for the web. More information about IPFS Gateways.

Subdomain gateway

When origin-based security is needed, CIDv1 in case-insensitive encoding such as Base32 or Base36 should be used in the subdomain:

https://<cidv1b32>.ipfs.<gateway-host>.tld/path/to/resource

Example:

https://bafybeiemxf5abjwjbikoz4mc3a3dla6ual3jsgpdr4cjr3oz3evfyavhwq.ipfs.dweb.link/wiki/
https://bafybeiemxf5abjwjbikoz4mc3a3dla6ual3jsgpdr4cjr3oz3evfyavhwq.ipfs.cf-ipfs.com/wiki/Vincent_van_Gogh.html
https://bafybeiemxf5abjwjbikoz4mc3a3dla6ual3jsgpdr4cjr3oz3evfyavhwq.ipfs.localhost:8080/wiki/

Read More

Native URLs

Subdomain convention can be replaced with a native handler. The IPFS URL protocol scheme follows the same requirement of case-insensitive CIDv1 in Base32 as subdomains:

ipfs://{cidv1b32}/path/to/resource

An IPFS URL does not retain the original path, but instead requires a conversion step to/from URI representation:

ipfs://{immutable-root}/path/to/resourceA → /ipfs/{immutable-root}/path/to/resourceA
ipns://{mutable-root}/path/to/resourceB → /ipns/{mutable-root}/path/to/resourceB

The first element after the double slash is an opaque identifier representing the content root. It is interpreted as an authority component used for origin calculation, which provides necessary isolation between security contexts of different content trees.

Example:

ipfs://bafybeiemxf5abjwjbikoz4mc3a3dla6ual3jsgpdr4cjr3oz3evfyavhwq/wiki/Vincent_van_Gogh.html

Native URI require CID to be case-insensitive. Use of CIDv1 in Base32 is advised.

Read More

Centralization

HTTP gateways have worked well since 2015, but they come with a significant set of limitations related both to the centralized nature of HTTP and some of HTTP's semantics. Location-based addressing of a gateway depends on both DNS and HTTPS/TLS, which relies on a trust in certificate authorities (opens new window)(CAs) and public key infrastructure (opens new window)(PKI). In the long term, these issues should be mitigated by use of opportunistic protocol upgrade schemes.

Protocol upgrade

Tools and browser extensions should detect IPFS content paths and resolve them directly over IPFS protocol. They should use HTTP gateway only as a fallback when no native implementation is available in order to ensure a smooth, backward-compatible transition.

Path gateway

In the most basic scheme, a URL path used for content addressing is effectively a resource name without a canonical location. The HTTP server provides the location part, which makes it possible for browsers to interpret an IPFS content path as relative to the current server and just work without a need for any conversion:

https://<gateway-host>.tld/ipfs/<cid>/path/to/resource
https://<gateway-host>.tld/ipns/<ipnsid_or_dnslink>/path/to/resource

Gateway Recipes

Read about Gateway Recipes

IPFS In Web Browsers

This is an annotated version of content from the ipfs/in-web-browsers repo

Informal group working on improving IPFS presence in web browsers

Our goal is to facilitate native support for IPFS and other decentralized protocols in web browsers in order to benefit ....

  • Browser users: Browser extensions and native-included IPFS alike expose IPFS features in a robust and intuitive way
  • Web developers: Web developers can enjoy a smooth experience working with IPFS in browser contexts
  • Browser vendors: Browser developers are empowered to meet the requirements of the distributed web

Current Projects

Current Projects

IPFS Companion browser extension

IPFS Companion is a browser extension that simplifies access to IPFS resources and adds browser support for the IPFS protocol. It runs in Firefox (desktop and Android) and Chromium-based browsers including Chrome or Brave. Check out all of IPFS Companion's features and install it today!

Notable past web extension experiments

IPFS and the JavaScript ecosystem

At present, in order to interact with IPFS in a web browser, you must either bundle js-ipfs-core (a full IPFS node in JavaScript) with your client-side application, or use the js-ipfs-http-client HTTP RPC API client library to connect to an external daemon running on a local or remote machine.

How to address IPFS on the web

  • For regular users, see this guide to how to address IPFS content paths on the web
  • For browser vendors and user agent developers, see this memo for the current set of URL conventions for the IPFS community; we invite everyone to submit questions and suggestions for improvements via issues/PRs

How to Run Your Own HTTP Gateway

Use the latest go-ipfs daemon and follow gateway recipes.

DNSLink

DNSLink enables you to map a domain name to an IPFS address (CID or IPNS libp2p-key) by means of a DNS TXT record.

  • Read the DNSLink guide for details, including how to set it up on your own website
  • See details on DNSLink in IPFS Companion to see additional benefits of using IPFS Companion with DNSLink support

Collaborations

W3C

Protocol Labs is a W3C Member. Current focus is to watch, learn, and participate in WebExtensions Community Group.

IPFS and Igalia collaborate on dweb in browsers

In 2020 IPFS and Igalia started a collaboration that continues to this day. Read more: https://blog.ipfs.io/2021-01-15-ipfs-and-igalia-collaborate-on-dweb-in-browsers/

The most notable highlights:

Brave

Brave v1.19 has integrated IPFS into their desktop web browser for Windows, macOS and Linux. When Brave detects an address which is an HTTP gateway URL to IPFS content or a native IPFS address such as ipfs:// or ipns:// it will prompt the user to install and enable the native IPFS node, or to use an HTTP gateway. Diagnostic UI can be found at brave://ipfs, we suggest enabling IPFS Companion for the best experience

TLDR integration status:

  • Initial release (v1.19) is focused on daemon orchestration and on URI support (read blogs and press)
  • Demo: Opening ipfs://{cid} will trigger install prompt for go-ipfs managed by Brave itself.
  • For the best experience enable IPFS Companion and switch it to IPFS Node Type "Provided by Brave". When Companion is enabled all IPFS resources will be resolved by the local node.

Opera

Opera for Android 57 introduced support for resolving ipfs:// or ipns:// via a customizable gateway.
Read more