status-go/protocol/README.md
Samuel Hawksby-Robinson 88f4f75ae1
Added basic history of the protocol package (#1984)
'm trying to add more documentation to parts of the repo that I go into.

I feel this basic history will make it easier to understand why the protocol package is as big as it is compared to the other packages in the repo, and help in understanding its existence.
2020-06-04 11:23:09 +01:00

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1.7 KiB
Markdown

# status-go/protocol
This is an implementation of the [secure transport](https://specs.status.im/spec/5) and [payloads](https://specs.status.im/spec/6) which are a part of [the Status Client specification](https://specs.status.im/spec/1).
This implementation uses SQLite and [SQLCipher](github.com/mutecomm/go-sqlcipher) for persistent storage.
The payloads are encoded using [protocol-buffers](https://developers.google.com/protocol-buffers).
## Content
* `messenger.go` is the main file which exports `Messenger` struct. This is a public API to interact with this implementation of the Status Chat Protocol.
* `protobuf/` contains protobuf files implementing payloads described in [the Payloads spec](https://specs.status.im/spec/6).
* `encryption/` implements [the Secure Transport spec](https://specs.status.im/spec/5).
* `transport/` connects the Status Chat Protocol with a wire-protocol which in our case is either Whisper or Waku.
* `datasync/` is an adapter for [MVDS](https://specs.vac.dev/specs/mvds.html).
* `applicationmetadata/` is an outer layer wrapping a payload with an app-specific metadata like a signature.
* `identity/` implements details related to creating a three-word name and identicon.
* `migrations/` contains implementation specific migrations for the sqlite database which is used by `Messenger` as a persistent data store.
## History
Originally this package was a dedicated repo called `status-protocol-go` and [was migrated](https://github.com/status-im/status-go/pull/1684) into `status-go`. The new `status-go/protocol` package maintained its own dependencies until [sub modules were removed](https://github.com/status-im/status-go/pull/1835/files) and the root go.mod file managed all dependencies for the entire `status-go` repo.