IPFS DHT Specification is missing

[lidel]

This is a placeholder for missing specs.

Problem

• No specs for IPFS DHT exist.
• Kad DHT specs that live in https://github.com/libp2p/specs/tree/master/kad-dht and are currently focused on Peer routing only (scope limited to libp2p use of DHT).
• IPFS specifics such as how provider records and IPNS records are published / resolved was removed from the mentioned specs, but should be still in git history of that repo

TODO

• [ ] see if we can salvage any old content from https://github.com/libp2p/specs/tree/master/kad-dht
• [ ] decide if our spec is on top of libp2p one, or do we have our own, end-to-end specs
• [ ] WRITE THE SPECS and get sign-off from GO, JS and Rust impl.

If anyone has good content we should include, link/comment below.

Additional Resources

• libp2p spec (limited to peer records) https://github.com/libp2p/specs/tree/master/kad-dht
• IPNS uses DHT, but it is greatly undocumented (https://github.com/ipfs/specs/blob/main/ipns/IPNS.md#integration-with-ipfs)
• https://pl-strflt.notion.site/DHT-Overview-e4bc573eaf094efc8a0781de47262db6
• https://github.com/libp2p/docs/pull/293

[SgtPooki]

@lidel will this IPIP also include AcceleratedDHTClient spec? or should we create a separate issue for that?

[lidel]

tbd, not part of protocol per se, just an efficient way of architecting client.

this is similar to Bitswap Sessions - could be an Appendix "Notes for implementers", or a separate file to avoid noise