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ipx/docs/directory.md
rays c47aa57909 The Directory comes from the directory service (#205)
ipx asks ipx-directory on its people's behalf, with the token an admin set
in the new Admin, Directory tab, so the page never talks to it and never
sees the token or a feed's address. /api/directory, /api/popular and a
feed's Directory page answer from it; subscribing takes the address from
the directory and goes through Add feed's steps. With no directory set
up, the Directory says so. The local directory code is gone; its privacy
checks are the snapshot builder's now, and their tests moved with them.

With sharing on, ipx sends its snapshot after every scan, whenever the
config changes (set_cfg) and every half hour: each public feed and how
many here subscribe, never an OPML or Patreon creator itself or anything
private. A feed can be marked private in its settings, for a paid feed
whose address does not give it away; anyone subscribed may mark it, only
an admin unmark it. The admin's category for a feed that names none goes
with it, which the directory uses only while the feed names none, so the
category an admin gives a blog still reaches the Directory.

The directory lists only feeds it has read as a feed: the first snapshot
after a start went before the first scan, when an OPML was not yet known
to be one, and the directory listed the OPML. It now fetches what a
snapshot brings in at once instead of within the minute.

The browser suite runs its own ipx-directory on SQLite; the Directory's
tests match feeds by title, since the directory names them by address.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-10-12 04:31:32 +00:00

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5.5 KiB
Markdown

# The directory
`ipx-directory` is a catalogue of public podcasts and blogs that ipx servers share (#204). An ipx
server sends it the public feeds its people subscribe to, and how many of them do. The directory
fetches each feed's title, artwork, category, description and latest twenty items every six hours,
and any server holding a token can browse it. It never downloads a file, and it never stores
one's address: every ipx server still fetches its own feeds.
This server's is at `https://ipx-dir.sdf1.net`, the `ipx-directory` service of the Arcane project
`ipx`, with its database `ipx_directory` on the `databases` project's Postgres.
## In ipx
An admin sets it up in **Admin, Directory**: the directory's address, the token its operator gave
this server, and whether to share. ipx asks the directory on its people's behalf, so the page never
talks to it and never sees the token or a feed's address. With no directory set up, the Directory
says so and feeds are added by their address.
With sharing on, ipx sends its snapshot after every scan, whenever the catalogue or these settings
change, and every half hour: each feed checked at least once, with how many people here subscribe,
and the category an admin gave a feed that names none. It never sends an OPML or a Patreon creator
itself (their feeds go instead), or a private feed. A feed's settings have a **Private** switch for
a paid feed iPX does not recognise by its address; anyone subscribed may turn it on, and only an
admin off.
## Tokens
Everything but `/healthz` needs a token, sent as `Authorization: Bearer <token>`. Each one has a
name and one of three levels of access:
| | browse | send snapshots | remove, block, refresh feeds; drop a server's snapshot |
|---|---|---|---|
| `ro` | yes | | |
| `rw` | yes | yes | |
| `rwa` | yes | yes | yes |
Tokens are in the config file and nowhere else, and no level of access can make or revoke one
over the API. To make one:
```sh
docker exec ipx-directory ipx-directory token new <name> --access ro|rw|rwa
```
It prints the token, to give to whoever it is for, and the lines to add to the config file. The file
holds the token's SHA-256, never the token. The directory reads the file again within a minute of
a change, so adding a token and revoking one (deleting its entry) need no restart. A revoked token
also takes the counts its server sent. A file that does not load (a misspelled `access`, two tokens
with one name) leaves the tokens as they were, and the log says why.
## The config file
`/config/directory.toml` in the container (`DIRECTORY_CONFIG`, or `--config`), on Tower
`/mnt/fast/appdata/ipx-directory/directory.toml`:
```toml
bind = "0.0.0.0:8100"
# The environment variable holding the database URL: postgres://... or sqlite://...
database_url_env = "DIRECTORY_DATABASE_URL"
[[tokens]]
name = "tower"
access = "rwa"
token_sha256 = "…"
```
`DIRECTORY_LOG_FORMAT=json` logs one JSON object a line, for Loki, as ipx's `IPX_LOG_FORMAT` does.
Each request is a line with its `method`, `path`, `status`, `duration_ms` and the `token`'s name.
## Running one
```yaml
services:
ipx-directory:
image: ipx-directory # docker build -f Dockerfile.directory -t ipx-directory .
restart: unless-stopped
environment:
DIRECTORY_DATABASE_URL: "postgres://ipx_directory:password@db-host:5432/ipx_directory"
ports:
- "8100:8100"
volumes:
- ./directory:/config:ro # directory.toml
healthcheck:
test: ["CMD", "ipx-directory", "health"]
```
## What it will not hold
A private feed is never meant to reach it. ipx leaves out a feed marked private, one with a
username or password, and one whose address `ipx_feed::url_looks_private` catches: a paid-feed
host, or a key in the query. The directory checks every address it is sent with the same function
and refuses what it catches, so one server's miss does not publish someone's paid feed to every
other. What both miss, an `rwa` token can remove: `DELETE /v1/feeds/{id}` removes the feed and
blocks it, so no snapshot brings it back.
## API
| Route | Access | |
|---|---|---|
| `GET /healthz` | none | `ok` when it can read its database |
| `GET /v1/me` | ro | the token's `name` and `access` |
| `GET /v1/feeds` | ro | every feed A to Z: `id`, `url`, `title`, `image`, `category`, `subcategory`, `podcast`, `subscribers` |
| `GET /v1/popular?limit=10` | ro | the most subscribed, at most 100 |
| `GET /v1/feeds/{id}` | ro | one feed, with `description`, `failing` (why its last check failed, in words) and its latest twenty `items` (`guid`, `title`, `link`, `published`, `duration`, `description`), never their files |
| `POST /v1/snapshot` | rw | `[{"url", "subscribers"}]`, at most 20,000: replaces everything this token sent before; answers what it `accepted` and how many it refused as private, blocked or invalid |
| `DELETE /v1/feeds/{id}` | rwa | remove and block |
| `GET /v1/blocked`, `DELETE /v1/blocked/{id}` | rwa | what is blocked; unblock |
| `DELETE /v1/instances/{name}` | rwa | drop one token's snapshot, its counts with it |
| `POST /v1/feeds/{id}/refresh` | rwa | fetch the feed now, answering with its page |
A feed's `id` is the first 64 bits of the SHA-256 of its address, normalised (scheme and host in
lower case, no default port or fragment), so every server arrives at the same id. `subscribers`
is the sum over every token's latest snapshot. A feed is listed once the directory has read it as
a feed, so an OPML or an address that never worked is not, and goes when no snapshot has it any more. Descriptions
are the feed's own HTML, unsanitized: whoever shows them sanitizes them, as ipx does.