git-annex/ design/ p2p protocol over http

## introduction

The P2P protocol is a custom protocol that git-annex speaks over a ssh connection (mostly). This is a translation of that protocol to a HTTP API

git-annex-p2phttp serves this API.

To indicate that an url uses this API, use `annex+http` or `annex+https` as the url scheme. Such an url uses port 9417 by default, although another port can be specified. For example, "annex+http://example.com/git-annex/"

## base64 encoding of keys, uuids, and filenames

A git-annex key can contain text in any encoding. So can a filename, and it's even possible, though unlikely, that the UUID of a git-annex repository might.

But this API requires that UTF-8 be used throughout, except where bodies use `Content-Type: application/octet-stream`.

So this API allows using base64url encoding for such values. Any key, filename, or UUID wrapped in square brackets is a base64url encoded value. For example, "[Zm9v]" is the same as "foo".

A filename like "[foo]" will need to itself be encoded that way: "[W2Zvb10=]"

## authentication

Some requests need authentication. Which requests do depends on the configuration of the HTTP server. When a request needs authentication, it will fail with 401 Unauthorized.

Authentication is done using HTTP basic auth. The realm to use when authenticating is "git-annex". The charset is UTF-8.

When authentication is successful but does not allow a request to be performed, it will fail with 403 Forbidden. (This also is sent when the server does not support authentication.)

Note that HTTP basic auth is not encrypted so is only secure when used over HTTPS.

## protocol version

Requests are versioned. The versions correspond to P2P protocol versions. The version is part of the request path, eg "v4"

If the server does not support a particular version, the request will fail with a 404, and the client should fall back to an earlier version.

## common request parameters

Every request supports this parameter, and unless documented otherwise, it is required to be included.

- `clientuuid`

  The value is the UUID of the git-annex repository of the client.

Any request may also optionally include these parameters:

- `bypass`

  The value is the UUID of a cluster gateway, which the server should avoid connecting to when serving a cluster. This is the equivilant of the `BYPASS` message in the P2P Protocol.

  This parameter can be given multiple times to list several cluster gateway UUIDs.

  This parameter is only available for v2 and above.

[Internally, git-annex can use these common parameters, plus the protocol version, and remote UUID, to create a P2P session. The P2P session is driven through the AUTH, VERSION, and BYPASS messages, leaving the session ready to service requests.]

## requests

### GET /git-annex/$uuid/key/$key

This is a simple, unversioned interface to get the content of a key from a repository.

It is not part of the API per se, but is provided to let other clients than git-annex easily download the content of keys from the http server.

When the key is not present on the server, it will respond with 404 Not Found.

Note that the common parameters bypass and clientuuid, while accepted, have no effect. Both are optional for this request.

### GET /git-annex/$uuid/v4/key/$key

Get the content of a key from the repository with the specified uuid.

Example:

    > GET /git-annex/ecf6d4ca-07e8-11ef-8990-9b8c1f696bf6/v3/key/SHA1--foo&associatedfile=bar&clientuuid=79a5a1f4-07e8-11ef-873d-97f93ca91925 HTTP/1.1
    < X-git-annex-data-length: 3
    < Content-Type: application/octet-stream
    <
    < foo

All parameters are optional, including the common parameters, and these:

- `associatedfile`

  The name of a file in the git repository, for informational purposes only.

- `offset`

  Number of bytes to skip sending from the beginning of the file.

Request headers are currently ignored, so eg Range requests are not supported. (This would be possible to implement, up to a point.)

The body of the request is empty.

The server's response will have a `Content-Type` header of `application/octet-stream`.

The server's response will have a `X-git-annex-data-length` header that indicates the number of bytes of content that are expected to be sent. Note that there is no Content-Length header.

The body of the response is the content of the key.

If the length of the body is different than what the the X-git-annex-data-length header indicated, then the data is invalid and should not be used. This can happen when eg, the data was being sent from an unlocked annexed file, which got modified while it was being sent.

When the key is not present on the server, it will respond with 404 Not Found.

### GET /git-annex/$uuid/v3/key/$key

Identical to v4.

### GET /git-annex/$uuid/v2/key/$key

Identical to v4.

### GET /git-annex/$uuid/v1/key/$key

Identical to v4.

### GET /git-annex/$uuid/v0/key/$key

Same as v4, except the X-git-annex-data-length header is not used. Additional checking client-side will be required to validate the data.

### POST /git-annex/$uuid/v4/checkpresent

Checks if a key is currently present on the server.

Example:

    > POST /git-annex/ecf6d4ca-07e8-11ef-8990-9b8c1f696bf6/v3/checkpresent?key=SHA1--foo&clientuuid=79a5a1f4-07e8-11ef-873d-97f93ca91925 HTTP/1.1
    < {"present": true}

There is one required additional parameter, `key`.

The body of the request is empty.

The server responds with a JSON object with a "present" field that is true if the key is present, or false if it is not present.

### POST /git-annex/$uuid/v3/checkpresent

Identical to v4.

### POST /git-annex/$uuid/v2/checkpresent

Identical to v4.

### POST /git-annex/$uuid/v1/checkpresent

Identical to v4.

### POST /git-annex/$uuid/v0/checkpresent

Identical to v4.

### POST /git-annex/$uuid/v4/lockcontent

Locks the content of a key on the server, preventing it from being removed.

Example:

    > POST /git-annex/ecf6d4ca-07e8-11ef-8990-9b8c1f696bf6/v3/lockcontent?key=SHA1--foo&clientuuid=79a5a1f4-07e8-11ef-873d-97f93ca91925 HTTP/1.1
    < {"locked": true, "lockid": "foo"}

There is one required additional parameter, `key`.

The server will reply with `{"locked": true}` if it was able to lock the key, or `{"locked": false}` if it was not.

The key will remain locked for 10 minutes. But, usually `keeplocked` is used to control the lifetime of the lock, using the "lockid" parameter from the server's reply. (See below.)

### POST /git-annex/$uuid/v3/lockcontent

Identical to v4.

### POST /git-annex/$uuid/v2/lockcontent

Identical to v4.

### POST /git-annex/$uuid/v1/lockcontent

Identical to v4.

### POST /git-annex/$uuid/v0/lockcontent

Identical to v4.

### POST /git-annex/$uuid/v4/keeplocked

Controls the lifetime of a lock on a key that was earlier obtained with `lockcontent`.

Example:

    > POST /git-annex/ecf6d4ca-07e8-11ef-8990-9b8c1f696bf6/v3/keeplocked?lockid=foo&clientuuid=79a5a1f4-07e8-11ef-873d-97f93ca91925 HTTP/1.1
    > Connection: Keep-Alive
    > Keep-Alive: timeout=1200
    [some time later]
    > {"unlock": true}
    < {"locked": false}

There is one required additional parameter, `lockid`.

This uses long polling. So it's important to use Connection and Keep-Alive headers.

This keeps an active lock from expiring until the client sends `{"unlock": true}`, and then it immediately unlocks it.

The client can send `{"unlock": false}` any number of times first. This has no effect, but may be useful to keep the connection alive.

This must be called within ten minutes of `lockcontent`, otherwise the lock will have already expired when this runs. Note that this does not indicate if the lock expired, it always returns `{"locked": false}`.

If the connection is closed before the client sends `{"unlock": true}, or even if the web server gets shut down, the content will remain locked for 10 minutes from the time it was first locked.

Note that the common parameters bypass and clientuuid, while accepted, have no effect.

### POST /git-annex/$uuid/v3/keeplocked

Identical to v4.

### POST /git-annex/$uuid/v2/keeplocked

Identical to v4.

### POST /git-annex/$uuid/v1/keeplocked

Identical to v4.

### POST /git-annex/$uuid/v0/keeplocked

Identical to v4.

### POST /git-annex/$uuid/v4/remove

Remove a key's content from the repository.

Example:

    > POST /git-annex/ecf6d4ca-07e8-11ef-8990-9b8c1f696bf6/v3/remove?key=SHA1--foo&clientuuid=79a5a1f4-07e8-11ef-873d-97f93ca91925 HTTP/1.1
    < {"removed": true}

There is one required additional parameter, `key`.

The body of the request is empty.

The server responds with a JSON object with a "removed" field that is true if the key was removed (or was not present on the server), or false if the key was not able to be removed.

The JSON object can have an additional field "plusuuids" that is a list of UUIDs of other repositories that the content was removed from.

### POST /git-annex/$uuid/v3/remove

Identical to v4.

### POST /git-annex/$uuid/v2/remove

Identical to v4.

### POST /git-annex/$uuid/v1/remove

Same as v4, except the JSON will not include "plusuuids".

### POST /git-annex/$uuid/v0/remove

Identical to v1.

### POST /git-annex/$uuid/v4/remove-before

Remove a key's content from the repository, but only before a specified time.

Example:

    > POST /git-annex/ecf6d4ca-07e8-11ef-8990-9b8c1f696bf6/v3/remove-before?timestamp=4949292929&key=SHA1--foo&clientuuid=79a5a1f4-07e8-11ef-873d-97f93ca91925 HTTP/1.1
    < {"removed": true}

This is the same as the `remove` request, but with an additional parameter, `timestamp`.

If the server's monotonic clock is past the specified timestamp, the removal will fail and the server will respond with: `{"removed": false}`

This is used to avoid removing content after a point in time where it is no longer locked in other repostitories.

### POST /git-annex/$uuid/v3/remove-before

Identical to v4.

### POST /git-annex/$uuid/v4/gettimestamp

Gets the current timestamp from the server.

Example:

    > POST /git-annex/ecf6d4ca-07e8-11ef-8990-9b8c1f696bf6/v3/gettimestamp?clientuuid=79a5a1f4-07e8-11ef-873d-97f93ca91925 HTTP/1.1
    < {"timestamp": 59459392}

The body of the request is empty.

The server responds with JSON object with a timestmap field that has the current value of its monotonic clock, as a number of seconds.

Important: If multiple servers are serving this API for the same repository, they MUST all use the same monotonic clock.

### POST /git-annex/$uuid/v3/gettimestamp

Identical to v4.

### POST /git-annex/$uuid/v4/put

Store content in the repository.

Example:

    > POST /git-annex/ecf6d4ca-07e8-11ef-8990-9b8c1f696bf6/v3/put?key=SHA1--foo&associatedfile=bar&clientuuid=79a5a1f4-07e8-11ef-873d-97f93ca91925 HTTP/1.1
    > Content-Type: application/octet-stream
    > X-git-annex-data-length: 3
    >
    > foo
    < {"stored": true}

There is one required additional parameter, `key`.

There are are also these optional parameters:

- `associatedfile`

  The name of a file in the git repository, for informational purposes only.

- `offset`

  Number of bytes that have been omitted from the beginning of the file. Usually this will be determined by making a `putoffset` request.

- `data-present`

  When set to "true", this indicates that the data has been sent to the repository in some other way. The body of the request will be empty. The server will verify that the data is present in the repository and will proceed the same as if the data was sent in the request.

The `Content-Type` header should be `application/octet-stream`.

The `X-git-annex-data-length` must be included. It indicates the number of bytes of content that are expected to be sent in the body of the request. Note that there is no need to send a Content-Length header.

If the length of the body is different than what the the X-git-annex-data-length header indicated, then the data is invalid and should not be used. This can happen when eg, the data was being sent from an unlocked annexed file, which got modified while it was being sent.

The server responds with a JSON object with a field "stored" that is true if it received the data and stored the content. (Or when `data-out-of-band` is used, if it has verified that the key is present in the repository.)

The JSON object can have an additional field "plusuuids" that is a list of UUIDs of other repositories that the content was stored to.

### POST /git-annex/$uuid/v3/put

Identical to v4 except the `data-out-of-band` parameter cannot be used.

### POST /git-annex/$uuid/v2/put

Identical to v3.

### POST /git-annex/$uuid/v1/put

Same as v3, except the JSON will not include "plusuuids".

### POST /git-annex/$uuid/v0/put

Same as v1, except additional checking is done to validate the data.

### POST /git-annex/$uuid/v4/putoffset

Asks the server what `offset` can be used in a `put` of a key.

This should usually be used right before sending a `put` request. The offset may not be valid after some point in time, which could result in the `put` request failing.

Example:

    > POST /git-annex/ecf6d4ca-07e8-11ef-8990-9b8c1f696bf6/v3/putoffset?key=SHA1--foo&clientuuid=79a5a1f4-07e8-11ef-873d-97f93ca91925 HTTP/1.1
    < {"offset": 10}

There is one required additional parameter, `key`.

The body of the request is empty.

The server responds with a JSON object with an "offset" field that is the largest allowable offset.

If the server already has the content of the key, it will respond instead with a JSON object with an "alreadyhave" field that is set to true. This JSON object may also have a field "plusuuids" that lists the UUIDs of other repositories where the content is stored, in addition to the serveruuid.

[Implementation note: This will be implemented by sending `PUT` and returning the `PUT-FROM` offset. To avoid leaving the P2P protocol stuck part way through a `PUT`, a synthetic empty `DATA` followed by `INVALID` will be used to get the P2P protocol back into a state where it will accept any request.]

### POST /git-annex/$uuid/v3/putoffset

Identical to v4.

### POST /git-annex/$uuid/v2/putoffset

Identical to v4.

### POST /git-annex/$uuid/v1/putoffset

Same as v4, except the JSON will not include "plusuuids".

## parts of P2P protocol that are not supported over HTTP

`NOTIFYCHANGE` is not supported, but it would be possible to extend this HTTP protocol to support it.

`CONNECT` is not supported, and due to the bi-directional message passing nature of it, it cannot easily be done over HTTP (would need websockets). It should not be necessary anyway, because the git repository itself can be accessed over HTTP.

comment 2

@m.risse, this is implemented now in git-annex p2phttp, also see smart http server.

Comment by joey — Tue Jul 22 18:11:47 2025
comment 1
I just want to say that this would be nice to have for https://codeberg.org/matrss/forgejo-aneksajo as well, since only being able to use ssh is a pain point in some places (e.g. outgoing ssh connections are forbidden on the HPC systems at FZ Jülich, which means an intermediary is necessary to copy data from the HPC systems to a forgejo-aneksajo instance, currently). Being able to read and write via https (possibly reusing the existing access tokens from forgejo? That would be on me to see if it is doable) would alleviate this problem entirely.
Comment by m.risse — Tue Jul 22 18:11:47 2025
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