When you send a file today, it usually goes up to someone's server first and then down to your friend. Aperture skips that. A small server only helps two computers find each other. After that, the file goes directly from one to the other.
flowchart LR
A["💻 Client A<br/>(sender)"]
B["💻 Client B<br/>(receiver)"]
S["🖥️ Server<br/>helps them meet"]
R["🔁 Relay<br/>backup path"]
A -- "① I want to send B a file" --> S
S -- "② here's how to reach A" --> B
A == "③ file goes directly ✅" ==> B
A -. "④ only if direct fails" .-> R
R -. "still encrypted" .-> B
And if something goes wrong halfway (Wi-Fi drops, someone closes the app, even the server goes down), the transfer doesn't start over. It picks up where it stopped.
Aperture is a personal project, not a finished app yet. Today it runs as a command-line client, with test bots keeping the network busy.
The internet relies on a few big servers. When they go down, or when a whole area gets cut off after a storm or an earthquake, people lose the ability to share anything at all.
Aperture is a step toward the other way. It starts with direct transfers that survive failures, and is heading toward devices that can find each other and share on their own, even when the network around them is broken.
The mesh shows every transfer as it happens.
| You see | It means |
|---|---|
| ⚪ Circle | A user (a person or a test bot) |
| ➡️ Arrow | A file on its way, with how much has arrived |
| 🟢 Green | Sent directly, computer to computer |
| 🟠 Orange dashed | A direct path wasn't possible, so it goes through a relay (still encrypted) |
| 🟡 Yellow dotted | The connection dropped and it's reconnecting |
| 🟣 Purple dashed | The other side left, and the file is saved and waiting for them |
| ◌ Faded circle | That user is offline |
| ⚪ "already had it" | They already had this file, so nothing was sent |
- 🔒 Private: files are encrypted, and the file data never passes through or stays on a server
- ✅ Complete: every piece is checked, so a broken or changed file can't arrive
- 🔁 Resumes: if anything stops, it continues from the same spot (it waits up to 30 minutes for the other side)
- 🛟 Keeps going: transfers already running finish even if the server goes down
Each of these was tested by breaking it on purpose: test results.
A dashboard to see the whole network at a glance, and later a simple app anyone can use.
Built with: Rust · Iroh · Java · Redis · AWS SNS/SQS · Docker · Kubernetes (k3s) · Prometheus · Grafana