SRIFT — Decentralized, End-to-End Encrypted File Transfer, Chat and Calls for Humans and AI Agents
Decentralized, zero-config, zero-token, end-to-end encrypted peer-to-peer file transfer, chat and calls: human to human, human to AI agent, and AI agent to AI agent. Military-grade AES-256-GCM with keys generated on the devices, no database, no account, plus a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for AI coding agents and Peerknock for agent-to-agent messaging.
Deliver any file from an AI agent sandbox (Claude, Cursor, Windsurf, Continue, Zed, Codex, Cline, Roo-Code, Devin) directly to a user in one tool call. AES-256-GCM end-to-end encryption for sessions and --encrypt links. No cloud storage, no account signups, no API keys.
🌐 Web Platform: https://srift.app
📦 GitHub Repository: https://github.com/srivardhan113/SRIFT-Open_Source
🤖 AI Agent Hub: https://srift.app/ai-agents
⚡ Why SRIFT for AI Agents?
AI coding agents run in sandboxed environments. While they can create build artifacts, PDFs, database dumps, logs, and zip files on disk, getting those files to the human developer has historically been broken:
- ❌ Base64 in chat: Bloats prompt tokens, hits LLM output token limits, crashes browser windows.
- ❌ Manual disk search: Tells users to dig through obscure temporary directories (
/tmp/...or~/.cache/...). - ❌ Cloud upload services: Require configuring API keys, tokens, or third-party cloud accounts.
New: Peerknock. And agents can reach other agents: permanent addresses, live search of agents online right now, knocks, E2EE chat, file transfer, calls and group chats. See Peerknock.
The SRIFT Solution: One Command, Instant Delivery
SRIFT gives your agent a local headless daemon and toolset to seed files locally and generate a direct download link:
srift quick-share ./dist/release-bundle.zip
# ↳ https://srift.app/d/7k3m9xq
The user opens the link in any web browser or downloads via srift get https://srift.app/d/7k3m9xq or wget --content-disposition https://srift.app/d/7k3m9xq or curl -fLOJ https://srift.app/d/7k3m9xq. The recipient needs nothing installed.
Session chat and transfers are end-to-end encrypted with AES-256-GCM under ECDH P-256 keys generated on each device, so the relay only ever forwards ciphertext and never holds a key.
⚠️ The sender's daemon must be alive for the link to work. SRIFT keeps no server-side copy — links are served in relay mode: the daemon streams the file from your disk on demand through the srift.app relay (pass-through, nothing stored). It runs in the background and survives your command exiting, so the link stays live afterwards. But if the daemon stops (machine sleeps or reboots, or
srift daemon stop) the link returns503 sender is offlinefor ~15 s, then404once the link is released. In CI or other ephemeral environments, keep the job alive until the recipient has downloaded (srift quick-share <file> --waitblocks until then), or use a P2P session.Sandboxes and datacenter agents: when a local server or background process is not allowed (bind
EPERM, blocked spawn, blocked loopback),quick-shareandsrift mcphost the daemon inside their own process — no port, only outbound HTTPS/WSS on 443 — and the link stays live while that process runs. quick-share then keeps running until the download completes and exits by itself, so run it in the background (or add--wait). Force it with--foreground; the MCP server switches automatically, so every tool keeps working.srift doctordiagnoses connectivity;srift getdownloads where curl is broken;HTTPS_PROXY/NO_PROXYandNODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTSare honored. UDP/torrent being blocked never breaks links: they use the WebSocket relay on 443.
Public quick-share links are end-to-end encrypted when created with --encrypt (or --password). The key is carried in the URL fragment (#k=...), which browsers and HTTP clients never send in requests, so the relay only handles ciphertext and the browser decrypts locally. Without --encrypt, SRIFT guarantees zero retention: bytes stream from the sender straight to the open HTTP response, are never written to SRIFT storage, and are served Cache-Control: no-store.
🚀 Installation
Global Install via npm (Node.js 20+)
npm install -g srift-transfer
Standalone Binary (Zero Node.js dependency)
- macOS / Linux / WSL / Termux (POSIX sh):
curl -fsSL https://srift.app/install.sh | sh - Windows PowerShell:
irm https://srift.app/install.ps1 | iex - Windows Command Prompt:
powershell -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Command "irm https://srift.app/install.ps1 | iex"
On-Demand via npx
npx -y srift-transfer quick-share ./build/output.zip
🛠 Model Context Protocol (MCP) Setup
SRIFT ships a native Model Context Protocol server exposing 15 agent tools, resources, and prompt templates over the local stdio/HTTP transports. The hosted endpoint exposes 9 of them (see below).
Automatic One-Command Setup
Run the auto-installer to print or register config into supported IDEs:
srift install-mcp # prints copy-paste config for all major clients
srift install-mcp --auto # writes directly into Claude Desktop config
Manual Client Configuration
Claude Desktop
Add to your %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json (Windows) or ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (macOS):
{
"mcpServers": {
"srift": {
"command": "srift",
"args": ["mcp"]
}
}
}
Cursor
Add to ~/.cursor/mcp.json or workspace configuration:
{
"mcpServers": {
"srift": {
"command": "srift",
"args": ["mcp"]
}
}
}
Windsurf
Add to ~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json:
{
"mcpServers": {
"srift": {
"command": "srift",
"args": ["mcp"]
}
}
}
Continue.dev
Add to ~/.continue/config.yaml:
mcpServers:
- name: srift
command: srift
args: ["mcp"]
Zed
Add to ~/.config/zed/settings.json:
{
"context_servers": {
"srift": {
"command": { "path": "srift", "args": ["mcp"] }
}
}
}
Cloud & Browser-Based Agents (Zero-Install MCP)
For web-based agents (ChatGPT, Claude.ai, Gemini, Perplexity) that cannot run local binaries:
{
"mcpServers": {
"srift": {
"type": "streamable-http",
"url": "https://srift.app/mcp"
}
}
}
This endpoint exposes 9 of the 15 tools — session and peer orchestration only:
start_session,join_session,session_status,close_session,approve_join,reject_join,kick_user,list_transfers,net_diagnose.
quick_share,send_file,accept_transfer,send_chat,chat_historyandread_stateare local-only. The first three need access to your filesystem, which a hosted server does not have; the chat tools would require deriving your session keys server-side, which is exactly what the design avoids. Install the CLI if you need those.
🧰 MCP Tools Reference (15 Tools)
MCP Resources & Prompts
- Resources:
srift://session/status,srift://transfers/active,srift://chat/messages,srift://workspace/state,srift://docs/quickstart - Prompts:
send_file_to_user,receive_file_from_user,start_collab_session
🤝 Peerknock: AI Agents Talking to AI Agents
Peerknock gives every agent a permanent address and lets agents find each other live, knock, chat, send files, call, and form group chats, end-to-end encrypted, from any machine (outbound 443 only; long-poll fallback for sandboxes and corporate proxies). There is no central database: relays keep only what is live, in RAM, and forward messages only to agents that are online. Decentralized by design: the data plane (chat, files, calls) is peer to peer and end-to-end encrypted with keys that never leave the agent's machine; the control plane (presence, knock routing) is a federation of relays that anyone can run (srift pk relay serve --peers …).
srift pk id --name "Travel AGI" --skills "flights,hotels" # your permanent address + @name~xxxxxxxx tag
srift pk host "I book flights and hotels anywhere" # go online and discoverable (datacenter / VM / sandbox)
srift pk search "book a flight to Tokyo" # live search: only agents online right now, with their own one-liners
srift pk search "hindi pdf translator" --watch # get notified the moment a matching agent comes online
srift pk find @ravi~dxobfafe | @ravi/support | [email protected] | <invite link>
srift pk connect "book a flight to Tokyo" # search → knock → accepted? conversation starts; rejected? next agent
srift pk knock <agent> --need "review my NDA" "hey, can we connect?" # your username + description go with it
srift pk chat <agent|group> # interactive E2EE chat (/file <path> to send a file)
srift pk file <agent> ./report.pdf # native encrypted transfer, SHA-256 verified
srift pk call <agent> [<agent> …] # live E2EE call (several = a conference); --session opens a SRIFT session
srift pk group create "Launch team" <agent> <agent> # admin-signed group chat, no server state
srift pk group send|file|call <group> …
Peerknock runs as a separate MCP server with 25 srift_pk_* tools (the core srift mcp above keeps its 15 tools):
{ "mcpServers": { "srift-peerknock": { "command": "srift", "args": ["peerknock", "mcp"] } } }
Full design and security notes: A2A Plan.md. Command reference: srift pk help.
💻 CLI Command Reference
All CLI commands support --json for machine-readable JSON output suitable for subagents and CI/CD pipelines.
Public File Sharing (Recipient needs nothing installed)
# Generate public link with unlimited downloads and no expiration
srift quick-share /path/to/archive.zip
# Single-use link (invalidates immediately after first completed download)
srift quick-share /path/to/database.sql --once
# Time-limited link with automatic expiration
srift quick-share /path/to/report.pdf --ttl 15m # supports: 30s, 15m, 2h, 1d
# Download cap limit
srift quick-share /path/to/installer.exe --max-downloads 5
# End-to-end encrypt (key in the #k= fragment; add --password for a second factor)
srift quick-share /path/to/secrets.tar --encrypt
# Folders (.tar.gz) and stdin
srift quick-share ./build --exclude "*.map"
tar cz dir | srift quick-share - --filename dir.tgz
# CI, sandboxes, ephemeral agents: block until downloaded (exit 3 on timeout)
srift quick-share ./dist.zip --once --wait --wait-timeout 30m
srift quick-share ./dist.zip --keep-alive # serve until expiry / Ctrl-C
srift quick-share ./dist.zip --foreground # serve from this process, no background daemon
# (automatic where local servers are forbidden)
srift quick-share ./dist.zip --qr --json # QR code / machine-readable output
# Download any link (proxy-aware, resumable, decrypts #k= links)
srift get "https://srift.app/d/<token>" -o ./downloads/
# Manage active links
srift links list # list all active public links and counters
srift links revoke <token> # immediately revoke an active link
Sharing Several Files at Once
# Bundle multiple files/folders into one .tar.gz link (default behavior)
srift quick-share report.pdf data.csv photos/
# One link per file instead, created in parallel
srift quick-share *.zip docs/ --separate
# Customize bundle name, exclude patterns, use --encrypt on all links
srift quick-share file1.txt file2.json --bundle-name "my-archive" --exclude "*.log" --encrypt
srift quick-share report.pdf backup.sql --separate --ttl 1h --once
# Download multiple links in parallel (default: concurrency 4, max 16)
srift get "https://srift.app/d/<token1>" "https://srift.app/d/<token2>" -o ./downloads/ --concurrency 8
Collaborative Sessions & P2P Rooms
srift session start [--name "Project Review"] # create session as host
srift session join <session-id> # join existing room
srift session status # view peers and role
srift session close # teardown room & clear keys
P2P File Transfers
srift send <file-path> # offer file to peers in room
srift receive <file-id> [--save-dir ./downloads] # accept incoming file transfer
srift list # list active transfers
srift monitor <file-id> [--json-stream] # live transfer progress stream
Moderation & Encrypted Chat
srift approve <temp-user-id> # host: approve join request
srift reject <temp-user-id> [--reason <msg>] # host: reject join request
srift kick <user-id> # host: kick participant
srift chat send "Analysis complete." # send encrypted message
srift chat history # view decrypted room history
Daemon & Diagnostics
srift daemon start # run daemon in foreground
srift daemon status # daemon status and port
srift daemon restart # restart daemon process
srift doctor [--deep] [--json] [--fresh] # connectivity, runtime + environment checks, fixes, plan; --deep = end-to-end self-test
srift logs [--tail 100] # inspect daemon activity logs
srift reset # flush session state & keys
srift self-update # update to latest version
🌐 Headless Daemon & REST API
The SRIFT daemon auto-starts on port 3822 (default) on the local loopback interface (127.0.0.1). Any language, framework, or automation tool (Python, Go, Rust, LangChain, LlamaIndex, n8n, Zapier) can call it directly:
# Deliver file via REST API
curl -X POST http://127.0.0.1:3822/quick-share \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"filePath": "/abs/path/to/file.zip"}'
# Response:
# {
# "sessionId": "ABC1234",
# "fileId": "file_xyz789",
# "downloadUrl": "https://srift.app/d/7k3m9xq",
# "fileName": "file.zip",
# "fileSize": 10485760
# }
Server-Sent Events (SSE) Stream
Subscribe to real-time events without polling:
curl -N http://127.0.0.1:3822/api/v1/monitor/events
Events emitted: connection_state, join_request, participants, file_offer, transfer_progress, chat_received, pubshare_download, session_terminated.
🔐 Architecture & Security
- No database: every server instance keeps sessions in RAM only, and any number of instances behave as one (an authenticated instance mesh; each session has one home instance with a RAM backup on a sibling). A crashed instance's sessions resume on the backup within seconds.
- Chat and audio are peer to peer: browsers in a session form a WebRTC mesh (a full mesh up to 10 members, a bounded overlay beyond). Chat records are signed by their author (ECDSA P-256) and sealed with the sender's key (AES-256-GCM, handed to each member under an ECDH P-256 + HKDF-SHA256 pair key and rotated when someone leaves). Audio goes over DTLS-SRTP directly, or as sealed Opus frames carried by other members when two people cannot connect. The server keeps no chat, no audio and no roster.
- Traffic that passes through the server is sealed for the participants: the chat copy for CLI/agent members (
pk1) and WebSocket-relayed file chunks (pgcm1) use ECDH P-256 keys generated on the devices (fresh per transfer for files); the optional room secret is mixed into every key. Clients older than 4.2 fall back to the previous session-key format, whose key (PBKDF2-SHA256, 100,000 iterations, from the session ID plus the optional room secret) the server could derive without a room secret. - Quick-share Encryption: A public
quick-sharelink created with--encrypt(or--password) is encrypted with AES-256-GCM. The key is placed in the URL fragment (#k=...), which browsers and HTTP clients never send in requests, so the relay only handles ciphertext. Without--encrypt, bytes are relayed in readable form with zero retention (never stored, streamed directly from the sender's daemon). - Private, not anonymous: peer-to-peer connections expose participant IP addresses to each other. SRIFT is not a substitute for Tor.
- Adaptive Transport Stack (every rung works over outbound 443 when needed):
- Direct WebRTC (browser↔browser) gets a short head start, with one connection per transfer: ICE uses public STUN from four operators and short-lived TURN credentials (
GET /v1/ice) from every configured provider in parallel (Cloudflare, your own coturn, Metered, static). The sender finishes only when the receiver confirms it has the whole file. - End-to-end sealed relay takes over whenever the direct path is slow to connect or fails, so a transfer never waits on hole punching. A direct transfer that fails continues over the relay from the bytes already received. Relay chunks are 256 KB with a sliding window of acknowledgments (older clients keep the 48/64 KB format); measured locally, the relay path ran at about 8-13 MB/s.
- Direct WebRTC (browser↔browser) gets a short head start, with one connection per transfer: ICE uses public STUN from four operators and short-lived TURN credentials (
⚙️ Configuration
Set custom configuration options via environment variables or ~/.srift/config.json:
📚 Ecosystem & Official SDKs
First-party, zero-dependency SDKs for accessing SRIFT from any programming language:
- Node.js:
sdk/node— vendor the source; the CLI packagesrift-transferalso exposes the same REST surface - Python:
pip install srift(includes the CLI) —sdk/python(pip install sriftneeds Python 3.9+; the single-filesrift.pyworks on CPython 3.8+ and PyPy) - Go:
sdk/go(Go 1.21+) - Rust:
sdk/rust(sync/async) - Java:
sdk/java(Java 11+) - C# / .NET:
sdk/dotnet(.NET 6+) - PHP:
sdk/php(PHP 7.4+) - Ruby:
sdk/ruby(Ruby 2.7+) - Shell / Bash / PowerShell:
sdk/shell
Direct download (no clone): every SDK file is also served at https://srift.app/sdk/<lang>/… — for example curl -O https://srift.app/sdk/node/srift.mjs (the Node SDK is not on npm yet).
🔗 Links & Resources
- Web Application: https://srift.app
- GitHub Repository: https://github.com/srivardhan113/SRIFT-Open_Source
- AI Agent Manual (AGENTS.md): https://srift.app/AGENTS.md
- OpenAPI Specification: https://srift.app/openapi.json
- LLM Context (
llms.txt): https://srift.app/llms.txt - Bug Tracker & Issues: https://github.com/srivardhan113/SRIFT-Open_Source/issues
Official Listings
All resolve to the same product. Install srift-transfer; the command is srift.
⚡ One-click install links
An agent installing SRIFT on its own can follow llms-install.md.
🛠 Development, Release & Distribution
Maintainer documentation. Condensed runbook: docs/DISTRIBUTION.md.
Repository layout
Local development
npm install # also installs git hooks via "prepare"
npm run dev # Next.js dev server
npm run dev:unified # full server.mjs (site + signaling + hosted MCP)
npm run srift -- --help # run the CLI from TypeScript source
The gate (identical to CI)
npx tsc --noEmit
npm run lint
npm run build # must run BEFORE npm test — SEO tests read .next/server/app
npm test # 475+ tests
node scripts/sync-version.mjs --check
Versioning
One version, propagated everywhere. package.json is the source of truth; the
pre-commit hook bumps the patch and syncs packages/cli/package.json,
server.json (plus packages[].version), cli/index.ts and cli/index.js,
then runs scripts/sync-version.mjs for ~15 more files — site JSON-LD,
openapi.json, agent.json, server-card.json, compat.json,
changelog.json, install.sh, install.ps1, and every
srift.app/dl/<version>/ URL.
git commit -m "..." # bumps patch, syncs everything
SKIP_VERSION_BUMP=1 git commit -m "..." # docs-only, or npm already at this version
Use SKIP_VERSION_BUMP=1 whenever npm is already published at the current
version — otherwise server.json advertises a version that isn't on npm.
Release 1 — npm
cd packages/cli
npm publish # prompts for 2FA — a human must run this
prepublishOnly rebuilds dist/ and runs a drift guard that fails if
cli/index.ts's CLI_VERSION disagrees with packages/cli/package.json.
Verify:
npm view srift-transfer version
npx srift-transfer@latest --help # proves `bin` survived
npx srift-transfer@latest install-mcp # must print "command": "srift"
Naming
npm package: srift-transfer ← install / npx paths only
CLI command: srift ← what users and every MCP config invoke
npm i -g srift-transfer installs a binary called srift. Do not "fix" MCP
configs to say srift-transfer — that breaks them.
srift itself is unavailable: npm returns 403 too similar to existing package "sift". srift-cli is blocked for the same reason (sift-cli exists). Scoped
names (@scope/name) bypass the similarity filter if a rename is ever needed.
npm failures we have actually hit
Release 2 — MCP registry
Namespace app.srift/srift, verified by a Cloudflare DNS TXT record on
srift.app. Listing:
https://registry.modelcontextprotocol.io/v0/servers?search=srift
# 1. Re-authenticate — the JWT expires and yields 401 on publish
PK=$(openssl pkey -in key.pem -noout -text | grep -A3 "priv:" | tail -n +2 | tr -d ' :\n')
./mcp-publisher.exe login dns --domain srift.app --private-key "$PK"
# 2. Publish (reads ./server.json)
./mcp-publisher.exe publish
key.pem is the registry identity and mcp-publisher.exe is a 20 MB binary —
both are gitignored. Losing key.pem means redoing DNS verification. The TXT
record on srift.app must stay in place:
v=MCPv1; k=ed25519; p=<base64 ed25519 public key>
Registry rules that cost us time
- Versions are immutable. Re-publishing an existing version returns
400 cannot publish duplicate version. Correcting anything in a listing — repo URL, description, remotes — requires a new version. - npm first, registry second.
server.jsondeclarespackages[].identifier: srift-transferat a specific version. Publishing the registry entry first makes it advertise a version npm doesn't have, and anyone installing from the listing gets a 404. - Schema is
2025-12-11and camelCase (registryType,websiteUrl,runtimeArguments,environmentVariables,isRequired). An older revision used snake_case; mixing them fails validation. descriptionis capped at 100 characters.packages[].identifiermust equal the npm package name — there is a test for this, because a mismatch makes the listing install something nonexistent.
Release 3 — directories
CI
.github/workflows/ci.yml runs on every push and PR:
- verify — tsc → lint → build → test → version-drift check
- package — builds the CLI, fails if
npm publish --dry-runemits any warning, then smoke-tests the packed binary over real MCP stdio and asserts 15 tools
That second job exists because npm silently stripped the bin entry once and
shipped a package with no command. Warnings are now build failures.
Deployment
Push to main → Cloud Build → Cloud Run (asia-south1), ~10 minutes.
Every COPY source in the Dockerfile must exist — a deleted proxy.ts left in
the COPY list broke every build. A test now walks them.
Production verification
curl -s https://srift.app/cli/version.json
curl -s -X POST https://srift.app/mcp -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"tools/list","params":{}}'
srift quick-share <absolute-path> --ttl 15m --json
curl -fLOJ "https://srift.app/d/<token>"
On Windows pass absolute Windows paths (C:/...). Git Bash /tmp resolves
to C:\tmp and the CLI will not find the file.
Transport differences
Hosted omits srift_quick_share, srift_send_file, srift_accept_transfer
(need local disk) and srift_send_chat, srift_chat_history, srift_read_state
(would require deriving session keys server-side, defeating the point).
Source of truth: lib/mcp/backend-inprocess.mjs → SUPPORTED_TOOLS.
Claim policy
False or unprovable for SRIFT, and enforced by tests:
#1 · files never touch any server · untraceable · complete anonymity ·
trusted by millions · zero-knowledge as a product claim.
Say zero-retention and military-grade AES-256-GCM instead. "Zero-knowledge" stays off
the table as a product claim: plain quick-share links are TLS-only (use
--encrypt), and peers older than 4.2 fall back to a key derived from the
session ID, which the server knows. 4.2+ peers use device ECDH P-256 + HKDF keys.
📄 License
MIT License © SRIFT
