> clearly not true because it never happened to me personally
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_equivalence
Here's one of several emails they've sent me over the years, each one happening right after running "ipfs daemon": https://0x0.st/Kryd.png
There's lots of other easily-searchable accounts of people having the exact same experience:
https://github.com/ipfs/kubo/issues/4343
https://discuss.ipfs.tech/t/moved-ipfs-node-result-netscan-d...
https://github.com/ipfs/js-ipfs/issues/3982
https://github.com/filecoin-project/lassie/issues/121
https://github.com/covalenthq/refiner/issues/140
In OpenFreeMap survived 100k requests per secondipfs
js-ipfs
JavaScript2015–2025
ipfs / js-ipfs · Archived
js-ipfs
IPFS implementation in JavaScript
23Distinct people
39Mentions
0Explicit recommenders
7.4KGitHub stars
What to know before exploring
What it is
IPFS implementation in JavaScript
GitHub
Where it is used
No documented product use was verified in the last source check.
What people are saying
No recommendation phrase was found in the indexed comments.
No classified warning is attached to this page. Read the discussions before treating silence as approval.
Also in these discussions
- ipfs/kubo · linked in 4 of the same discussions
- ipfs/ipfs · linked in 2 of the same discussions
- orbitdb/orbitdb · linked in 2 of the same discussions
Mentioned in the same Hacker News threads. That is not proof they are substitutes.
This week on Hacker News
Nov 7–Nov 14 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/14/2026, 1:49:46 PM UTC.
No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.
Mentions over time
HN mentions by year39 dated mentions
Observed mentions: 2015-12-09 23:16:10 UTC to 2025-08-16 21:17:15 UTC.
Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.
View mention counts and date ranges
| Period | Start (UTC) | End (exclusive, UTC) | Mentions | Submissions | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 2015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 2016 | 2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 7 | 0 | 7 |
| 2017 | 2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 4 | 0 | 4 |
| 2018 | 2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 17 | 0 | 17 |
| 2019 | 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| 2020 | 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2021 | 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2022 | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 2023 | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 4 | 0 | 4 |
| 2024 | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2025 | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
From the project README
An excerpt from the repository, fetched Nov 13, 2026.
Read the project’s introduction
⛔️ DEPRECATED: js-IPFS has been superseded by Helia
📚 Learn more about this deprecation or how to migrate
⚠️ If you continue using this repo, please note that security fixes will not be provided
The JavaScript implementation of the IPFS protocol
Getting started
Read the docs
Ensure CORS is correctly configured for use with the HTTP client
Look into the examples to learn how to spawn an IPFS node in Node.js and in the Browser
Consult the Core API docs to see what you can do with an IPFS node
Head over to https://proto.school to take the IPFS course that covers core IPFS concepts and JS APIs
Check out https://docs.ipfs.io for glossary, tips, how-tos and more
Need help? Please ask 'How do I?' questions on https://discuss.ipfs.io
Find out about chat channels, the IPFS newsletter, the IPFS blog, and more in the IPFS community space.
Table of Contents
Getting started
Install as a CLI user
Install as an application developer
Documentation
Structure
Packages
Want to hack on IPFS?
License
Getting Started
Install as a CLI user
Installing ipfs globally will give you the jsipfs command which you can use to start a daemon running:
$ npm install -g ipfs
$ jsipfs daemon
Initializing IPFS daemon...
js-ipfs version: x.x.x
System version: x64/darwin
Node.js version: x.x.x
Swarm listening on /ip4/127.0
.... more output
You can then add a file:
$ jsipfs add ./hello-world.txt
added QmXXY5ZxbtuYj6DnfApLiGstzPN7fvSyigrRee3hDWPCaf hello-world.txt
Install as an application developer
If you do not need to run a command line daemon, use the ipfs-core package - it has all the features of ipfs but in a lighter package:
$ npm install ipfs-core
Then start a node in your app:
import * as IPFS from 'ipfs-core'
const ipfs = await IPFS.create()
const { cid } = await ipfs.add('Hello world')
console.info(cid)
// QmXXY5ZxbtuYj6DnfApLiGstzPN7fvSyigrRee3hDWPCaf
Documentation
Concepts
Config
Core API
Examples
Development
Structure
This project is broken into several modules, their purposes are:
/packages/interface-ipfs-core Tests to ensure adherence of an implementation to the spec
/packages/ipfs An aggregator module that bundles the core implementation, the CLI, HTTP API server and daemon
/packages/ipfs-cli A CLI to the core implementation
/packages/ipfs-core The core implementation
/packages/ipfs-core-types Typescript definitions for the core API
/packages/ipfs-core-utils Helpers and utilities common to core and the HTTP RPC API client
/packages/ipfs-daemon Run js-IPFS as a background daemon
/packages/ipfs-grpc-client A gRPC client for js-IPFS
/packages/ipfs-grpc-protocol Shared module between the gRPC client and server
/packages/ipfs-grpc-server A gRPC-over-websockets server for js-IPFS
/packages/ipfs-http-client A client for the RPC-over-HTTP API presented by both js-ipfs and go-ipfs
/packages/ipfs-http-server JS implementation of the Kubo RPC HTTP API
/packages/ipfs-http-gateway JS implementation of the IPFS HTTP Gateway
/packages/ipfs-http-response Creates a HTTP response for a given IPFS Path
/packages/ipfs-message-port-client A client for the RPC-over-message-port API presented by js-ipfs running in a shared worker
/packages/ipfs-message-port-protocol Code shared by the message port client & server
/packages/ipfs-message-port-server The server that receives requests from ipfs-message-port-client
Packages
List of the main packages that make up the IPFS ecosystem.
Package
Version
Deps
CI/Travis
Coverage
Lead Maintainer
Files
ipfs-unixfs
Alex Potsides
Repo
ipfs-repo
Alex Potsides
ipfs-repo-migrations
N/A
Exchange
ipfs-bitswap
Dirk McCormick
IPNS
ipns
Vasco Santos
Generics/Utils
ipfs-utils
Hugo Dias
ipfs-http-client
Alex Potsides
ipfs-http-response
Vasco Santos
ipfsd-ctl
Hugo Dias
is-ipfs
Marcin Rataj
aegir
Hugo Dias
libp2p
libp2p
Jacob Heun
peer-id
Vasco Santos
libp2p-crypto
Jacob Heun
libp2p-floodsub
Vasco Santos
libp2p-gossipsub
Cayman Nava
libp2p-kad-dht
Vasco Santos
libp2p-mdns
Jacob Heun
libp2p-bootstrap
Vasco Santos
@chainsafe/libp2p-noise
N/A
libp2p-tcp
Jacob Heun
libp2p-webrtc-star
Vasco Santos
libp2p-websockets
Jacob Heun
libp2p-mplex
Vasco Santos
libp2p-delegated-content-routing
Jacob Heun
libp2p-delegated-peer-routing
Jacob Heun
IPLD
@ipld/dag-pb
N/A
@ipld/dag-cbor
N/A
Multiformats
multiformats
N/A
mafmt
Vasco Santos
multiaddr
Jacob Heun
This table is generated using the module package-table with package-table --data=package-list.json.
Want to hack on IPFS?
The IPFS implementation in JavaScript needs your help! There are a few things you can do right now to help out:
Read the Code of Conduct and JavaScript Contributing Guidelines.
Check out existing issues The issue list has many that are marked as 'help wanted' or 'difficulty:easy' which make great starting points for development, many of which can be tackled with no prior IPFS knowledge
Look at the IPFS Roadmap This are the high priority items being worked on right now
Perform code reviews More eyes will help
a. speed the project along
b. ensure quality, and
c. reduce possible future bugs.
Add tests. There can never be enough tests.
License
Read the full README on GitHubWhat Hacker News says
39 sourcesI don't mind pinning, but back in the day I was having issues using IPFS to transfer small files between devices. I admit I haven't investigated to see if the problems were ever resolved.
I've been watching https://github.com/ipfs/helia which is going to replace https://github.com/ipfs/js-ipfs and hoping they can get an IPFS node working in the browser.
In Amino – The Public IPFS DHT Is Getting a Faceliftalso, to the author, make sure you turn _off_ persistent local storage, the performance is horrific (https://github.com/ipfs/js-ipfs/issues/4045) - maybe helia is better?
In Show HN: Rarbg on IPFSOn the topic of IPFS, but also slightly tangential -- how has nobody written an Activity Pub client/server in Javascript and distributed it as a Browser Addon?
If an IPFS node/server can be literally hosted via a Firefox Extension[1], how has nobody done the same for an arguably easier protocol like Activity Pub?
1: https://github.com/ipfs/js-ipfs
In Activity Pub vs. Web FrameworksStore the content in ipfs and just put the hash in the URL?
I haven't used https://github.com/ipfs/js-ipfs in this capacity but I'm under the impression that that's moving bits around like that is more or less its purpose.
Although I suppose this puts a burden on the URL-creator to pin the content until the URL-clicker doesn't need it anymore, which is not how URLs are supposed to work.
In How to store your app's entire state in the urlI've been thinking about this for a localstorage based app that I'm tinkering around with. You can do webrtc without a STUN server, but it requires exchanging a chunk of ugly metadata with another person.
I've been wondering whether IPFS might be a good answer to that - there is this, which supposedly works in the browser. https://github.com/ipfs/js-ipfs
Dump webrtc metadata onto ipfs, give the user the hash back as a "document key" (and maybe a password that was used to encrypt the webrtc metadata) to share with other people; they paste in the key, enter password, and tada, you have a multi user application backed by localstorage.
Of course this wouldn't survive a user changing IP (and perhaps other network attributes) but that might be an OK feature.
In Don't rely on LocalStorageAs the SQLite file is being downloaded vie IPFS it wouldn’t be a HTTP Range request. Does IPFS have the equivalent?
(My guess would be yes as I believe it breaks up the file for distribution, but have no idea if it’s exposed in the IPFS.js api)
EDIT:
After a quick scan of the docs, I think you can do this (but I certainly don't know enough). With at least the "The Mutable Files API" which "is a virtual file system on top of IPFS that exposes a Unix like API", you can provide an `offset` and `length` to `ipfs.files.read(path, [options])`. I don't know if that then translates to only downloading that part of the file from IPFS or not.
https://github.com/ipfs/js-ipfs/blob/master/docs/core-api/FI...
EDIT2:
In fact the `ipfs.cat` api that the OP is using takes `offset` and `length` parameters too.
https://github.com/ipfs/js-ipfs/blob/master/do
Read the rest
Hosting:
I'm fairly sure many streaming solutions (HLS, MPEG-DASH?) work by having the client request chunks of content pre-rendered at specific bit rates. Ergo the actual chunks are static content.
IPFS does static content and Cloudflare does a free IPFS gateway.
https://blog.cloudflare.com/distributed-web-gateway/
https://github.com/ipfs/js-ipfs/blob/master/examples/browser...
Recoding seems like a candidate for distributed computing, and a way for fans to support creators.
In “A company is copyright-claiming every video I have ever made”I have written a quick proof-of-concept decentralised image host(ing solution) using IPFS' in-browser implementation[0].
It is, as you might guess, not as friction-free as one would expect from other traditional services (e.g. Imgur) but I found it surprisingly easy to develop and to use it. Check the repo I've linked and give deima a try yourself! https://boramalper.github.io/deima/image/#QmW8j8Dhhh3mhedGi2...
It's getting quite late here (2:43 AM) but I would happily respond to your questions & comments in the morning.
[0]: https://github.com/ipfs/js-ipfs
In Show HN: Deima – Decentralised Image Hosting Using IPFS> On a semi-related note, I don't know if torrents are successful outside of piracy.
Regardless of the cause, they've been successful don't they? :)
I think partially it was because you had to download a separate piece of software -a BitTorrent client- to utilise the network. This is also changing thanks to WebTorrent[0] and IPFS.js[1] which works right in our web browsers without even requiring an add-on! They enable initiatives such as PeerTube[2] -a decentralised video-hosting platform- and distributed (NoSQL) databases such as OrbitDB[3].
Convenience is the key and huge advancements have been made in that direction!
[0]: https://github.com/webtorrent/webtorrent
[1]: https://github.com/ipfs/js-ipfs
[2]: https://joinpeertube.org/en/
[3]: https://github.com/orbitdb/orbit-db
In “In 2018 the blockchain/decentralization story fell apart”So, the article is coming slowly or not coming at all because two of the four bootstrappers are timing out and, if you're unlucky enough to hit one of them, it might take minutes to replicate the article content. Bug has been reported to the js-ipfs guys and a pull request has been merged: https://github.com/ipfs/js-ipfs/pull/1693
That was instructive and I'm glad the experience has resulted in people getting interested, questions being asked and bugs being fixed. Sorry if it didn't work perfectly, distributed stuff is hard. I don't understand the flagging but hey, HN will be HN, I guess :)
I will fix the issue in the next days and will keep on developing Vitriol. Obviously any help is appreciated. Thanks to everyone for your comments!
In Show HN: Vitriol – a distributed, serverless web publishing platformAbout the intro article not coming up
Sometimes the bootstrapping server seem to be overwhelmed. I suspect HN's "hug of death" could be possibly responsible. This will be resolved when js-ipfs implements DHT and relay:
> Please read this: DHT (automatic content discovery) and Circuit Relay (pierce through NATs and dial between any node in the network) are two fundamental pieces that are not finalized yet. There are multiple applications that can be built without these two services but nevertheless they are fundamental to get that magic IPFS experience. If you want to track progress or contribute, please follow:
DHT: https://github.com/ipfs/js-ipfs/pull/856
Relay: https://github.com/ipfs/js-ipfs/pull/1063
This stuff is alpha at this point, and sometimes there are still fires to extinguish.
Sorry about the inconvenience, I suggest to try
Read the rest
again later :(
> In regards to using a DHT, that's something I have not researched. I am not sure how long an offer is valid, were you thinking of being able to update them as needed whenever you want to establish a connection?
Yes. I have toyed with js-libp2p to obtain "providers" based on a key, but I believe the part of js-libp2p that allows you to participate in the DHT isn't quite done [0]. I imagine you'd make a CID that would be a simple hash of some shared string. Then you'd tell the network you are a "provider" with that CID, and when requested, you give the offer (AES'd w/ shared string or other shared secret?). The client can just connect to the same DHT and give the hash and get the (encrypted?) offer. Not sure if IPFS has a way for me to prevent other people from serving/replicating the CID I am serving instead of forcing it to be a hash of
Read the rest
the content. A similar approach can happen on BT mainline w/ an infohash maybe.
0 - https://github.com/ipfs/js-ipfs/pull/856
I built this mainly because I was feeling the pain while implementing a website for a customer that is allowing their users to upload and stream files in the browser.
As the file upload should accept any kind of input, but the streaming only allows for certain files to be played back in the browser I researched different codecs that are available on the web for streaming and came across: https://github.com/ipfs/js-ipfs/tree/master/examples/browser...
I though, why not make this a SaaS.
In Show HN: A website that converts any IPFS file to HLS and reups it to IPFSI just came back from a run and the website was down. Sorry. It's up again.
Utility: https://github.com/ipfs/js-ipfs/tree/master/examples/browser...
In Show HN: A website that converts any IPFS file to HLS and reups it to IPFSShowing the 15 most recent of 39 sources. Enable JavaScript to search and browse every indexed mention.