Half of the IPFS Web Browsers & GUI Working Group
Our goal is to facilitate native support for IPFS and other decentralized protocols in web browsers in order to benefit ....
- Browser users: Browser extensions and native-included IPFS alike expose IPFS features in a robust and intuitive way
- Web developers: Web developers can enjoy a smooth experience working with IPFS in browser contexts
- Browser vendors: Browser developers are empowered to meet the requirements of the distributed web
IPFS Companion is a browser extension that simplifies access to IPFS resources and adds browser support for the IPFS protocol. It runs in 
| Firefox / Firefox for Android |
Chrome / Brave |
|---|---|
- Mozilla hosted a community effort called
libdwebto implement experimental APIs for Firefox WebExtensions, with a goal of enabling dweb protocols in Firefox through browser add-ons:- IPFS libdweb experiments, including a native protocol handler, local DNS-SD discovery and TCP transport
- The long-term goal of this project was to integrate these APIs into the WebExtensions ecosystem, but as of Q3 2020 it is not yet in Firefox Nightly
- Exposing the IPFS API via
window.ipfs(experiment ended in 2020) - Support for
chrome.sockets.*APIs in Chromium browsers (deprioritized due to EOL 2022)
At present, in order to run IPFS in a web browser, you must either bundle js-ipfs (a full IPFS node in JavaScript) with your client-side application, or use the js-ipfs-http-client HTTP API client library to connect to an external daemon running on a local or remote machine.
- To learn more, make sure to check the
browser-*examples atjs-ipfs/examples- Highlight: an advanced, end-to-end example of using js-ipfs node in
SharedWorkerfromServiceWorkercan be found atipfs/js-ipfs/examples/browser-service-worker
- Highlight: an advanced, end-to-end example of using js-ipfs node in
The standalone IPFS daemon (either go-ipfs or js-ipfs in Node) exposes the API at /api/v0/. It is an RPC-style API over HTTP POST.
- For regular users, see this guide to how to address IPFS content paths on the web
- For browser vendors and user agent developers, see this memo for the current set of URL conventions for the IPFS community; we invite everyone to submit questions and suggestions for improvements via issues/PRs
DNSLink enables you to map a domain name to an IPFS address by means of a DNS TXT record.
- Read the DNSLink guide for details, including how to set it up on your own website
- See details on DNSLink in IPFS Companion to see additional benefits of using IPFS Companion with DNSLink support
In 2020 IPFS and Igalia started a collaboration that will continue during 2021.
Read more: https://blog.ipfs.io/2021-01-15-ipfs-and-igalia-collaborate-on-dweb-in-browsers/
The most notable highlights at the beginning of 2021:
- IPFS and Igalia started a collaboration that will continue during 2021.
- Distributed web schemes have been safelisted in Chrome 86’s implementation of custom handlers and registered at IANA.
- Chrome 89 will allow browser extensions to register cross-origin handlers or handlers for schemes with prefix
ext+. Refinement is pending for the permission UI. - Firefox 84 marks
http://*.localhost/URLs as secure context, which means websites loaded from local subdomain gateway will have access to the same Web APIs as HTTPS version. - Firefox 84 has improved support for loading locally delivered mixed-resources. Patches have also been submitted to WebKit but are pending on reviews and discussions.
- Work is in progress to improve Chromium’s consistency and specification compliance regarding the notion of secure contexts, including removing non-standard localhost names.
- Miscellaneous other fixes have landed for the Firefox and Chromium’s implementations of custom handlers.
Brave v1.19 has integrated IPFS into their desktop web browser for Windows, macOS and Linux. When Brave detects an address which is an HTTP gateway URL to IPFS content or a native IPFS address such as ipfs:// or ipns:// it will prompt the user to install and enable the native IPFS node, or to use an HTTP gateway.
Diagnostic UI can be found at brave://ipfs, we suggest enabling IPFS Companion for the best experience
TLDR integration status:
- Initial release (v1.19) is focused on daemon orchestration and on URI support (read blogs and press)
- Demo: Opening
ipfs://{cid}will trigger install prompt for go-ipfs managed by Brave itself. - For the best experience enable IPFS Companion and switch it to IPFS Node Type "Provided by Brave". When Companion is enabled all IPFS resources will be resolved by the local node.
Opera for Android 57 introduced support for resolving ipfs:// or ipns:// via a customizable gateway.
Read more: https://blog.ipfs.io/2020-03-30-ipfs-in-opera-for-android/
The IPFS core team has re-activated the Web Browsers & GUI Working Group as a combined team of this group and the IPFS GUI group. This larger working group operates with a focus on furthering browser adoption and integration, as well as improving the functionality and usability of our GUI-based tools as a whole, with a particular focus on benefiting the onboarding of new IPFS developers and users.
We'd love to meet you in person at one of our open Web Browsers & GUI Working Group meetings. They're a great way to get quickly up to speed on our work, including latest developments and awesome demos.
- Meeting details at ipfs/team-mgmt#790
You can also explore recordings and notes from past meetings any time.
Contributions to our work are more than welcome! Every IPFS Project repo makes use of the project-wide global issue labeling scheme. Good labels to look for are ...
help wantedgood first issue- and there are even occasional
bountylabels for issues with rewards as part of the IPFS Bounty Board!
If you see an issue that catches your eye, leave a comment so we know you're interested, and we'll go from there!
We're an open project and a friendly group, so please be nice and read the contributing guidelines when you're ready to jump in.
We do hang out on IRC — see the #ipfs and #ipfs-in-web-browsers channels on irc.freenode.net — but for the sake of async communication, archiving, and searchability, we encourage discussions to happen in the context of GitHub issue comments whenever practical.
If you're looking for endeavors related to IPFS browser integration work, these resources may be helpful.
- IPFS Companion: Harness the power of your local or
js-ipfsnode directly inside your favorite Chromium or Firefox browser, enabling support for ipfs:// addresses, automatic IPFS gateway loading of websites and file paths, easy IPFS file import and sharing, and more - IPFS Web UI: The IPFS dashboard shipped with the IPFS daemon or IPFS Desktop
- js-ipfs: IPFS implementation in JavaScript
- HTTP API documentation: Guide to the HTTP API exposed when an IPFS node (
go-ipfsorjs-ipfs) is running as a daemon; allows you to control the node and run the same commands you can from the command line- js-ipfs-http-client: Client library for the IPFS HTTP API implemented in JavaScript
- IPFS GUI group - The other half of the IPFS Web Browsers & GUI Working Group, dedicated to creating and implementing standards and patterns for IPFS that are simple, accessible, reusable, and beautiful