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93bd790
Propose custom IDL for Waku API definition
fryorcraken Jun 17, 2025
e013c15
add language translation
fryorcraken Jun 18, 2025
adaba54
typos and types
fryorcraken Jun 24, 2025
d5c688a
set default value
fryorcraken Jun 24, 2025
95ebcd9
Reducing prescription re language mapping
fryorcraken Jun 24, 2025
25984c0
Remove shard relay subscription for init config
fryorcraken Jun 30, 2025
73354fd
Only specify nim and TS naming convention
fryorcraken Jun 30, 2025
2096211
remove extra
fryorcraken Jun 30, 2025
b20f5fd
rename RFC
fryorcraken Jun 30, 2025
4ca0e08
rework structure, include feedback
fryorcraken Jun 30, 2025
6289f91
wip
fryorcraken Jul 21, 2025
e92d2f8
Change `init` to `create`
fryorcraken Aug 5, 2025
1e312bc
update sharding defaults from previous discussions
fryorcraken Aug 5, 2025
6a37950
user snake case for field names
fryorcraken Aug 5, 2025
bebbe8b
Add message validation
fryorcraken Aug 6, 2025
872115a
Apply suggestion from @chaitanyaprem
fryorcraken Sep 9, 2025
1ec7527
rename function to `createNode`
fryorcraken Sep 9, 2025
f1225e1
Add web3 RPC API URLs
fryorcraken Sep 9, 2025
b2b81b4
remove multiaddr type
fryorcraken Sep 10, 2025
f68707e
default network message validation
fryorcraken Sep 10, 2025
cf84d3d
Move eth rpc endpoints to top
fryorcraken Sep 10, 2025
a3c37c1
if a default is possible it means values are optional
fryorcraken Sep 10, 2025
0004fff
if a default is possible it means values are optional
fryorcraken Sep 10, 2025
6c01164
only auto sharding, remove mix up on option
fryorcraken Sep 11, 2025
4045000
use "waku config"
fryorcraken Sep 12, 2025
f834dc4
by default no static store nodes are passed
fryorcraken Sep 12, 2025
5bb37c2
update networking section
fryorcraken Sep 15, 2025
a0700f0
results may return void
fryorcraken Sep 25, 2025
6de55db
change confirmation to store/filter
fryorcraken Sep 25, 2025
036fe61
change to seed nodes
fryorcraken Sep 25, 2025
4ab8821
change address to ipv4
fryorcraken Sep 25, 2025
fa5bf8c
finish sentence
fryorcraken Sep 25, 2025
9d5191f
static store default value
fryorcraken Sep 25, 2025
616306e
Mention trait approach for ETH RPC
fryorcraken Sep 25, 2025
388c257
add toc
fryorcraken Sep 25, 2025
ad4fb96
prefer `entry_nodes`
fryorcraken Sep 26, 2025
0c64eaa
integrate feedback
fryorcraken Sep 26, 2025
82181bf
fix inconsistencies
fryorcraken Sep 26, 2025
09e3ade
clarify scope
fryorcraken Sep 26, 2025
34b9443
raw spec
fryorcraken Sep 26, 2025
214ee73
note on errors
fryorcraken Sep 26, 2025
7748d6a
add metadata
fryorcraken Sep 26, 2025
b9454e3
change "relay" to "sovereign"
fryorcraken Sep 26, 2025
6a421f5
change "sovereign" to "core"
fryorcraken Sep 26, 2025
5cd0080
remove message confirmation
fryorcraken Sep 29, 2025
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322 changes: 322 additions & 0 deletions standards/application/waku-api.md
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---
title: WAKU-API
name: Waku API definition
category: Standards Track
status: raw
tags: [reliability, application, api, protocol composition]
editor: Oleksandr Kozlov <oleksandr@status.im>
contributors:
- Oleksandr Kozlov <oleksandr@status.im>
- Prem Chaitanya Prathi <prem@status.im>
- Franck Royer <franck@status.im>
---

## Table of contents

<!-- TOC -->
* [Table of contents](#table-of-contents)
* [Abstract](#abstract)
* [Motivation](#motivation)
* [Syntax](#syntax)
* [API design](#api-design)
* [IDL](#idl)
* [Primitive types and general guidelines](#primitive-types-and-general-guidelines)
* [Language mappings](#language-mappings)
* [Application](#application)
* [The Waku API](#the-waku-api)
* [Initialise Waku node](#initialise-waku-node)
* [Type definitions](#type-definitions)
* [Function definitions](#function-definitions)
* [Predefined values](#predefined-values)
* [Extended definitions](#extended-definitions)
* [The Validation API](#the-validation-api)
* [Security/Privacy Considerations](#securityprivacy-considerations)
* [Copyright](#copyright)
<!-- TOC -->

## Abstract

This document specifies an Application Programming Interface (API) that is RECOMMENDED for developers of the [WAKU2](https://github.com/vacp2p/rfc-index/blob/7b443c1aab627894e3f22f5adfbb93f4c4eac4f6/waku/standards/core/10/waku2.md) clients to implement,
and for consumers to use as a single entry point to its functionalities.

This API defines the RECOMMENDED interface for leveraging Waku protocols to send and receive messages.
Application developers SHOULD use it to access capabilities for peer discovery, message routing, and peer-to-peer reliability.

TODO: This spec must be further extended to include connection health inspection, message sending, subscription and store hash queries.

## Motivation

The accessibility of Waku protocols is capped by the accessibility of their implementations, and hence API.
This RFC enables a concerted effort to draft an API that is simple and accessible, and provides an opinion on sane defaults.

The API defined in this document is an opinionated-by-purpose method to use the more agnostic [WAKU2](https://github.com/vacp2p/rfc-index/blob/main/waku/standards/core/10/waku2.md) protocols.

## Syntax

The keywords “MUST”, “MUST NOT”, “REQUIRED”, “SHALL”, “SHALL NOT”, “SHOULD”, “SHOULD NOT”,
“RECOMMENDED”, “MAY”, and “OPTIONAL” in this document are to be interpreted as described in [RFC2119](https://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2119.txt).

## API design

### IDL

A custom Interface Definition Language (IDL) in YAML is used to define the Waku API.
Existing IDL Such as OpenAPI, AsyncAPI or WIT do not exactly fit the requirements for this API.
Hence, instead of having the reader learn a new IDL, we propose to use a simple IDL with self-describing syntax.

An alternative would be to choose a programming language. However, such choice may express unintended opinions on the API.

### Primitive types and general guidelines

- No `default` means that the value is mandatory, meaning a `default` value implies an optional parameter.
- Primitive types are `string`, `int`, `bool`, `enum` and `uint`
- Complex pre-defined types are:
- `object`: object and other nested types.
- `array`: iterable object containing values of all the same type.
- `result`: an enum type that either contains a value or void (success), or an error (failure); The error is left to the implementor.
- `error`: Left to the implementor on whether `error` types are `string` or `object` in the given language.
- Usage of `result` is RECOMMENDED, usage of exceptions is NOT RECOMMENDED, no matter the language.

TODO: Review whether to specify categories of errors.

### Language mappings

How the API definition should be translated to specific languages.

```yaml
language_mappings:
typescript:
naming_convention:
- functions: "camelCase"
- variables: "camelCase"
- types: "PascalCase"
nim:
naming_convention:
- functions: "camelCase"
- variables: "camelCase"
- types: "PascalCase"
```

### Application

This API is designed for generic use and ease across all programming languages, for `edge` and `core` type nodes.

## The Waku API

```yaml
api_version: "0.0.1"
library_name: "waku"
description: "Waku: a private and censorship-resistant message routing library."
```

### Initialise Waku node

#### Type definitions

```yaml
types:
WakuNode:
type: object
description: "A Waku node instance."

NodeConfig:
type: object
fields:
mode:
type: string
constraints: [ "edge", "core" ]
default: "core" # "edge" for mobile and browser devices.
description: "The mode of operation of the Waku node; 'edge' of the network: relies on other nodes for message routing; 'core' of the network: fully participate to message routing."
waku_config:
type: WakuConfig
default: TheWakuNetworkPreset
networking_config:
type: NetworkConfig
default: DefaultNetworkingConfig
eth_rpc_endpoints:
type: array<string>
description: "Eth/Web3 RPC endpoint URLs, only required when RLN is used for message validation; fail-over available by passing multiple URLs. Accepting an object for ETH RPC will be added at a later stage."

WakuConfig:
type: object
fields:
entry_nodes:
type: array<string>
default: []
description: "Nodes to connect to; used for discovery bootstrapping and quick connectivity. enrtree and multiaddr formats are accepted. If not provided, node does not bootstrap to the network (local dev)."
static_store_nodes:
type: array<string>
default: []
# TODO: confirm behaviour at implementation time.
description: "The passed nodes are prioritised for store queries."
cluster_id:
type: uint
auto_sharding_config:
type: AutoShardingConfig
default: DefaultAutoShardingConfig
description: "The auto-sharding config, if sharding mode is `auto`"
message_validation:
type: MessageValidation
description: "If the default config for TWN is not used, then we still provide default configuration for message validation."
default: DefaultMessageValidation

NetworkingConfig:
type: object
fields:
listen_ipv4:
type: string
default: "0.0.0.0"
description: "The network IP address on which libp2p and discv5 listen for inbound connections. Not applicable for some environments such as the browser."
p2p_tcp_port:
type: uint
default: 60000
description: "The TCP port used for libp2p, relay, etc aka, general p2p message routing. Not applicable for some environments such as the browser."
discv5_udp_port:
type: uint
default: 9000
description: "The UDP port used for discv5. Not applicable for some environments such as the browser."

AutoShardingConfig:
type: object
fields:
num_shards_in_cluster:
type: uint
description: "The number of shards in the configured cluster; this is a globally agreed value for each cluster."

MessageValidation:
type: object
fields:
max_message_size:
type: string
default: "150 KiB"
description: "Maximum message size. Accepted units: KiB, KB, and B. e.g. 1024KiB; 1500 B; etc."
# For now, RLN is the only message validation available
rln_config:
type: RlnConfig
# If the default config for TWN is not used, then we do not apply RLN
default: none

RlnConfig:
type: object
fields:
contract_address:
type: string
description: "The address of the RLN contract exposes `root` and `getMerkleRoot` ABIs"
chain_id:
type: uint
description: "The chain id on which the RLN contract is deployed"
epoch_size_sec:
type: uint
description: "The epoch size to use for RLN, in seconds"
```

#### Function definitions

```yaml
functions:
createNode:
description: "Initialise a Waku node instance"
parameters:
- name: nodeConfig
type: NodeConfig
description: "The Waku node configuration."
returns:
type: result<WakuNode, error>
```

#### Predefined values

```yaml
values:

DefaultNetworkingConfig:
type: NetworkConfig
fields:
listen_ipv4: "0.0.0.0"
p2p_tcp_port: 60000
discv5_udp_port: 9000

TheWakuNetworkPreset:
type: WakuConfig
fields:
entry_nodes: [ "enrtree://AIRVQ5DDA4FFWLRBCHJWUWOO6X6S4ZTZ5B667LQ6AJU6PEYDLRD5O@sandbox.waku.nodes.status.im" ]
# On TWN, we encourage the usage of discovered store nodes
static_store_nodes: []
cluster_id: 1
auto_sharding_config:
fields:
num_shards_in_cluster: 8
message_validation: TheWakuNetworkMessageValidation

TheWakuNetworkMessageValidation:
type: MessageValidation
fields:
max_message_size: "150 KiB"
rln_config:
fields:
contract_address: "0xB9cd878C90E49F797B4431fBF4fb333108CB90e6"
chain_id: 59141
epoch_size_sec: 600 # 10 minutes

# If not preset is used, autosharding on one cluster is applied by default
# This is a safe default that abstract shards (content topic shard derivation), and it enables scaling at a later stage
DefaultAutoShardingConfig:
type: AutoShardingConfig
fields:
num_shards_in_cluster: 1

# If no preset is used, we only apply a max size limit to messages
DefaultMessageValidation:
type: MessageValidation
fields:
max_message_size: "150 KiB"
rln_config: none
```

#### Extended definitions

**`mode`**:

If the `mode` set is `edge`, the initialised `WakuNode` SHOULD use:

- [LIGHTPUSH](https://github.com/vacp2p/rfc-index/blob/main/waku/standards/core/19/lightpush.md) as client
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Metadata should be loaded too.

- [FILTER](https://github.com/vacp2p/rfc-index/blob/main/waku/standards/core/12/filter.md) as client
- [STORE](https://github.com/vacp2p/rfc-index/blob/main/waku/standards/core/13/store.md) as client
- [METADATA](https://github.com/vacp2p/rfc-index/blob/main/waku/standards/core/66/metadata.md) as client
- [PEER-EXCHANGE](https://github.com/vacp2p/rfc-index/blob/main/waku/standards/core/34/peer-exchange.md) as client
- [P2P-RELIABILITY](/standards/application/p2p-reliability.md)

If the `mode` set is `core`, the initialised `WakuNode` SHOULD use:

- [RELAY](https://github.com/vacp2p/rfc-index/blob/main/waku/standards/core/11/relay.md)
- [LIGHTPUSH](https://github.com/vacp2p/rfc-index/blob/main/waku/standards/core/19/lightpush.md) as service node
- [FILTER](https://github.com/vacp2p/rfc-index/blob/main/waku/standards/core/12/filter.md) as service node
- [PEER-EXCHANGE](https://github.com/vacp2p/rfc-index/blob/main/waku/standards/core/34/peer-exchange.md) as service node
- [STORE](https://github.com/vacp2p/rfc-index/blob/main/waku/standards/core/13/store.md) as client
- [METADATA](https://github.com/vacp2p/rfc-index/blob/main/waku/standards/core/66/metadata.md) as client and service node
- [P2P-RELIABILITY](/standards/application/p2p-reliability.md)
- [DISCV5](https://github.com/vacp2p/rfc-index/blob/main/waku/standards/core/33/discv5.md)
- [PEER-EXCHANGE](https://github.com/vacp2p/rfc-index/blob/main/waku/standards/core/34/peer-exchange.md) as client and service node
- [RENDEZVOUS](https://github.com/waku-org/specs/blob/master/standards/core/rendezvous.md) as client and service node

`edge` mode SHOULD be used if node functions in resource restricted environment,
whereas `core` SHOULD be used if node has no strong hardware or bandwidth restrictions.

## The Validation API

[WAKU2-RLN-RELAY](https://github.com/vacp2p/rfc-index/blob/main/waku/standards/core/17/rln-relay.md) is currently the primary message validation mechanism in place.

Work is scheduled to specify a validate API to enable plug-in validation.
As part of this API, it will be expected that a validation object can be passed,
that would contain all validation parameters including RLN.

In the time being, parameters specific to RLN are accepted for the message validation.
RLN can also be disabled.

## Security/Privacy Considerations

See [WAKU2-ADVERSARIAL-MODELS](https://github.com/waku-org/specs/blob/master/informational/adversarial-models.md).

## Copyright

Copyright and related rights waived via [CC0](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/).
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