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Pier Transfer Protocol

Update

The initiative this was developed for has stalled and it's unlikely I'll be doing anything with the document for the foreseeable future. If you're interested in something like this, feel free to use/adapt/fork to your heart's content or message me on network if you wanna chat!

Yours truly,

~latter-bolden

Overview

This protocol is designed to facilitate the transfer of an Urbit pier from one system to another over the network. It should support the following use cases:

  • Transfering from one hosting provider to another
  • Transfering from Port to a hosting provider
  • Transfering from a hosting provider to a local Urbit box (e.g. Native Planet)

Terminology

  • Origin: the system where the pier is currently running
  • Target: the system where the pier is being transfered to
  • Base endpoint: Target URL at which transfers can be initiated
  • Body: the body of the request, set to MIME type application/json
  • Error message: In requests where the status is in the 400's, an error message can be set using the response body set to application/json in the field errorMessage

General Requirements

  • All requests must happen over HTTPS
  • Pier archives must be tarred and gzipped in format (tar.gz)

Protocol

The Origin system will always initiate the transfer and the proccess is as follows:

Step 1: Origin initializes the session

Origin must issue a POST request to https://{Base Endpoint} with the following parameters set in Body:

  • patp: the patp of the ship being transfered
  • pierSize: the size of the archived pier in megabytes
  • sessionId: a UUID v4 that can be used as an identifier for the session
  • checksum: a MD5 hash of the archived pier that will be uploaded

Optionally, the following field can be set:

  • webhookEndpoint: an endpoint where Target can notify Origin of successful authorization if required

If pierSize is too large for Target, it should reply with status 422 and the Error Message set to "Pier size too large". Optionally, it can return the max size accepted in megabytes using the field maxPierSize.

If Target wishes to accept the request, its response must include a state field which will be set to either requires-auth or ready. Depending on how state is set, proceed to Step 2a or Step 2 respectively.


Step 2a: Target requires authorization

If state is set to requires-auth, the following field must also be set in Body:

  • authEndpoint: the session specific URL where the user can go to authenticate.

After receiving this response, the Origin application should direct the user to the specified endpoint for authorization. In the case of a new customer to a hosting provider, this is where account creation and payment should occur.

After authorization is complete, the user should be redirected to https://{Base Endpoint}/transfer/{sessionId}/auth-complete. If webhookEndpoint was supplied in the initial request, it must be POST'ed to with the query parameter message set to auth-complete.

Origin should either detect the redirect or webhook message and issue a GET request to https://{Base Endpoint}/transfer/{sessionId}. Target should now respond with state: "ready" and Origin can proceed to Step 2.


Step 2: Target ready

If Target responds with state: "ready", the following fields must also be set in Body:

  • sessionId: the session UUID that was originally passed by Origin
  • uploadEndpoint: the URL where the pier should be uploaded to
  • supportContact: an email or phone number where Target support can be reached if there's an issue with the upload
  • expiresAt: the expiration time after which uploads will not be accepted, encoded in ISO format. It should be at least four hours and at most 24 hours after the initial request was received.

Optionally, the following fields may also be set in Body:

  • requestProxy: Specifies that Target wishes for Origin to set it as a management proxy on the Urbit ID of the pier being transfered (boolean).
  • proxyAddress: The address which target wants the management proxy to be set to.

Subsequent GET requests to https://{Base Endpoint}/transfer/{sessionId} should return this same body. After receiving these details, Origin can proceed to Step 3.


Step 3: Origin uploads pier

Origin must issue a POST request to the specified uploadEndpoint with the MIME type set to multipart/form-data. The following field must be included in the form:

  • sessionId: the session UUID that was originally passed by Origin
  • pier: the file of the archived pier to be uploaded

Optionally, the following field can be included:

  • proxySet: whether or not the managment proxy was set if requested.

If the request fails, Origin should retry two more times before giving up. If subsequent attempts fail, the supportContact can be provided to handle remediation out-of-band.


Step 4: Target confirms upload

If the upload was processed correctly, Target must confirm the checksum provided in the initial request matches the uploaded pier archive. If it doesn't match, Target should respond 400 with the Error Message set to Checksum mismatch.

If the checksums match, Target must respond with the following fields set in Body:

  • sessionId: the session UUID that was originally passed by Origin
  • state: set to completed

Subsequent GET requests to https://{Base Endpoint}/transfer/{sessionId} before the stated expiresAt time should return these fields as well. Only after Origin receives a response with state: "completed" should responsibility for the pier assumed to be transfered.

After receiving such a response, the Origin application should notify the user that the request succeeded and prevent any subsequent boots of that pier. If the pier archive is not removed from disk, it should be placed somwhere that makes clear it should not be run unless the user knows what they're doing.


Example Flow

Below is an example flow using this protocol to upload a pier from Port to Example Hosting (EH), a hosting provider. Port is aware that EH's Base Endpoint is https://example-hosting.com/pier-transfer.

Step 0:

The user indicates that they'd like to initiate a pier transfer and selects Example Hosting as the provider they want to use. Port then archives the pier and calculates its size and MD5 hash.

Step 1:

Port issues a POST request to https://example-hosting.com/pier-transfer with the following request body:

{
  "sessionId": "30b33030-e4ba-465c-9dde-7b75a34426b1",
  "patp": "~latter-bolden",
  "pierSize": 7500,
  "checksum": "670751727d10d3571169e99d7131da56"
}

EH responds:

{
  "sessionId": "30b33030-e4ba-465c-9dde-7b75a34426b1",
  "state": "requires-auth",
  "authEndpoint": "https://example-hosting.com/pier-transfer/30b33030-e4ba-465c-9dde-7b75a34426b1/sign-in"
}

Step 2:

Port opens a new window set to the provided endpoint to complete authorization. Port detects a redirect to https://example-hosting.com/transfer/30b33030-e4ba-465c-9dde-7b75a34426b1/auth-complete.

Port then issues a GET request to https://example-hosting.com/pier-transfer/transfer/30b33030-e4ba-465c-9dde-7b75a34426b1 and EH responds with:

{
  "sessionId": "30b33030-e4ba-465c-9dde-7b75a34426b1",
  "state": "ready",
  
  "uploadEndpoint": "https://example-hosting.com/upload/AJD-39CJ",
  "supportContact": "[email protected]"
  "expiresAt": "2022-12-22T05:00:00.000Z"
}

Steps 3 and 4

Port uploads the pier to https://example-hosting.com/upload/AJD-39CJ and receives a response of:

{
  "sessionId": "30b33030-e4ba-465c-9dde-7b75a34426b1",
  "state": "completed",
}

Port then notifies the user that the transfer succeeded and removes the pier from it's list of bootable ships.