# DFOS Protocol

> DFOS is an open protocol for identities, signed records, and delegated permissions that any compatible application can verify for itself.
> Identity derives from Ed25519 signed operations, and an identifier derives from its genesis operation. Proofs verify offline, in any language, from any copy. Content chains reference documents by hash. The protocol does not encrypt, and whoever serves a document can read it. Which view of an identity you follow is a choice of relay.

## About

- [Why](https://protocol.dfos.com/overview): Why the protocol exists — verifiability without publication, identity continuity, delegated permissions, and where the guarantee stops
- [FAQ](https://protocol.dfos.com/faq): Common questions about the protocol, its design, and how it compares to alternatives

## Specifications

- [Protocol Specification](https://protocol.dfos.com/spec): Core protocol — identity chains, content chains, services discovery vocabulary, credentials, countersignatures, verification rules, and test vectors
- [DID Method](https://protocol.dfos.com/did-method): W3C DID method specification for did:dfos
- [Credentials](https://protocol.dfos.com/credentials): Authorization credentials, delegation chains, and revocation
- [Content Model](https://protocol.dfos.com/content-model): Standard JSON Schema content types (post, profile)
- [Relay](https://protocol.dfos.com/relay): The relay HTTP surface — the read contract and its routes, the write contract and its ingestion rules, the index / signing-mailbox / peering profiles, and the content plane
- [Integrations](https://protocol.dfos.com/integrations): Integrating with DFOS — sign in (SIWD), proof-of-possession API authentication, bidirectional origin binding, and the key-possession ceremony surface
- [Guarantees](https://protocol.dfos.com/guarantees): What holds without trusting a server, what is a chosen view of an identity, what a relay operator can do and see, the adversaries this design does not cover, and the executable conformance definition

## Implementation

- [CLI](https://protocol.dfos.com/cli): Go command-line interface for managing identities, signing operations, and interacting with relays
- [Deploy](https://protocol.dfos.com/deploy): Run a relay with Docker Compose, Caddy auto-TLS, peering, and container images
- [Agent Skill](https://protocol.dfos.com/skill): Drive the DFOS CLI from a coding agent — install into Claude Code or any agent (plugin, npx skills, or the embedded `dfos skill` command)

## Full Content

- [llms-full.txt](https://protocol.dfos.com/llms-full.txt): Complete markdown dump — all specifications, overview, and FAQ as plain text

## Related

- [Content Schemas](https://schemas.dfos.com): Hosted JSON Schema definitions
- [npm Package](https://www.npmjs.com/package/@metalabel/dfos-protocol): @metalabel/dfos-protocol
- [GitHub](https://github.com/metalabel/dfos): Source code
- [DFOS](https://dfos.com): The platform