Sietch Vault

Sietch creates self-contained encrypted vaults that can sync over LAN, sneakernet (USB drives), or weak WiFi networks. It operates fully offline, using chunked data, encryption, and peer-to-peer protocols to ensure your files are always protected and available—even when the internet is not.

Why Sietch?

Sietch Vault is designed for environments where:

• Internet is scarce, censored, or unreliable
• Data privacy is a necessity, not an optional feature
• People work nomadically—researchers, journalists, activists

Quick Start

Installation

git clone https://github.com/substantialcattle5/sietch.git
cd sietch
make build

Basic Usage

Create a vault

sietch init --name dune --key-type aes        # AES-256-GCM encryption
sietch init --name dune --key-type chacha20   # ChaCha20-Poly1305 encryption

Add files

# Single file
sietch add ./secrets/thumper-plans.pdf documents/

# Multiple files with individual destinations
sietch add file1.txt dest1/ file2.txt dest2/

# Multiple files to single destination
sietch add ~/photos/img1.jpg ~/photos/img2.jpg vault/photos/

Sync over LAN

sietch sync /ip4/192.168.1.42/tcp/4001/p2p/QmPeerID
# or auto-discover peers
sietch sync

Retrieve files

sietch get thumper-plans.pdf ./retrieved/

Core Features

| Feature | Description | | -------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------- | | AES256/GPG | Files are chunked and encrypted with strong symmetric/asymmetric keys | | ChaCha20 | Modern authenticated encryption with ChaCha20-Poly1305 AEAD | | Offline Sync | Rsync-style syncing over TCP or LibP2P | | Gossip Discovery | Lightweight peer discovery protocol for LAN environments | | CLI First UX | Fast, minimal CLI to manage vaults and syncs |

How It Works

Chunking & Deduplication

• Files are split into configurable chunks (default: 4MB)
• Identical chunks across files are deduplicated to save space
• Please Refer this documentation to understand how Deduplication works.

Encryption

Each chunk is encrypted before storage using:

• Symmetric: AES-256-GCM or ChaCha20-Poly1305 with passphrase
• Asymmetric: GPG-compatible public/private keypairs

Peer Discovery

Peers discover each other via:

• LAN gossip (UDP broadcast)
• Manual IP whitelisting
• QR-code sharing (coming soon)

Syncing

Inspired by rsync, Sietch only transfers:

• Missing chunks
• Changed metadata
• Over encrypted TCP connections with optional compression

Available Commands

Core Operations

sietch init [flags]                    # Initialize a new vault
sietch add <source> <destination> [args...]  # Add files to vault (multiple file support)
sietch get <filename> <output-path>    # Retrieve files from vault
sietch ls [path]                       # List vault contents
sietch delete <filename>               # Delete files from vault

Network Operations

sietch discover [flags]                # Discover peers on local network
sietch sync [peer-address]             # Sync with other vaults
sietch sneak [flags]                   # Transfer via sneakernet (USB)

Management

sietch dedup stats                     # Show deduplication statistics
sietch dedup gc                        # Run garbage collection
sietch dedup optimize                  # Optimize storage
sietch scaffold [flags]                # Create vault from template

Advanced Usage

View vault contents

sietch ls                              # List all files
sietch ls docs/                        # List files in specific directory
sietch ls --long                       # Show detailed information

Network synchronization

sietch discover                        # Find peers automatically
sietch sync                            # Auto-discover and sync
sietch sync /ip4/192.168.1.5/tcp/4001/p2p/QmPeerID  # Sync with specific peer

Sneakernet transfer

sietch sneak                           # Interactive mode
sietch sneak --source /media/usb/vault # Transfer from USB vault
sietch sneak --dry-run --source /backup/vault  # Preview transfer

Deduplication management

sietch dedup stats                     # Show statistics
sietch dedup gc                        # Clean unreferenced chunks
sietch dedup optimize                  # Optimize storage layout

Planned Features (Not Yet Implemented)

The following features are planned for future releases:

# Recovery operations (planned)
sietch recover --from .backup
sietch recover --from-remote peer-id
sietch recover --rebuild-metadata
sietch recover --verify-hashes

# Standalone decryption (planned)
sietch decrypt <file> <output>

# Direct manifest access (planned)
sietch manifest

Development

Prerequisites

• Go 1.23+ – Download
• Git – Version control

Quick Development Setup

1. Clone and setup

   git clone https://github.com/substantialcattle5/sietch.git
   cd sietch
   ./scripts/setup-hooks.sh
   

2. Verify installation

   make check-versions
   make build
   make test
   

Available Commands

make help            # List all commands
make dev             # Format, test, build
make check           # Full quality checks
make test-coverage   # Run tests with coverage
make security-audit  # Security checks

For detailed development guidelines, see CONTRIBUTING.md.

Contributing

We welcome contributions of all kinds! Whether you're fixing bugs, adding features, improving documentation, or enhancing UX.

Quick contribution steps:

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch: git checkout -b feature/stillsuit
3. Make your changes following our style guidelines
4. Commit using conventional commits
5. Push and open a Pull Request

See our Contributing Guide for detailed information about:

• Development environment setup
• Code style guidelines
• Testing requirements
• Review process

Inspiration & Credits

Sietch draws inspiration from:

• Syncthing - Decentralized file synchronization
• IPFS - Content-addressed storage
• Obsidian Sync - Seamless cross-device syncing

Built with ❤️ in Go by the open source community.

Contributors

Thanks to all our amazing contributors!

<!-- readme: contributors -start --> <table> <tbody> <tr> <td align="center"> <a href="https://github.com/S4tvara"> <img src="https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/92233871?v=4" width="100;" alt="S4tvara"/> <br /> _{<b>Nilay Nath Sharan</b>} </a> </td> <td align="center"> <a href="https://github.com/MrKeiKun"> <img src="https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/4362134?v=4" width="100;" alt="MrKeiKun"/> <br /> _{<b>Lorenzo (Kei) Buitizon</b>} </a> </td> <td align="center"> <a href="https://github.com/harshalranjhani"> <img src="https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/94748669?v=4" width="100;" alt="harshalranjhani"/> <br /> _{<b>Harshal Ranjhani</b>} </a> </td> <td align="center"> <a href="https://github.com/ABHINAVGARG05"> <img src="https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/143117260?v=4" width="100;" alt="ABHINAVGARG05"/> <br /> _{<b>Abhinav Garg</b>} </a> </td> <td align="center"> <a href="https://github.com/Janmesh23"> <img src="https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/183159485?v=4" width="100;" alt="Janmesh23"/> <br /> _{<b>Janmesh </b>} </a> </td> <td align="center"> <a href="https://github.com/Akash29g"> <img src="https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/77738997?v=4" width="100;" alt="Akash29g"/> <br /> _{<b>Akash Goswami</b>} </a> </td> </tr> <tr> <td align="center"> <a href="https://github.com/anuja12mishra"> <img src="https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/109236275?v=4" width="100;" alt="anuja12mishra"/> <br /> _{<b>Anuja Mishra</b>} </a> </t