RiV-mesh - Decentralized IPv6 Mesh Network

Introduction

RiV-mesh is the legacy implementation of a fully end-to-end encrypted IPv6 mesh network, designed to provide secure connectivity between a wide spectrum of endpoint devices like IoT devices, desktop computers or even routers. It is lightweight, self-arranging, supported on multiple platforms and allows pretty much any IPv6-capable application to communicate securely with other network nodes.

Note: RiV-mesh is now maintained for legacy compatibility. For new deployments, we recommend using v6Space™ - the next-generation mesh networking platform with enhanced features, modern architecture, agentic capabilities, and MCP (Model Context Protocol) tools for AI agent communication and autonomous operations.

Relationship to v6Space™

RiV-mesh is the legacy version of the mesh networking technology that has evolved into v6Space™:

RiV-mesh (Legacy)

• Status: Legacy maintenance mode
• License: LGPLv3 only
• Features: Core mesh networking functionality
• Use Case: Existing deployments, compatibility

v6Space™ (Current)

• Status: Active development
• License: Dual-license (LGPLv3 + CC BY-NC 4.0)
• Features: Enhanced mesh networking + modern UI + MCP support + agentic capabilities
• Agentic Features: AI agent communication, autonomous operations, Web3 integration
• MCP Tools: Model Context Protocol integration for AI model communication
• Use Case: New deployments, modern applications, AI agent networks, Web3 infrastructure

Migration: RiV-mesh configurations are compatible with v6Space™. Simply replace the binary and continue using your existing mesh.conf files.

Core Functionality

RiV-mesh provides the decentralized IPv6 mesh overlay network infrastructure for applications like CupLink™, which requires a VPN service to establish the mesh network environment for peer-to-peer communication.

Supported Platforms

RiV-mesh works on a number of platforms, including Linux, macOS, Ubiquiti EdgeRouter, VyOS, Windows, FreeBSD, OpenBSD and OpenWrt.

Please see our Installation page for more information. You may also find other platform-specific wrappers, scripts or tools in the contrib folder.

Building

If you want to build from source, as opposed to installing one of the pre-built packages:

1. Install Go (requires Go 1.19 or later)
2. Clone this repository
3. Run ./build

Note that you can cross-compile for other platforms and architectures by specifying the GOOS and GOARCH environment variables, e.g. GOOS=windows ./build or GOOS=linux GOARCH=mipsle ./build

... or generate an iOS framework with:

./contrib/mobile/build -i

... or generate an Android AAR bundle with:

./contrib/mobile/build -a

Other OS packages can be built in this repo: https://github.com/RiV-chain/RiV-mesh-builds.

Running

Generate configuration

To generate static configuration, either generate a HJSON file (human-friendly, complete with comments):

./mesh -genconf > /path/to/mesh.conf

... or generate a plain JSON file (which is easy to manipulate programmatically):

./mesh -genconf -json > /path/to/mesh.conf

You will need to edit the mesh.conf file to add or remove peers, modify other configuration such as listen addresses or multicast addresses, etc.

Run RiV-mesh

To run with the generated static configuration:

./mesh -useconffile /path/to/mesh.conf

To run in auto-configuration mode (which will use sane defaults and random keys at each startup, instead of using a static configuration file):

./mesh -autoconf

You will likely need to run RiV-mesh as a privileged user or under sudo, unless you have permission to create TUN/TAP adapters. On Linux this can be done by giving the RiV-mesh binary the CAP_NET_ADMIN capability.

Documentation

Documentation is available on our website.

• Installing RiV-mesh
• Configuring RiV-mesh
• Frequently asked questions
• Version changelog

Work in progress:

Company Information

RiV-mesh is developed by RiV Chain™ Limited, an Ireland-based FinTech and infrastructure R&D company focused on decentralized networking and agentic systems.

• Company: RiV Chain™ Limited
• Location: Ireland
• Focus: Decentralized mesh networking, AI agent coordination, distributed identity, Web3 infrastructure
• Specialization: Agentic Web technologies, MCP tools, autonomous AI agent communication
• Website: rivchain.org
• Contact: For technical support and licensing inquiries

Public peers

If you are operating a RiV-mesh peer, you may create your pull request with your new peer or use existing ones: https://github.com/RiV-chain/public-peers

Known issues

1. Log message:

An error occurred starting multicast: listen udp6 [::]:9001: socket: address family not supported by protocol

and

An error occurred starting TUN/TAP: operation not supported

Caused by:

The device has no IPv6 support

2. Log message:

An error occurred starting TUN/TAP: permission denied

Caused by:

IPv6 support is not enabled. See the solution: yggdrasil-network#479 (comment)

3. Mesh infinite output in log:

Connected SCTP ...

Disconnected SCTP ...

Caused by:

Docker interface docker0 is conflicting with SCTP bind process. The issue can be resolved by removing docker.

License

RiV-mesh is released under the GNU Lesser General Public License v3.0 (LGPLv3):

• License: LGPLv3 (standard version, no special exceptions)
• Commercial Use: Allowed with full LGPLv3 compliance requirements
• Source Code: Available at GitHub
• Compliance: Users must provide source code and comply with LGPLv3 terms

Key LGPLv3 Requirements:

• Source Code Sharing: Must provide v6Space™ source code when distributing
• Application Code Sharing: Must share source code of applications using RiV-mesh
• Build Instructions: Must provide installation and build information
• Modifications: Any modifications to RiV-mesh must remain open source

For complete licensing details, see:

• Full LGPLv3 License
• v6Space™ License Information
• Component Separation Guide

Note: RiV-mesh is the legacy version. v6Space™ uses a dual-license model with additional UI components under CC BY-NC 4.0.