Glossary
Terms used throughout the Nodus documentation.
Account — the root identity that owns files, devices, nodes, and keys.
BLAKE3 — the hash used for shard integrity, computed over ciphertext.
Conflicted copy — the preserved sibling produced when two devices edit the same file offline.
Device — a browser or phone client, identified by an Ed25519 key. Holds a signing identity and an X25519 encryption identity.
Envelope — a file encryption key sealed to a specific recipient (device, node, or recovery key). The Relay stores envelopes but cannot open them.
FEK (File Encryption Key) — the per-file key used to encrypt that file's shards.
mDNS — multicast DNS service discovery, used to find Storage Nodes on the
LAN (_nodus._tcp).
Node / Storage Node — the Rust daemon that durably stores encrypted shards.
Node ID — the hex-encoded Ed25519 public key that identifies a Storage Node.
Path A / B / C / D — the four transfer paths: local P2P, relay signaling, relay buffer, and local queue.
Recovery key / phrase — the 24-word BIP39 phrase (and its derived key) that recovers an account when trusted devices are lost.
Relay — the Go service that provides auth, signaling, sync, and a temporary encrypted buffer.
Shard — a fixed-size encrypted chunk of a file (default 8 MB).
Snapshot — a full serialized copy of a node's state, used to rebuild a lost Relay database.
Tombstone — the record that marks an entity as deleted so the delete converges, until it is purged or restored.
Transfer path — the concrete route a shard takes between a client and a node.