IPFS in Go

Boxo SDK

Boxo (opens new window) is the Go SDK for building IPFS applications and custom implementations. It provides reusable building blocks that can be composed to fit your needs.

• GitHub repository (opens new window)
• Go reference (pkg.go.dev) (opens new window)
• Examples (opens new window)

Key packages

Content retrieval and exchange:

• boxo/gateway (opens new window) -- HTTP Gateway server for serving IPFS content over HTTP
• boxo/bitswap (opens new window) -- peer-to-peer block exchange protocol
• boxo/routing (opens new window) -- content and peer routing (DHT, delegated)
• boxo/provider (opens new window) -- advertise content availability to the network

Data and storage:

• boxo/blockstore (opens new window) -- content-addressed block storage
• boxo/blockservice (opens new window) -- block retrieval combining local storage and remote exchange
• boxo/ipld/unixfs (opens new window) -- UnixFS file and directory encoding
• boxo/chunker (opens new window) -- file chunking strategies
• boxo/pinning (opens new window) -- pin management

Naming and resolution:

• boxo/path (opens new window) -- IPFS/IPNS path parsing and resolution
• boxo/ipns (opens new window) -- IPNS record creation and validation
• boxo/namesys (opens new window) -- name resolution (IPNS, DNSLink)

Network setup:

• boxo/bootstrap (opens new window) -- bootstrap peer list management
• boxo/autoconf (opens new window) -- automatic node configuration (routing, bootstrappers)

Other Go packages in the IPFS ecosystem

Name	Go Reference	Description
Libp2p
go-libp2p (opens new window)	(opens new window)	p2p networking library
go-libp2p-pubsub (opens new window)	(opens new window)	pubsub built on libp2p
go-libp2p-kad-dht (opens new window)	(opens new window)	dht-backed router
Multiformats
go-cid (opens new window)	(opens new window)	CID implementation
go-multiaddr (opens new window)	(opens new window)	multiaddr implementation
go-multihash (opens new window)	(opens new window)	multihash implementation
go-multibase (opens new window)	(opens new window)	multibase implementation
IPLD
go-block-format (opens new window)	(opens new window)	block interfaces and implementations
go-ipld-format (opens new window)	(opens new window)	IPLD interfaces
Datastores
go-datastore (opens new window)	(opens new window)	datastore interfaces, adapters, and basic implementations
go-ds-flatfs (opens new window)	(opens new window)	a filesystem-based datastore
go-ds-leveldb (opens new window)	(opens new window)	a leveldb based datastore
go-ds-pebble (opens new window)	(opens new window)	a pebble based datastore
Other
go-ipfs-cmds (opens new window)	(opens new window)	CLI & HTTP commands library
go-log (opens new window)	(opens new window)	logging framework

Kubo RPC Client

If you have a running Kubo (opens new window) node, you can control it from Go using its /api/v0 HTTP RPC endpoint. This is the same interface used by the ipfs CLI when a daemon is already running.

• Kubo RPC client (Go) (opens new window): the recommended Go client for the Kubo RPC API
• Kubo RPC API reference: full list of available RPC commands
• RPC API clients in other languages: JavaScript, Python, Java, and more

Looking for an embedded/in-process IPFS API?

If you're considering embedding Kubo directly in your Go application via its internal CoreAPI, look at using the Boxo SDK instead. Boxo provides modern, modular building blocks that replace Kubo's internal CoreAPI for most use cases.

Kubo reference docs

For more about configuring and running Kubo:

• Configuration reference (opens new window)
  • Datastore configuration (opens new window)
  • Experimental features (opens new window)
• Installing command completion (opens new window)
• Mounting IPFS with FUSE (opens new window)
• Installing plugins (opens new window)
• Performance debugging guidelines (opens new window)
• IPFS API implementation guide (opens new window)
• Connecting with Websockets (opens new window)
• Building on Windows (opens new window)
• Additional guides (opens new window)

Hands-on examples

There are use-case examples in the ipfs/kubo GitHub repository (opens new window). They're all self-contained projects that let you spin up and test environments quickly. Check them out (opens new window).

A good starting place is Use Kubo as a library to spawn a node and add a file (opens new window).