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!

Nilay Nath Sharan	Lorenzo (Kei) Buitizon	Harshal Ranjhani	Abhinav Garg	Akash Goswami	Anuja Mishra
Deepam Goyal	Janmesh	Udayan Kulkarni

License

Licensed under the MIT License – see the LICENSE file for details.

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"When you live in the desert, you develop a very strong survival instinct." – Chani, Dune