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Port the README rewrite the split raced past

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The third of three: this README was rewritten upstream after the split was cut,
so the standalone repository still opened with 'Nothing here is an app yet'
above the finished app - the exact staleness the rewrite existed to fix.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
This commit is contained in:
Paul Hitt
2026-08-28 09:27:09 -04:00
co-authored by Claude Opus 5
parent d6beeafa2a
commit 6a26668d72
1 changed files with 46 additions and 42 deletions
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README.md
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# Flamenet Messenger — Android
Nothing here is an app yet. This is the engine, and it is deliberately first.
The Android app, and the two libraries under it.
An Android client needs the protocol implemented a third time. That third
```
engine/ the protocol: X3DH, Double Ratchet, sealed sender, safety numbers,
key transparency. Plain Kotlin/JVM — no Android in it at all.
client/ the relay transport: HTTP, auth, the §8 routes.
app/ the Compose app.
interop/ the cross-engine driver; not shipped.
```
`engine` and `client` are deliberately plain JVM libraries. The protocol has
nothing to do with Android, and keeping it off the platform means their tests
run anywhere a JVM does — no SDK, no emulator, no device, which is also what
lets them gate in CI on Linux:
```
./gradlew :engine:test :client:test
```
The app's own unit tests need the Android SDK but still no emulator
(Robolectric):
```
./gradlew :app:testDebugUnitTest
```
## Where it stands
**[PARITY.md](PARITY.md) is the definition of done for this app — read that,
not this.** Every row there names the iOS file it came from so it can be
re-checked rather than trusted. Headlines as of 2026-08-28: messaging, groups,
attachments, voice notes, stories, calls, sealed sender, key transparency and
the encrypted vault are built and tested; a cross-platform round trip against
iOS was verified on 2026-08-26.
⚠️ **This file said "Nothing here is an app yet" until 2026-08-28**, above a
tree containing the finished app — the README described the repository as it
was when the engine landed and nothing updated it as the app grew around it. If
a claim here ever disagrees with PARITY.md or with the tree, believe those, and
fix this.
## Why the engine came first, and is held to the vectors
An Android client needs the protocol implemented a third time, and the third
implementation is the one that finds the places where the specification says
less than the two existing engines quietly agreed on — but only if it is
written against the spec and the published vectors rather than against a
reading of our own Swift and JavaScript. So the engine comes first, it is a
plain Kotlin/JVM library with no Android in it at all, and it is held to
`engine/test/vectors/protocol-v1.json` — the same file the other two engines
are checked against, read from that one location rather than copied here.
```
./gradlew :engine:test
```
No Android SDK, no emulator, no device. It runs anywhere a JVM does, which is
also what lets it run in CI on Linux.
## What the engine covers today
| Area | Spec | State |
|---|---|---|
| Safety numbers | §7 | **Done** — fingerprints and conversation ordering match the published vectors |
| Key transparency verification | §19 | **Done** — RFC 6962 leaf/node hashing, unbalanced split, bottom-up audit paths |
| Byte helpers | — | Unsigned comparison, constant-time equality |
## What it does not cover
Listed rather than left to be discovered, because a table of green ticks with
the hard parts quietly missing is worse than no table:
| Area | Spec | State |
|---|---|---|
| X25519 / Ed25519 | §3 | Not started — needs a provider that works on both JVM and Android |
| X3DH key agreement | §4 | Not started |
| Double Ratchet | §6 | Not started |
| Sealed sender | §12 | Not started |
| ML-KEM-768 hybrid | §11 | Not started |
| ML-DSA-65 identities | §20 | Not started |
| Relay client | §8 | Not started |
| The app itself | — | Not started |
Until those exist, Android is honestly marked "not started" on the website, and
a conversation gets the protocol's guarantees only when both ends are iOS.
## Why the vectors matter more than the code
reading of our own Swift and JavaScript. So the engine is held to
`engine/test/vectors/protocol-v1.json`, the same file the other two engines are
checked against.
Two implementations that agree may both be wrong in the same way, especially
when one was written while reading the other. The audit-path ordering in §19 is