Skywire Visor

The Visor is the primary Skywire network participant. It manages transports, routes packets, and runs applications.

Identity

A visor is identified by a secp256k1 key pair. The public key serves as the visor's network address. The secret key is used for signing discovery entries, transport settlements, and Noise protocol handshakes.

Initialization

The visor initializes subsystems in a dependency-ordered module chain:

1. Event broadcaster — internal event pub/sub
2. DMSG HTTP — bootstrap DMSG client for service communication
3. DMSG client — primary DMSG connection to relay servers
4. STUN client — NAT type detection
5. Transport clients — STCPR, SUDPH, STCP network clients
6. DMSG Ctrl — DMSG control protocol
7. DMSG HTTP log server — health, node-info, services on DMSG port 80
8. Transport manager — transport lifecycle, TPD registration
9. Address resolver — AR client for STCPR/SUDPH address binding
10. Router — routing table, packet dispatch, route setup
11. App launcher — application lifecycle management
12. Hypervisor — web UI (if enabled)
13. Public autoconnect — automatic STCPR/SUDPH transports to public visors
14. Self-probe — periodic DMSG listener reachability check
15. Skynet port forwarding — register localhost ports for skynet/DMSG access

Optional embedded subsystems: - Embedded RSN — route setup node with separate DMSG identity - Embedded TPS — transport setup node with separate DMSG identity - Embedded dmsgweb — .dmsg resolving SOCKS5 proxy - Embedded skynetweb — .skynet resolving SOCKS5 proxy

DMSG Port 80 (Log Server)

Every visor serves an HTTP API on DMSG port 80:

Endpoint	Auth	Description
/health	None	Visor health status (version, uptime, transport counts)
/services	None	List of registered skynet/DMSG ports
/node-info	Survey whitelist	System survey data
/node-info/checksum	Survey whitelist	SHA256 of survey data
/visor.log	Survey whitelist	Visor debug log file
/debug/pprof/*	Survey whitelist	Go runtime profiling
/transport_logs/*	Survey whitelist	Transport bandwidth CSV files
/stats/transports	Survey whitelist	Live snapshot of all current transports (id, edges, type, current bw/latency)
/stats/transports/history	Survey whitelist	Daily transport rollups; query since, until, optional id filter
/stats/uptime	Survey whitelist	Three-tier uptime bitmaps (process, dmsg, skynet), 288-char per day; query since
/stats/services	Survey whitelist	Per-service uptime bitmaps in the same format; query since
/	None	Landing page with links to available endpoints

The landing page shows forwarded port links when ShowOnLanding is true.

If port 80 has a forwarded port entry with proxy_addr, unmatched routes are reverse-proxied to the local address (replaces the landing page).

Skynet Port Forwarding

Visors can forward local TCP ports over the network. Port forwarding metadata is stored in local/forwarded_ports.json:

{
  "80": {
    "port": 80,
    "local_port": 3000,
    "label": "My Website",
    "description": "Custom web application",
    "show_on_landing": true,
    "skynet": true,
    "dmsg": true,
    "proxy_addr": "127.0.0.1:3000",
    "whitelist": ["02abc..."]
  }
}

Access control on port 80: - /health, /services — open to all - /node-info, /visor.log, /debug/pprof — survey whitelist - Website (catch-all) — forwarded port whitelist (empty = allow all)

Configuration

The visor config (skywire-config.json) is generated by skywire cli config gen and sourced from SKYENV variables. Key sections:

Section	Description
dmsg	DMSG client: discovery URL, server list, session count, protocol
transport	Transport layer: TPD URL, AR URL, autoconnect, ports, TPS PKs
routing	Router: RSN PKs, route finder URL, min hops
launcher	App launcher: service discovery URL, app list, bin path
hypervisor	Hypervisor UI: enable, auth, HTTP addr, TLS
survey_whitelist	PKs allowed to access survey/pprof endpoints
hypervisors	Remote hypervisor PKs to connect to

See config-gen.md for config generation and config-runtime.md for runtime changes.

RPC Interface

The visor serves a Go net/rpc interface on cli_addr (default localhost:3435). The CLI communicates with the visor exclusively through this RPC interface.

Key RPC method categories: - Visor info — PK, version, uptime, health - Transport management — add, remove, list, autoconnect toggle - Route management — list rules, set min hops, RSN stats - App management — start, stop, list, configure args - DMSG diagnostics — porter stats/reset, reconnect, set sessions - Skynet — port forwarding, skynet HTTP requests - Hypervisor — enable, disable, add remote HV - Config — show running config, reward address

Close Stack

The visor maintains a close stack of cleanup functions. On shutdown, functions are called in reverse order (LIFO) with a configurable timeout (shutdown_timeout, default 10s). This ensures orderly teardown: apps stop before transports, transports close before DMSG sessions.