Architecture

libvine sits at the overlay edge of the libzig networking stack.

Responsibility Split

• libself owns node identity and authenticated peer metadata.
• libmesh owns discovery, signaling, path selection, and relay fallback.
• libdice helps with traversal setup when direct connectivity needs coordination.
• libfast carries encrypted control and packet traffic once a path is open.
• libvine owns overlay membership policy, virtual IPv4 addressing, forwarding, and Linux TUN integration.

Architectural Rule

If libmesh already owns a reachability concern, libvine reuses it instead of rebuilding it. libvine should consume libmesh decisions and expose overlay semantics on top of them rather than inventing a second control plane.

MVP Shape

The MVP is Linux-only, IPv4-only, and intentionally optimized for small peer sets. One process hosts one overlay network instance, and the first policy model is expected to be explicit and static enough to keep routing and membership deterministic.