Getting Started with Wayfinder

Wayfinder provides decentralized and verified access to data stored on Arweave. This guide will help you get started with the core concepts and basic usage.

Installation

Choose the package that fits your project:

Core Library (JavaScript/TypeScript)

npm install @ar.io/wayfinder-core
# or
yarn add @ar.io/wayfinder-core

React Components

npm install @ar.io/wayfinder-react
# or
yarn add @ar.io/wayfinder-react

Quick Start

Basic Usage

The simplest way to get started is with the default configuration:

import { Wayfinder } from '@ar.io/wayfinder-core'
import { ARIO } from '@ar.io/sdk'

// Create wayfinder with default settings
const wayfinder = new Wayfinder({
  gatewaysProvider: new NetworkGatewaysProvider({
    ario: ARIO.mainnet(),
  }),
})

// Fetch data using ar:// protocol
try {
  const response = await wayfinder.request('ar://transaction-id')
  const data = await response.text()
  console.log('Data:', data)
} catch (error) {
  console.error('Failed to fetch data:', error)
}

React Integration

For React applications, use the wayfinder-react package:

import { WayfinderProvider, useWayfinder } from '@ar.io/wayfinder-react'

// Wrap your app with the provider
function App() {
  return (
    <WayfinderProvider>
      <MyComponent />
    </WayfinderProvider>
  )
}

Automatic Configuration

Wayfinder React automatically configures LocalStorageGatewaysProvider with NetworkGatewaysProvider to avoid rate limits and provide optimal performance for web applications.

function YourComponent() {
  const txId = 'your-transaction-id'; // Replace with actual txId

  // Use custom hooks for URL resolution and data fetching
  const request = useWayfinderRequest();

  // store the fetched data
  const [data, setData] = useState<any>(null);
  const [dataLoading, setDataLoading] = useState(false);
  const [dataError, setDataError] = useState<Error | null>(null);

  useEffect(() => {
    (async () => {
      try {
        setDataLoading(true);
        setDataError(null);
        // fetch the data for the txId using wayfinder
        const response = await request(`ar://${txId}`, {
          verificationSettings: {
            enabled: true, // enable verification on the request
            strict: true, // don't use the data if it's not verified
          },
        });
        const data = await response.arrayBuffer(); // or response.json() if you want to parse the data as JSON
        setData(data);
      } catch (error) {
        setDataError(error as Error);
      } finally {
        setDataLoading(false);
      }
    })();
  }, [request, txId]);

  return (
    <div>
      {dataLoading && <p>Loading data...</p>}
      {dataError && <p>Error loading data: {dataError.message}</p>}
      <pre>{data}</pre>
    </div>
  );
}

Available Strategies

Routing Strategies

Strategy	Description	Use Case
FastestPingRoutingStrategy	Selects gateway with lowest latency	Performance-critical applications
PreferredWithFallbackRoutingStrategy	Tries preferred gateway first, falls back to others	When you have a trusted primary gateway
RoundRobinRoutingStrategy	Distributes requests evenly across gateways	Load balancing and fair distribution
RandomRoutingStrategy	Randomly selects from available gateways	Simple load distribution
PingRoutingStrategy	Wraps other strategies with health checks	Adding reliability to any routing strategy

Verification Strategies

Verification strategies may be dependent on the gateway being used having the data indexed locally. A gateway cannot verify data it doesn't have access to or hasn't indexed yet.

Strategy	Description	Use Case
HashVerificationStrategy	Verifies data against trusted gateway hashes	Fast verification with trusted sources
SignatureVerificationStrategy	Validates Arweave transaction signatures	Cryptographic proof of authenticity
DataRootVerificationStrategy	Verifies against transaction data roots	Block-level verification

Advanced Configuration

For production applications, you'll want to configure gateway providers, routing strategies, and verification:

import {
  Wayfinder,
  NetworkGatewaysProvider,
  FastestPingRoutingStrategy,
  HashVerificationStrategy,
} from '@ar.io/wayfinder-core'
import { ARIO } from '@ar.io/sdk'

const wayfinder = new Wayfinder({
  // Discover gateways from the AR.IO Network
  gatewaysProvider: new SimpleCacheGatewaysProvider({
    gatewaysProvider: new NetworkGatewaysProvider({
      ario: ARIO.mainnet(),
      limit: 10,
      sortBy: 'operatorStake',
      sortOrder: 'desc',
    }),
  }),

  // Use fastest ping routing strategy
  routingSettings: {
    strategy: new FastestPingRoutingStrategy({
      timeoutMs: 500,
    }),
    events: {
      onRoutingSucceeded: (event) => {
        console.log('Selected gateway:', event.selectedGateway)
      },
    },
  },

  // Enable data verification
  verificationSettings: {
    enabled: true,
    strategy: new HashVerificationStrategy({
      trustedGateways: ['https://arweave.net'],
    }),
    events: {
      onVerificationSucceeded: (event) => {
        console.log('Verification passed for:', event.txId)
      },
      onVerificationFailed: (event) => {
        console.log('Verification failed for:', event.txId)
      },
    },
  },

  // Enable telemetry
  telemetrySettings: {
    enabled: true,
    clientName: 'my-app',
    clientVersion: '1.0.0',
    sampleRate: 0.1, // 10% sampling
  },
})

Core Concepts

Gateway Providers

Gateway providers discover and manage the list of available AR.IO gateways:

NetworkGatewaysProvider: Fetches gateways from the AR.IO Network
StaticGatewaysProvider: Uses a predefined list of gateways
SimpleCacheGatewaysProvider: Caches gateway lists for performance in-memory
LocalStorageGatewaysProvider: Caches gateway lists for performance in window.localStorage (default for React applications)

Routing Strategies

Routing strategies determine which gateway to use for each request:

FastestPingRoutingStrategy: Selects the gateway with lowest latency
PingRoutingStrategy: Wraps other strategies with health checks
PreferredWithFallbackRoutingStrategy: Tries a preferred gateway first
RoundRobinRoutingStrategy: Distributes requests evenly
RandomRoutingStrategy: Randomly selects gateways

Verification Strategies

Verification strategies ensure data integrity:

HashVerificationStrategy: Verifies data against trusted gateway hashes
SignatureVerificationStrategy: Validates Arweave transaction signatures
DataRootVerificationStrategy: Verifies against transaction data roots