P2P Address Book Get Started

This guide creates a local address book without peer replication. Start here before enrolling other devices or configuring blind peers.

Prerequisites

You need:

• Wallet seed bytes as a Uint8Array, not mnemonic text.
• A stable application namespace.
• A persistent writable Corestore directory dedicated to that wallet seed and device.
• A Node.js ESM or tested Bare environment with native-module support.
• Network access when replication is enabled.

Install the Address Book and declare Corestore because application code constructs it directly:

npm install @tetherto/wdk-p2p-address-book corestore

Create a local address book

The following example disables networking, creates a new book, stores a caller-validated destination, reads the records, and closes both package-owned and caller-owned resources:

import Corestore from 'corestore'
import AddressBook, {
  ADDRESS_TYPES
} from '@tetherto/wdk-p2p-address-book'

export async function createLocalBook(seed, storagePath, recipientAddress) {
  const store = new Corestore(storagePath)
  let book

  try {
    book = await AddressBook.fromSeed(seed, store, {
      namespace: 'example-wallet',
      replicate: false
    })
    await book.create()

    const contact = await book.addContact({
      name: 'Alice',
      username: 'alice'
    })

    await book.addAddress(contact.id, {
      address: recipientAddress,
      type: ADDRESS_TYPES.EVM,
      network: 'ethereum',
      label: 'Primary wallet'
    })

    return {
      contact: await book.getContact(contact.id),
      addresses: await book.listAddresses(contact.id)
    }
  } finally {
    try {
      if (book) await book.close()
    } finally {
      await store.close()
    }
  }
}

Use create() only when the book is known to be new. To join an existing book, follow Sync and Recovery and call addMirror() instead.

Understand readiness

fromSeed() opens the local Autobase before resolving. With replication enabled, it also joins the Hyperswarm discovery topic.

addMirror() has stronger semantics for a device joining an existing book: it awaits peering, waits for existing genesis, and enrolls the local writer. It still does not prove that every record has been restored or retained remotely.

Close resources

book.close() closes the book's networking and replication resources. The direct API does not close the root Corestore supplied by the application, so close that store separately as shown above.

If you supply a custom swarm through configuration, book.close() destroys it. Do not share that swarm with another owner that expects to keep using it.

Next steps

Continue with Sync and Recovery, or review exact record and method behavior in the API Reference.