Chi

A light and portable IPFS sync engine

Chi provides an easy way to sync files local IPFS files with pinning services like Pinata. By setting the KUBO_URL you can interface an IPFS node running locally or in a cloud environment. Additional pinning services can be added as well through the config.ts file by providing the name, endpoint, and API key for the service.

Quickstart

In this quickstart we'll show you how to start using Chi along side a Kubo node

IPFS Kubo Setup

To start using Chi make sure you already have an IPFS node available.

Local

Install Kubo and then run the daemon in your terminal:

ipfs daemon

This will make your node accessible through http://127.0.0.1:5001 (aka your KUBO_URL)

Cloud

There are multiple ways you can run Kubo in cloud infrastructure. One of the easiest we've seen is through a Docker image through a service like Railway. Simply spin up a new app, click +Create in the top right, then select Docker Image. Then use ipfs/kubo as the name. This should spin up the daemon automatically, and you will either need to make the endpoint accessible or connect Chi to it in Railway as well.

Chi Setup

Clone the repo and install dependencies

git clone https://github.com/PinataCloud/chi
cd chi
npm install

Rename the .env.example file to .env and edit the KUBO_URL if applicable. There is also a PINATA_JWT variable if you want to use Pinata as a pinning service. In the config.ts file you can edit or add more pinning services you want to sync with.

After the variables are filled out start up the server with the command below:

npm run dev

This should spin up a dev server on http://localhost:3000 where the API can be accessed

Usage

The Chi API has just two simple endpoints you can use to upload files and list them

POST /upload

Using a multipart formdata request you can upload a file to your IPFS node which will then trigger a sync upload to your pinning service. Here's an example in Typescript:

const file = new File(["Hello IPFS!"], "hello.txt", { type: "plain/text" })
const data = new FormData()
data.append("file", file)
const request = await fetch("http://localhost:3000/upload", {
  method: "POST",
  body: data
})
const response = await request.json()
console.log(response)

GET /pins/list

Get a list of your pins by making a simple GET request to /pins/list

const request = await fetch("http://localhost:3000/pins/list")
const response = await request.json()
console.log(response)