Freenet Decentralized Application Builder

Build decentralized applications on Freenet following the architecture patterns established in River (decentralized chat).

How Freenet Applications Work

Freenet is a platform for building decentralized applications that run without centralized servers. Apps store and exchange data through a global, peer-to-peer Key-Value Store shared by every Freenet node.

The keys in that store are not arbitrary strings — they're derived from small pieces of WebAssembly called contracts that define how each value is allowed to change. The next two sections introduce the kinds of components that make up a Freenet app, then explain exactly how contract keys are formed and why that makes the system trustless.

The Three Kinds of Components in a Freenet App

A Freenet app is built from three kinds of components — contracts, delegates, and a UI. Most non-trivial apps have multiple contracts and multiple delegates, each handling a different concern.

1. Contracts (Network State)

A Freenet app typically has one or more contracts, each defining a different kind of shared state. River has a single room contract today, but a more complex app might have several (e.g. rooms, user profiles, invitations, search indexes), and each one is a separate contract crate that compiles to its own WASM.