IPCR Forge

From git push to docker pull on any server. Work in Gitea as usual: its Actions build your images, IPCR serves them from IPFS, and every public repository is mirrored to the Radicle peer-to-peer network.

How it works

Steps 2 and 3 are automatic and usually take a few minutes. The very first build on this server takes longer (about 5 to 10 minutes) while it downloads its build images.

Alongside, every public repository is copied to Radicle within seconds of each push: branches and tags, signed by this server's Radicle node. Gitea stays the one place to work. The Radicle copy is for distribution: anyone can rad clone it, and it stays available even when this server is not. Private repositories are never copied.

Try it with the example

The install created gitea_admin/ipcr-hello, a tiny web page with a Dockerfile and the workflow that publishes it.

1. Open it in Gitea, then Tags → New tag (or Releases → New release): name v1.0.0, target main.
2. Follow the build under the repository's Actions tab.
3. About a minute after it finishes, the image appears below under Published images, and the tag on Radicle.

Published images

Publish your own project

1. Create a repository in Gitea (+ → New repository) and push your code to it:

   git remote add origin https://gitea-<domain>/<owner>/<repo>.git
   git push -u origin main

   Git asks for your Gitea user name and password (or an access token, from Settings → Applications).
2. Add a workflow at .gitea/workflows/build.yml. This one builds the Dockerfile at the root for every v* tag. It is a GitHub-style workflow with three differences: it logs in to localhost:5000, this forge's staging registry, as the repository itself (the forge sets the IPCR_PUSH_TOKEN secret on every public repository allowed to publish), the image goes there under the repository's own name, and buildx's builder runs with network=host so it can reach that registry.

   name: image
   on:
     push:
       tags: ['v*']
   jobs:
     image:
       runs-on: ubuntu-latest
       steps:
         - uses: actions/checkout@v4
         - uses: docker/login-action@v3
           with:
             registry: localhost:5000
             username: ${{ github.repository }}
             password: ${{ secrets.IPCR_PUSH_TOKEN }}
         - uses: docker/metadata-action@v5
           id: meta
           with:
             images: localhost:5000/${{ github.repository }}
             tags: |
               type=semver,pattern={{version}}
               type=raw,value=latest
         - uses: docker/setup-buildx-action@v3
           with:
             driver-opts: network=host
         - uses: docker/build-push-action@v6
           with:
             context: .
             push: true
             tags: ${{ steps.meta.outputs.tags }}
             labels: ${{ steps.meta.outputs.labels }}

3. Release:

   git add .gitea && git commit -m "Build the image"
   git tag v1.0.0
   git push origin main v1.0.0

   The image is published as <owner>/<repo>:1.0.0 under this forge's name. Repositories of the forge's own organisation are also published at the root: <repo>:1.0.0.

Who can publish: each public repository publishes under its own name only, with its own push credential; the short root names belong to the forge's organisation, so to its members. Workflows from forks get no secrets, so they cannot publish. Private repositories never publish.

Use an image

Copy the line from Published images into a compose file. It works on this server and on any server running IPCR:

services:
  myapp:
    image: ipcr.localhost:4767/ipns/k51…/<owner>/<repo>:1.0.0   # a tag: follows new builds of 1.0.0
    # image: ipcr.localhost:4767/ipfs/bafkrei…   # a CID: this exact image, forever

Or pull it by hand: docker pull ipcr.localhost:4767/ipns/k51…/<owner>/<repo>:1.0.0. /ipns/… is a name this forge can move to a new build; /ipfs/<cid> is the image's content address and can never change.

For a readable name, point a name you own at this forge's publisher name (k51…), which holds every image it builds:

• ENS: set the content hash of example.eth to ipns://k51… (one transaction, once). Images are then ipcr.localhost:4767/ipns/example.eth/<owner>/<repo>:1.0.0.
• DNS: add a TXT record _dnslink.example.com = dnslink=/ipns/k51…. Images are then ipcr.localhost:4767/ipns/example.com/<owner>/<repo>:1.0.0.

New releases need no change to either record: they update the publisher name.

On Radicle

Public repositories of this forge, as mirrored to the Radicle network by this server's node (…). Clone one with rad clone <id> from any Radicle node.

A repository that turns private or is deleted in Gitea is no longer synced (frozen). What was already published stays on the Radicle network: it cannot be taken back.

Pull without IPCR

To try an image on a machine without IPCR, pull it through this forge's public front door, with plain Docker and nothing to install:

docker pull ipcr-<domain>/ipns/<name>/<repo>:1.0.0

It serves this forge's images only, read-only, and depends on this server being online. For anything that should keep working without it, use IPCR's local address (below): any IPCR node can serve the image.

Pull from another server

Any server with IPCR resolves the same lines and fetches the image from the IPFS network, from this server and from every other server that already pulled it.

On a Yundera server

Install IPCR from the App Store. There is nothing to configure.

On any Linux server with Docker 29+

mkdir -p /DATA/AppData/ipcr && cd /DATA/AppData/ipcr
curl -fsSLO https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Yundera/ipcr/main/Apps/IPCR/docker-compose.yml
install -d -m 0700 -o 1000 -g 1000 kubo && install -d -o 1000 -g 1000 init.d
curl -fsSL -o init.d/01-ipcr-node.sh https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Yundera/ipcr/main/Apps/IPCR/seed/init.d/01-ipcr-node.sh
chmod 0755 init.d/01-ipcr-node.sh
printf 'PUID=1000\nPGID=1000\nTZ=UTC\nAppID=ipcr\n' > .env
docker compose up -d

IPCR listens on 127.0.0.1:4767 only, and trusts itself through /etc/docker/certs.d/ipcr.localhost:4767/ca.crt. It publishes port 4768 (TCP and UDP) for IPFS peers. Details: github.com/Yundera/ipcr.

Addresses on this server