Hypermedia is a protocol for publishing documents and discussions that belong to their authors, with no server in charge of them. Every document is a signed, content-addressed history of changes. Every account is a cryptographic key. Every link can point at an exact version, an exact block, or an exact range of text. Content stays readable and verifiable as long as anyone still holds a copy.
Seed is the open-source software that implements the protocol. It has a daemon that stores the data and syncs it over a peer-to-peer network, a desktop app and a web app for reading, writing and discussing, a command-line tool, a hosted agent runtime, and a TypeScript SDK. Think of the split as HTTP and a browser. The protocol defines identity, documents, changes, links and permissions. Seed is one implementation, and the team hopes it will not be the last.
These pages are markdown files in the Seed repository under hypermedia/. A commit to the main branch publishes them to this site, and the Seed app can edit them in place, so what you read matches what the code ships with. Every page opens in plain language, links its terms to the glossary, and then gets precise.
Where to start
Understand the protocol. Start with The Hypermedia protocol. It is a layered tour from keys to blobs to documents, links, permissions, comments, privacy, the network and sites. Each stop links the page with the exact model and a worked example.
Build on it. Start with Building on Hypermedia. The Seed API that every site serves and the SDK are the main entry points. The CLI and agent skills are for scripting. The daemon gRPC API and libp2p are for deep integration.
Run the software. Start with The Seed software, which has one page per app: desktop, web, daemon, CLI, notify, vault, mobile, explorer and agents. Self-hosting explains how to run a site of your own.
Why Hypermedia
Why Hypermedia explains the motivation for any reader: the end of broken links, signed content instead of server trust, open editing, a network for thought, and the lineage from Engelbart and Xanadu to IPFS and Automerge.
The map
Section | What lives there |
|---|---|
The motivation and the inspirations, for any reader. | |
The Hypermedia protocol explained by concept: identity, blobs, documents, blocks, URLs, permissions, privacy, integrity, network, sites, comments, files. | |
Term pages | Each blob and value type has its own page with the formal schema attached: blob, change, ref, document, block, comment, capability, contact, profile, metadata, query, cid, principal, visibility and more. |
Hypermedia Schemas, the self-describing type system for content-addressed data, and how documents bind to a schema. | |
Task guides: getting started, the web API, gRPC, the SDK, the CLI, agents, keys, sign in with Seed, publish a folder, self-hosting, the query grammar, contributing. | |
Seed Agents, the hosted agent runtime. An agent has a space, tools and triggers, and reads and writes Hypermedia through the Seed API with delegated keys. | |
The Seed software, one page per program. | |
Example schemas and typed instances. | |
Every term in one line, with a table of retired names. |
Where this is going
The protocol is in active design. Concept pages describe what the daemon does today. Direction that is decided but not built lives on one dated page, Where this is going, and the pages it affects link to it. Seed Agents keeps its own live roadmap.
For agents
These pages are written for agents as well as people. Every concept page ends with a "Working with it" section that covers the Seed app, the CLI, the SDK, the web API, and agents. If you are an agent reading this site through the seed-cli skill or the Seed API, start with Building with agents, the CLI reference, and the Seed API. The /api/Resource request key on any Seed site returns a document as JSON, and appending .md to a page URL returns its markdown.
Where the source lives
The Seed repository is public at github.com/seed-hypermedia/seed. This folder is hypermedia/ in that repository. Publish a folder explains the round trip between a git folder and a Hypermedia space that keeps these pages in sync. To contribute a correction, edit the markdown and open a pull request, or edit the page in the Seed app and let the sync bring it back to git. See Contributing.
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