@tacticalchihuahua/mascara v1.0.0

mascara

multiplex a stream context as rpc arguments

npm install @tacticalchihuahua/mascara --save

what

mascara is a subset of the JSON-RPC 2.0 specification with one restriction, which is that params and result must be positional ([]), not named. In addition, it introduces a mechanism for describing streams.

When a result of an RPC contains a mascara:// URL, the client should expose a readable or writable stream interface, where reading from this pointer is performed by listening for or sending JSON-RPC "notification" payloads where the method name matches the original string value and the params array represents items to be read from or written to the virtual stream.

This allows servers implementing mascara to pass streams back to clients as result parameters. Individual JSON-RPC payloads are separated by \r\n (a carriage return followed by a newline) over a bidirectional stream. This package implements the protocol over TCP or Unix Domain Sockets, but any transport can be used by overloading new mascara.Server(api = Object, createServer = Function).

why

This package and protocol was written for use in 🝰 dusk. It is used as the transport and protocol for controlling the daemon from the CLI and other applications. In general, it is inspired by Tor's control protocol.

It is a revival of my defunct package boscar, originally written for similar purposes for use in early versions of Storj.

In both instances, the need to be able to have inter-process communication for sending control commands as well as streaming data in and out is why this package exists. Instead of having two connection channels (one for control and one for data, like FTP), mascara allows you to embed streams within the control protocol, allowing for context-awareness at the protocol level instead of application level.

how

example: server

const { Readable } = require('stream');
const { Server } = require('@tacticalchihuahua/mascara');

const server = new Server({
  echo: function(data, callback) {
    const buffer = Buffer.from(data);
    callback(null, Readable.from(buffer));
  }
});

server.listen(8080);

example: client

const mascara = require('@tacticalchihuahua/mascara');
const client = new mascara.Client();

client.connect(8080);
client.invoke('echo', ['hello world'], (err, stream) => {
  stream.pipe(process.stdout); // => 'hello world'
});

license

anti-copyright 2025, tactical chihuahua
released under gnu lesser general public license 3