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The docs now describe the product

· 3 min read
Vidra
Vidra
Project

This site has been rebuilt against the product as it exists today. The previous version described an earlier project, and it described it inaccurately.

What was wrong​

The old pages asserted PeerTube REST API compatibility, in-player WebTorrent peer-to-peer, a cryptocurrency payments integration, Kubernetes manifests and Terraform configurations, and a k8s/ directory. None of those exist. The prerequisites named versions the project has not used for some time, and the repository links pointed somewhere else entirely.

A wrong page is worse than a missing one. Anything that could not be verified against github.com/yegamble/vidra has been removed rather than softened.

What is true​

Vidra is a clean-room, PeerTube-inspired implementation. It is not a fork and it is not API-compatible with PeerTube — PeerTube clients, embeds and plugins do not work against it. What is supported is a one-way importer that moves an existing PeerTube instance across, and it carries more than the old docs claimed: bcrypt password hashes come over verbatim, so your users keep the passwords they already have.

Federation is two protocols doing two jobs. ActivityPub federates channels to the fediverse; ATProto carries identity — sign in with Bluesky or any PDS — and optional cross-posting. Both default to off, both are switchable per channel, and neither is the other.

IPFS is the shipped distribution offload, as a dual-tier mirror: a public gateway tier and a private swarm-keyed tier, with local or S3-compatible storage staying authoritative. In-player peer-to-peer is deferred by decision, and the docs now say so.

Deployment is a one-line installer, Docker Compose, and the deploy/*.sh scripts that the vidra CLI wraps 1:1. There are no orchestrator manifests to find, because there are none to ship.

What is new​

A curated information architecture: Start here, Concepts, Install and deploy, Operate, Migrate from PeerTube, Reference, Contribute. New pages cover requirements and sizing with the real hardware floor, the operator CLI and its checks, monitoring, the port matrix, and repository layout.

The theme now follows the brand guidelines — Paper and Ink with Action Cyan — and the architecture diagrams are authored as Mermaid, so they read correctly in both light and dark rather than being colour-inverted by a CSS filter.

Start at What is Vidra?, or go straight to the Quickstart.