WAN Relay

The WAN relay lets teammates in different locations sync their encrypted wiki over the internet. The relay facilitates connections between peers but never has access to your content.

What the Relay Does

The relay server is a lightweight forwarding node. It performs three functions:

1. Peer discovery — Maintains a registry of online devices within a workspace so peers can find each other across networks.
2. Connection brokering — Helps peers establish direct connections through NAT traversal when possible.
3. Encrypted forwarding — When direct connections fail, the relay passes encrypted Yjs deltas between peers.

The relay handles only opaque, encrypted blobs. It has no workspace keys, no decryption capability, and no knowledge of your wiki content.

Relay Infrastructure

localWiki connects to a managed relay node automatically when WAN sync is enabled. The connection details are bundled with the app — no manual configuration needed.

If you are behind a corporate firewall, ensure outbound TCP traffic on the relay port is allowed. Check Settings > Sync for the current connection status.

Availability and Pricing

WAN relay requires a paid localWiki plan (Starter or Team). You can check your current plan in Settings > Subscription. See the pricing page  for current plans.

What Happens if the Relay Goes Down

localWiki is local first software. If the relay becomes unavailable:

• The app continues working normally. You can read, write, and search your wiki offline.
• LAN sync remains fully operational.
• Changes queue locally and sync automatically when the relay reconnects.

Relay Security Model

Device A ──► encrypt(delta) ──► relay ──► Device B ──► decrypt(delta)
                                  │
                         relay sees: random bytes
                         relay knows: workspace ID, device IDs
                         relay cannot: read content, modify data

The relay knows which devices belong to a workspace and when they are online. It cannot see page titles, content, keys, or any other plaintext data.