FAQ & Troubleshooting

General questions

Is Goop2 free?

Yes. Goop2 is open-source software.

Do I need a server?

No. A peer runs on your own machine. A rendezvous server is optional and only needed if you want peers on different networks to discover each other.

What happens when I shut down?

Your site disappears from the network. Other peers will mark you as offline after the TTL expires (default 20 seconds). When you start up again, your identity and data are still on disk.

Can I run multiple peers on one machine?

Yes. Give each peer a different directory and a different viewer.http_addr port. If both peers use libp2p, set different p2p.listen_port values (or leave both at 0 for auto-selection).

Networking

Peers on the same LAN can't find each other

• Check your firewall. mDNS requires UDP port 5353 to be open.

  sudo ufw allow 5353/udp
  

• Check the mDNS tag. All peers must share the same p2p.mdns_tag value.
• Check network isolation. VMs, Docker containers, and different subnets may prevent mDNS from working. Use bridged networking or a rendezvous server instead.

Peers can't reach the rendezvous server

• Verify the server is running.

  curl http://<server-address>/healthz
  

• Check the URL in your config. The rendezvous_wan value must be a full URL including the protocol (http:// or https://).
• Check the firewall. The rendezvous port (default 8787) must be reachable, or use a reverse proxy on ports 80/443.
• Check TLS. If using HTTPS, make sure your certificate is valid.

What ports do I need to open?

SSE events aren't updating in the rendezvous dashboard

If you're behind a reverse proxy, make sure response buffering is disabled:

Nginx:

proxy_buffering off;
proxy_read_timeout 86400;

Caddy handles SSE correctly by default.

Site content

My site shows a blank page

Check that your site/ directory contains an index.html file. The site root is set by paths.site_root in your config.

Remote data operations aren't working

• Verify your template includes <script src="/goop-data.js"></script>.
• Check the browser console for errors.
• Make sure the remote peer is still online.
• Review the peer's logs for Lua errors if data functions are involved.

Lua scripting

Scripts aren't running

• Check that lua.enabled is true in your config.
• Verify scripts are in the correct directory (site/lua/ for chat commands, site/lua/functions/ for data functions).
• Check the logs for compilation errors.
• Chat commands must export a handle(args) function. Data functions must export a call(request) function.

Script changes aren't taking effect

Scripts hot-reload on file changes. If a change doesn't appear, check the logs for syntax errors. The previous working version stays active when there's a compilation error.

Performance

High memory usage

• Lua: Reduce lua.max_memory_mb in your config.
• Database: Large databases consume memory. Archive old data if needed.
• Rendezvous: Many connected peers increase memory usage. Use peer_db_path for persistence so the server can restart without losing state.

Peer starts slowly

• If listen_port is 0, libp2p tries multiple ports. Setting a fixed port avoids this.
• A large site/ directory takes longer to hash on startup.
• A large database takes longer to open.

Database

Where is my data stored?

In data.db (SQLite) inside your peer directory. This file is created automatically on first run.

Can I back up my data?

Yes. Copy the data.db file while the peer is stopped, or use SQLite's .backup command. Also back up data/identity.key to preserve your peer identity.

Can I reset my peer identity?

Delete data/identity.key and restart. A new identity will be generated. Other peers will see you as a different peer.