feat(sirius-press): a WordPress where the account is a key, not a mailbox
WordPress makes two assumptions this project cannot accept: that identity
comes from an email address, and that a site lives at one server. Both are
things somebody else can take away — a mailbox is rented from a provider who
can close it or be compelled to open it, and a server is one seizure from
being gone.
Sirius Press replaces the first and hedges the second.
Signing in means signing a challenge with the key that controls a CashAddress.
The address is recovered from the signature, so nothing is typed but the
signature itself, and the result is an ordinary WordPress session cookie —
roles, capabilities, nonces and the REST API never learn the login was
different. Three ways to produce one: a wallet the browser already exposes, a
phrase used once in the page and wiped, or a signature pasted in from any
BIP-137 wallet, which needs no JavaScript and lets the key stay on a machine
that never touches the web.
There is no password reset, and the recovery page says so plainly rather than
offering a form that cannot work. A reset mechanism is by construction a way
to take an account from its owner, and it is always easier to attack than the
cryptography it bypasses.
Publishing a post also exports it as static HTML to the name's storage on Sia,
signed by the key that owns the name, so the site keeps answering when the
server does not.
Email as a feature is untouched. wp_mail() still works, SMTP still sends, and
contact forms still deliver to addresses real people typed. Only mail to the
site's own unroutable placeholder addresses is diverted to an in-app inbox.
The objection was to email as identity, not to email.
Core is pinned and patched rather than vendored. WordPress 7.1.1 is 149 MB and
5,008 files; the fork's entire core diff is 75 lines in wp-admin/install.php.
Carrying the former to express the latter would bury the patch where nobody
reviews it and make every clone of the monorepo pay for it. Upstream releases
still merge through tools/update-wordpress.sh, which reapplies the series and
says exactly which hunk needs a human.
The cryptography is implemented twice — PHP on the server, JavaScript in the
page — because the server must verify and the browser must sign. Both are
pinned against libauth, the library the Sirius portal wallet and the BNS
gateway already use, so a disagreement of one byte fails the test suite rather
than presenting as a rejected login at three in the morning.
132 checks, no framework, about a second.
2026-09-21 01:39:38 +02:00
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# Installing Sirius Press
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Three ways in, depending on what you have. All of them end at the same place:
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a WordPress site where accounts are wallets and every page is mirrored to your
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BCNR name.
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---
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## A VPS, with Docker (recommended)
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On a fresh Ubuntu 22.04 or 24.04 box:
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```bash
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curl -fsSL https://silentmode.st/sirius-press/install.sh | sudo bash
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```
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It installs Docker from the distribution's own packages if it is missing,
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clones the repository to `/opt/sirius-press`, generates database passwords and
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a `SIRIUS_PRESS_KEY`, builds the image and starts the stack. Then it waits
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until the site answers and prints the setup URL.
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About five minutes on a 1 GB VPS, nearly all of it compiling PHP extensions.
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If you would rather read the script before running it as root — a reasonable
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instinct — it is [`install.sh`](../install.sh), and it is about a hundred lines.
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### By hand, if you prefer
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```bash
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git clone https://code.silentmode.st/silentmode/sirius-press.git /opt/sirius-press
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cd /opt/sirius-press/docker
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cp .env.example .env
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# edit .env: set DB_PASSWORD and DB_ROOT_PASSWORD at minimum
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docker compose up -d --build
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```
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### Finishing setup
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Open `http://your-server/wp-admin/install.php`.
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The screen is the usual WordPress one with a single change: where it asked for
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your email, it asks for your **wallet address**. You can paste one or leave it
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blank and attach a wallet afterwards from your profile — which is actually the
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better order, because the profile screen makes you *prove* the address by
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signing, and the installer cannot.
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Set a password too. It is the only way into the site until a wallet is
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attached, and you should turn it off afterwards (**Sirius Press → Sign-in**).
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---
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## Shared hosting
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Download `sirius-press-<version>.zip` from
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[the releases page](https://code.silentmode.st/silentmode/sirius-press/releases),
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check it against the published `.sha256`, and upload its contents the way you
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would upload WordPress — because that is what it is, patched, with the plugins
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already in place.
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Then create a database and run through `wp-admin/install.php`.
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Before you start, confirm the host gives you **GMP or BCMath**. Without one of
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them the fork cannot verify a signature and refuses to activate. Most hosts
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have BCMath; ask for GMP if you can get it, since it is roughly twenty times
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faster and signature verification sits on the login path.
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### Building the zip yourself
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```bash
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tools/build.sh --zip
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```
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build(sirius-press): build from the vendored subtree instead of a download
The subtree is in place, so everything that used to fetch and patch core at
build time now just copies it.
tools/build.sh copies wordpress/ — no download, no checksum step,
because there is nothing to fetch and nothing to
trust that is not already in the repository
docker/Dockerfile COPY wordpress/ instead of curl + sha256 + patch;
the build args and the `patch` package are gone
docker-compose.yml no WP_VERSION / WP_URL / WP_SHA256 to keep in step
tools/update-wordpress.sh is rewritten around what the subtree makes
possible. It imports the pristine release onto sirius-press/wordpress-upstream
and then `git subtree merge`s that branch, which three-way merges upstream
against the fork's own commit. A patch either applies with fuzz and hopes or
fails and leaves you re-deriving the change by hand; a merge conflict is
resolved once, in the file, and the next release merges against the
resolution.
patches/ survives as documentation rather than mechanism, and is now
generated: tools/refresh-patches.sh diffs the subtree against the pristine
import and rewrites the directory, with --check for CI. It answers the
question anyone auditing a fork asks first — what exactly did you change
inside WordPress? — in a minute, which `git log wordpress/` cannot, because
that log is mostly upstream imports. Generated documentation stays true; a
hand-maintained record of a core diff drifts, and a stale one is worse than
none because people trust it.
One test change worth noting: the syntax sweep no longer walks all of
wordpress/. It lints the fork's own PHP plus every core file patches/ says
the fork touches, which keeps the suite at seven seconds instead of a minute
while still covering the only core file that can break.
2026-09-21 03:19:28 +02:00
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Copies the vendored WordPress out of `wordpress/`, adds the plugins, and
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writes `dist/sirius-press-<version>.zip` alongside its checksum. Nothing is
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downloaded — core is in the repository.
|
feat(sirius-press): a WordPress where the account is a key, not a mailbox
WordPress makes two assumptions this project cannot accept: that identity
comes from an email address, and that a site lives at one server. Both are
things somebody else can take away — a mailbox is rented from a provider who
can close it or be compelled to open it, and a server is one seizure from
being gone.
Sirius Press replaces the first and hedges the second.
Signing in means signing a challenge with the key that controls a CashAddress.
The address is recovered from the signature, so nothing is typed but the
signature itself, and the result is an ordinary WordPress session cookie —
roles, capabilities, nonces and the REST API never learn the login was
different. Three ways to produce one: a wallet the browser already exposes, a
phrase used once in the page and wiped, or a signature pasted in from any
BIP-137 wallet, which needs no JavaScript and lets the key stay on a machine
that never touches the web.
There is no password reset, and the recovery page says so plainly rather than
offering a form that cannot work. A reset mechanism is by construction a way
to take an account from its owner, and it is always easier to attack than the
cryptography it bypasses.
Publishing a post also exports it as static HTML to the name's storage on Sia,
signed by the key that owns the name, so the site keeps answering when the
server does not.
Email as a feature is untouched. wp_mail() still works, SMTP still sends, and
contact forms still deliver to addresses real people typed. Only mail to the
site's own unroutable placeholder addresses is diverted to an in-app inbox.
The objection was to email as identity, not to email.
Core is pinned and patched rather than vendored. WordPress 7.1.1 is 149 MB and
5,008 files; the fork's entire core diff is 75 lines in wp-admin/install.php.
Carrying the former to express the latter would bury the patch where nobody
reviews it and make every clone of the monorepo pay for it. Upstream releases
still merge through tools/update-wordpress.sh, which reapplies the series and
says exactly which hunk needs a human.
The cryptography is implemented twice — PHP on the server, JavaScript in the
page — because the server must verify and the browser must sign. Both are
pinned against libauth, the library the Sirius portal wallet and the BNS
gateway already use, so a disagreement of one byte fails the test suite rather
than presenting as a rejected login at three in the morning.
132 checks, no framework, about a second.
2026-09-21 01:39:38 +02:00
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
---
|
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|
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## An existing WordPress site
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Sirius Press can be added to a site you already run, without the core patch.
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You lose only the setup-wizard change, which you have already been through.
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1. Copy the four directories in `plugins/` into `wp-content/plugins/`.
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|
2. Copy `mu-plugins/sirius-press-bootstrap.php` into `wp-content/mu-plugins/`
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|
(create the directory if it does not exist).
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3. Activate **Sirius Press Core** first, then Auth, Publishing and
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|
|
Compatibility.
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4. Attach a wallet to your own account at **Users → Profile**.
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|
5. Turn passwords off at **Sirius Press → Sign-in** — but read the list of
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|
accounts without wallets on that screen first. Every one of them is somebody
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|
who will be locked out.
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Existing accounts keep working with passwords until each attaches a wallet.
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Nothing is migrated, deleted or rewritten.
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|
---
|
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## Pointing your name at it
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See **[bcnr-records.md](bcnr-records.md)**. The short version: set your name's
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|
`ip` record to the server's address, or its `p` record to a hostname that
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|
resolves there.
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|
---
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## After it is up
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Three things, in this order:
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1. **Sirius Press → Settings**: set the BCNR name this site publishes under,
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|
and the network (mainnet or chipnet).
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|
2. **Users → Profile**: attach your wallet by signing. Check the address that
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|
appears is the one you expect.
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|
3. **Sirius Press → Sign-in**: turn off password sign-in once every account
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|
that needs access has a wallet.
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Then decide how exports get signed — see [publishing.md](publishing.md). The
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|
default is manual, meaning nothing sensitive is stored on the server and you
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|
sign from your browser when you publish.
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|
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|
---
|
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|
|
## Upgrading
|
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|
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|
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|
|
```bash
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|
|
|
cd /opt/sirius-press
|
|
|
|
|
git pull
|
|
|
|
|
cd docker && docker compose build && docker compose up -d
|
|
|
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
|
|
build(sirius-press): build from the vendored subtree instead of a download
The subtree is in place, so everything that used to fetch and patch core at
build time now just copies it.
tools/build.sh copies wordpress/ — no download, no checksum step,
because there is nothing to fetch and nothing to
trust that is not already in the repository
docker/Dockerfile COPY wordpress/ instead of curl + sha256 + patch;
the build args and the `patch` package are gone
docker-compose.yml no WP_VERSION / WP_URL / WP_SHA256 to keep in step
tools/update-wordpress.sh is rewritten around what the subtree makes
possible. It imports the pristine release onto sirius-press/wordpress-upstream
and then `git subtree merge`s that branch, which three-way merges upstream
against the fork's own commit. A patch either applies with fuzz and hopes or
fails and leaves you re-deriving the change by hand; a merge conflict is
resolved once, in the file, and the next release merges against the
resolution.
patches/ survives as documentation rather than mechanism, and is now
generated: tools/refresh-patches.sh diffs the subtree against the pristine
import and rewrites the directory, with --check for CI. It answers the
question anyone auditing a fork asks first — what exactly did you change
inside WordPress? — in a minute, which `git log wordpress/` cannot, because
that log is mostly upstream imports. Generated documentation stays true; a
hand-maintained record of a core diff drifts, and a stale one is worse than
none because people trust it.
One test change worth noting: the syntax sweep no longer walks all of
wordpress/. It lints the fork's own PHP plus every core file patches/ says
the fork touches, which keeps the suite at seven seconds instead of a minute
while still covering the only core file that can break.
2026-09-21 03:19:28 +02:00
|
|
|
Core and the fork's plugins both come from the image, so this upgrades both.
|
|
|
|
|
Your uploads, your database, your other plugins and themes, and
|
|
|
|
|
`wp-config.php` live in volumes and are untouched.
|
feat(sirius-press): a WordPress where the account is a key, not a mailbox
WordPress makes two assumptions this project cannot accept: that identity
comes from an email address, and that a site lives at one server. Both are
things somebody else can take away — a mailbox is rented from a provider who
can close it or be compelled to open it, and a server is one seizure from
being gone.
Sirius Press replaces the first and hedges the second.
Signing in means signing a challenge with the key that controls a CashAddress.
The address is recovered from the signature, so nothing is typed but the
signature itself, and the result is an ordinary WordPress session cookie —
roles, capabilities, nonces and the REST API never learn the login was
different. Three ways to produce one: a wallet the browser already exposes, a
phrase used once in the page and wiped, or a signature pasted in from any
BIP-137 wallet, which needs no JavaScript and lets the key stay on a machine
that never touches the web.
There is no password reset, and the recovery page says so plainly rather than
offering a form that cannot work. A reset mechanism is by construction a way
to take an account from its owner, and it is always easier to attack than the
cryptography it bypasses.
Publishing a post also exports it as static HTML to the name's storage on Sia,
signed by the key that owns the name, so the site keeps answering when the
server does not.
Email as a feature is untouched. wp_mail() still works, SMTP still sends, and
contact forms still deliver to addresses real people typed. Only mail to the
site's own unroutable placeholder addresses is diverted to an in-app inbox.
The objection was to email as identity, not to email.
Core is pinned and patched rather than vendored. WordPress 7.1.1 is 149 MB and
5,008 files; the fork's entire core diff is 75 lines in wp-admin/install.php.
Carrying the former to express the latter would bury the patch where nobody
reviews it and make every clone of the monorepo pay for it. Upstream releases
still merge through tools/update-wordpress.sh, which reapplies the series and
says exactly which hunk needs a human.
The cryptography is implemented twice — PHP on the server, JavaScript in the
page — because the server must verify and the browser must sign. Both are
pinned against libauth, the library the Sirius portal wallet and the BNS
gateway already use, so a disagreement of one byte fails the test suite rather
than presenting as a rejected login at three in the morning.
132 checks, no framework, about a second.
2026-09-21 01:39:38 +02:00
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
This is why the document root is refilled from the image on every start rather
|
|
|
|
|
than being a volume of its own — the usual WordPress-in-Docker layout pins core
|
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|
|
at whatever version first created the volume, and turns every security release
|
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|
|
into a manual migration.
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|
|
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|
|
|
---
|
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|
|
|
|
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|
|
## When it does not work
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|
|
**The site does not answer.**
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|
|
`cd /opt/sirius-press/docker && docker compose logs -f app`. The most common
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|
|
cause on a first run is the database still initialising; the entrypoint waits
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|
sixty seconds and then starts anyway, so give it another minute.
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|
|
**"Sirius Press needs either the GMP or the BCMath PHP extension."**
|
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|
|
The host has neither. Nothing in the fork works without one. On Debian or
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|
|
Ubuntu outside Docker: `apt install php-gmp && systemctl restart php-fpm`.
|
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|
|
**Signing in does nothing, and no error appears.**
|
|
|
|
|
JavaScript did not load, or the page is being served over plain HTTP where
|
|
|
|
|
WebCrypto is unavailable. Open "Paste a signature instead" and use any wallet —
|
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|
|
that path needs no JavaScript at all.
|
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|
|
**"That signature does not match the text this site asked you to sign."**
|
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|
|
Usually the challenge was copied without its trailing blank line, or with a
|
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|
|
line wrapped. Copy it straight out of the box with the copy button rather than
|
|
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|
|
selecting it by hand.
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|
|
**Exports fail with "the stored publishing key is not the address that
|
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|
|
currently owns this name."**
|
|
|
|
|
The phrase on the server derives a different address than the one holding the
|
|
|
|
|
name's NFT. **Sirius Press → Settings** shows both side by side. The usual
|
|
|
|
|
cause is a wallet created on a different derivation path — see
|
|
|
|
|
[publishing.md](publishing.md#derivation-paths).
|