# ECP-0016: mDNS peer discovery for gossip ## Status Draft ## Context Manual gossip peers are a barrier for LAN onboarding. iroh already supports an mDNS-based address lookup, which can discover endpoints on the local network without external infrastructure. ## Decision Enable iroh's mDNS address lookup and use it as a peer discovery layer for catalog gossip. When gossip starts (or sharing announces), we probe mDNS for a short window and merge any discovered endpoints into the peer list. ## Details - Enable iroh feature `address-lookup-mdns`. - Advertise `UserData = "every.channel"` for local discovery filtering. - When gossip is started, probe for ~2 seconds and merge discovered endpoints with configured peers. - mDNS discovery is best-effort; failures should not block manual peers. ## Consequences - LAN nodes can connect and discover each other without copying addresses. - Global discovery still requires at least one public peer. ## Follow-ups - Add a UI indicator when mDNS peers are found. - Evaluate relay-less LAN mode and mDNS-only sessions for local-first setups.