Other servers

Many community servers run 3.3.5a and 1.12 realms. This page says how they and their players fit with Leyline. It sticks to what the code does today.

What we never do

We never touch other servers' clients. Leyline ships no patch, launcher or file that changes another server's client.
We never read, copy or import other servers' data: no accounts, characters, databases or files.
We never ship game data. Hosts extract what they need from their own install, on their own PC.
The realm list never ranks by money or votes, and hosts can't buy a better place.

Players from other servers

Your own 3.3.5a client works on Wrath and on hosted Beacons. You only change the realm list line. See Play.
Your client folder stays yours. Change the realm list line back to play elsewhere.
Accounts on Leyline realms are separate from accounts on other servers. Nothing moves between them.
Addons you made for the stock 3.3.5a client can become Leyline mods. A UI-only mod is a normal addon in ui/<Name>/ plus a mod.json. See Mod format.

The open layers

Three parts are documented so anyone can adopt them, with or without Leyline. All of it is MIT licensed.

The mod format

A folder with a mod.json, an addon in ui/, mod-ale Lua in realm/, or both. The rules are in Mod format. The checker, mods/wu-mod.py, uses only the Python standard library, so any server can run it on its own mods. Realm halves run on any AzerothCore 3.3.5a realm with mod-ale. Mods that talk to their addon also need the realm's ov_modapi.lua (the OVMOD channel).

The realm record and listing schema

The relay serves its list at GET /api/listing/realms.json, readable from any site:

{ "schema": 1, "kind": "community", "updated": "...", "realms": [ <record>, ... ] }

Each record is a Beacons schema 1 record plus a community block:

Field	Value
`slug`	`c-<realm id>` (16 base32 characters made from the realm's Ed25519 key)
`official`	always `false`
`state`	`live` while heartbeats arrive, `offline` after 3 missed ones; gone after 24 hours
`order`	always `1000`; then live first, then by name
`profile`	`game` (`wrath-3.3.5a`), `version`, `build`, `ruleset`, `address`, `port`
`connect`	`{"kind": "web-signin", "url": ".../join/<id>", "label": "Join this realm"}`
`status`	`{"url": ".../r/<id>/status.json", "format": "openvanilla-status-1"}`
`community`	`realmId`, `relay`, `signed`, `claimed`, `claimedBy`, `firstSeen`, `lastSeen`, `lastHeartbeat`

Text from the host has fixed limits: name up to 32 characters, tagline 80, summary 400, up to 10 rules of 120, and a Discord link only as https://discord.gg/.... Readers should show it as text, never as HTML. Players and bots are separate numbers; bots are never added to players.

A realm's own status uses the same openvanilla-status-1 idea. Wrath's is at play.openvanilla.app/wrath/status.json: realm, online, players, bots, queue, uptime and build.

The full schema is hosting/site/SCHEMA-community.md in the repo.

The relay protocol

The tunnel between a realm and the relay is one WebSocket with small binary frames:

op (1 byte) | stream id (4 bytes, big endian) | payload
OPEN  0x01  relay to agent   payload: the port (3724 or 8085). A new player connection.
DATA  0x02  both ways        raw TCP bytes of that connection, at most 32 KB
CLOSE 0x03  both ways        the connection is gone

Control messages are JSON: a challenge, a signed hello, a welcome with the realm's ports, pings, and requests such as status and account creation. Heartbeats to the listing are signed with the realm key, carry a growing sequence number, and must be within 5 minutes of the listing's clock.

The protocol is written down in hosting/kit/tools/wunet/mux.py, and the listing rules in hosting/relay/wurelay/listing.py.

How another server can list on Leyline

Today the listing only shows realms that keep a live tunnel to the relay. There are two ways to do that.

Run your realm through the host kit. If your realm is AzerothCore 3.3.5a, the kit's agent can connect it to the relay:

Set up the host kit (see Hosting).
Make it public: leyline public.
Fill in state/beacon.json and state/rules.txt with your name, tagline, type, rules and Discord link, then run leyline rules.
Your realm shows on the realm list within a minute. Players join through the relay with their own clients.
When the website side is built, claim the record with a Hero Key.

Run your own relay. The relay is open source. A realm id comes from the realm's own key, not from our relay, and the kit takes WU_RELAY=<name>, so a community relay works today. A directory of relays, so lists can be shared between relays, is planned.

To confirm:

Listing a server that keeps its own login server and doesn't use the relay. The listing has no way to do this yet.
Listing a 1.12 server. The listing's records say wrath-3.3.5a today.
Adding an official record to the website's realm files (the Beacons www/realms/ folder). That is in the website repo, not here.

Working together

How communities could go further together is a separate proposal: Working together.

These pages are in the repo at docs/leyline. Source