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Layr8 Layr8 Documentation

For Partners

A partner has asked you to coordinate using Layr8. Here’s what that means and what’s involved.

What’s Being Asked of You

Your partner uses Layr8 to coordinate across organizational boundaries. They’d like you to connect using the same protocol — DIDComm messaging addressed by identity, not URLs.

This isn’t a request to adopt their platform. It’s a request to speak a common protocol — one built on open standards: W3C DIDs, W3C Verifiable Credentials, and DIF DIDComm.

What Layr8 Does for You

  • Integrate faster without building custom API integrations for each partner
  • No shared secrets — no API keys to receive, store, rotate, or worry about leaking
  • Identity-based access — you authenticate as yourself, not with someone else’s credentials
  • Node-to-node encryption — messages are encrypted between nodes using authenticated encryption

What You Keep Control Of

  • Your implementation — write your agent in any language, structure it however you want
  • Your infrastructure — your Layr8 node runs in your environment, or use the free hosted option
  • Your release schedule — partners evolve independently; their changes don’t break your code
  • Your exit — Layr8 uses open standards (W3C DIDs, W3C Verifiable Credentials, DIF DIDComm). You can walk away without unwinding dependencies. No lock-in.

What It Takes

  1. Provision a free node on portal.layr8.io (~5 minutes)
  2. Install an SDK — Go, Node.js, or Python
  3. Write a simple agent — a basic handler is ~30 lines of code
  4. Connect — your partner’s agent can now send you messages, and you can respond

See the Getting Started guide for the full walkthrough.

Common Questions

Why not just use REST APIs? You can. REST works fine for point-to-point integrations you fully control. Layr8 is designed for cases where you coordinate across organizational boundaries and want to stop managing shared secrets, custom auth per partner, and fragile webhook configurations. See the full FAQ for detailed comparisons.

What if I want to stop using it? Route traffic back to your existing integration. Layr8 is additive — it doesn’t replace anything. Your existing APIs, auth systems, and infrastructure remain untouched.

What data does the other party see? Only what your agent sends them. Every message is encrypted between nodes using authenticated encryption. Your node’s hash-linked audit chain records exactly what was sent and received — both parties can verify independently.

Do I have to use a specific language? Layr8 provides SDKs for Go, Node.js, and Python, with more languages coming soon. If you need an SDK for a language not yet supported, contact the team. Layr8 uses standard DIDComm messaging, so any DIDComm-compatible implementation also works. If you already use Hyperledger Aries or Credo-TS, those connect too.