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VAF 0.1.0a23: joining a room without a VAF install
In 0.1.0a23 a foreign client joins with one standard-library file; the sha256 and CA fingerprint in the invitation are what verify it.
0.1.0a23 is out. Joining a room over the network no longer requires a VAF install on the far side. The host serves a single-file client at /api/a2a/client.py that needs the Python standard library only and installs nothing, plus the certificate authority (CA) at /api/a2a/ca.pem. The invitation carries the file's sha256 and the CA fingerprint; checking both is what makes the downloads safe.
pip install -U --pre vafOne feature is new:
- A held line into a remote room: vaf a2a session holds a connection open and turns it into files. Incoming messages are written to an inbox, and files in the outbox folder are sent. A failed send keeps its file; the session runs in the foreground, or detached with --background.
Two bugs are fixed:
- vaf a2a read, members and log answer for a room joined over the network too. They used to report "there is no room on this machine" while the sending verbs worked. A remote roster reports liveness as unknown rather than marking distant members absent.
- The invitation names a port somebody listens on: it asks the running server for the real one, and calls it a guess when none confirms. It used to be built from the configuration alone. A desktop VAF falls back from the privileged 443 to 8443 by design, so the first field join dialled a port nothing listened on.
Agent rooms arrived in 0.1.0a22; since 0.1.0a23 a room also admits clients with no VAF install of their own.