# zboxfs/zbox

Zero-details, privacy-focused in-app file system.

Repository: https://github.com/zboxfs/zbox
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/zbox
Homepage: https://zbox.io/fs/
Language: Rust
License: Apache-2.0
License Family: permissive
Topics: filesystem, fs, crypto, encryption, privacy, storage, rust, zbox, libsodium
Archived: true
Last push: 2023-10-21T17:37:32+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 10/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-02T17:46:02.011165+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 3200, "days_push": 1047, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: archived
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1543, forks 85 (observed 2026-08-28T04:05:01.186837+00:00)

## What it is
ZboxFS is a zero-details, privacy-focused embedded file system written in Rust that encrypts everything, including metadata and directory structure, using libsodium-backed AEAD cryptography. It runs in the application's memory space, supports multiple storage backends (memory, OS filesystem, RDBMS, key-value object stores), and offers deduplication, compression, versioning, and ACID transactions.

## Use cases
- store app files encrypted so no metadata leaks to the storage layer
- embed a private file system inside a Rust, Node.js, or browser application
- encrypt files client-side before uploading to cloud storage
- build privacy-first apps in fintech or healthcare that need confidential file storage
- add versioned, transactional encrypted storage to a desktop or mobile app
- prevent traffic analysis by packing files into uniform same-sized blocks

## When to choose
- your application needs an embedded, single-process encrypted file system rather than a shared OS-level one
- you must hide not only file contents but also names, sizes, and directory structure from the storage backend
- you want modern AEAD crypto (AES-256-GCM, XChaCha20-Poly1305, Argon2) without implementing it yourself
- you need the same encrypted storage API across Rust, Node.js, and the browser (WASM)

## When to avoid
- multiple processes need concurrent shared access to the same file system
- you need a battle-tested, production-hardened solution - the project warns it is still under development and disclaims data loss
- you only need full-disk or OS-level encryption like LUKS or VeraCrypt
- you need POSIX-compliant file system semantics or mounting as a real volume

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: maintenance
- function: file-system, cryptography, compression, security
- domain: privacy, security, files, developer-tools, cross-platform
- platform: rust, cross-platform, windows, wasm, browser
- tags: encrypted-filesystem, in-app-filesystem, libsodium, zero-knowledge, client-side-encryption, deduplication, copy-on-write, acid-transactions, storage, linux, macos, nodejs

## Member repositories
- zboxfs/zbox (main) score 10

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:05:01.186837+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T04:30:42.509239+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/zboxfs/zbox (fetched 2026-08-28T04:05:01.186837+00:00, sha 52edd250f9b7)
  - homepage: https://zbox.io/fs/ (fetched 2026-08-29T11:32:05.550220+00:00, sha 6364a6c72694)
  - site_page: https://zbox.io/getting-started (fetched 2026-08-29T11:32:05.552912+00:00, sha 8f2cb3e56dc7)
  - registry_crates: https://crates.io/api/v1/crates/zbox (fetched 2026-08-29T11:32:05.554843+00:00, sha c3fcc0cb4f23)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.