HNS.ONE

Handshake Apps

Apps that run on a name.

A Handshake App is an ordinary web app served from a Handshake name. It ships a small manifest declaring what it needs, and it asks the browser — not a platform — who you are. You sign in with a name you already hold: no account, no password, no OAuth redirect.

Featured

PXLS — win a name, one pixel at a timelive

A shared pixel canvas that runs in seasons and pays out real names to the winners. It is the first third-party Handshake App, and the first app a browser runs live over a Handshake name it resolves and routes itself: the canvas streams over a WebSocket to wss://pxls, the browser resolves the name through its own node, routes the socket through a local proxy, and pins the TLS to the name's on-chain DANE record — no certificate authority, and no gateway in the middle. You sign in as your own name, proven to the game's server by a signature from that name's key. Reachable natively at hns://pxls and over the gateway at pxls.hns.one.

Also built to the standard

2url — short linkslive

The first-party reference app. It reads your main identity through the same mediator PXLS uses, so it shows “signed in as you” without asking you to type your name back in. Records →

Your app here

The mediator is a small, documented contract: a manifest, a read of your main identity, and a one-request signed attestation to the app's own server. Serve an app from a Handshake name and it can sign users in with their names too. Self-hosting →

How sign-in works

  • The manifest is the ceiling. An app lists the capabilities it wants. The browser grants nothing the manifest did not ask for, and asks you once, at install.
  • The browser holds the keys, never the app. The app never sees a key. It asks the browser who you are, and for a single-request signature bound to the app's own address — never to ours.
  • You are a name, not an account. Signing in is a signature from the key behind your name, which the app's server checks against the name's own record. A leaderboard is then a list of people, not of whatever a client claimed to be.