> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.neova.io/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.neova.io/neova/peer-to-peer-network/node-operators.md).

# Node Operators

NeoDrive stores bytes on a swarm of nodes. Those nodes are operated by partners and by people who want to put capacity on the network. The drive stays simple for the person uploading a file. The network stays explicit for the person running the machine.

You join a swarm that already has a directory, a read gateway, and an admission key. You supply disk, uptime, and a correct announce.

### What you run

A Neova node is Kubo in private mode, plus the processes that make the rest of the swarm able to use it.

| Process     | Job                                                                                           |
| ----------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Kubo        | Store blocks, pin what the network assigns, serve Bitswap inside the swarm                    |
| Announcer   | Every \~30 seconds, push pinned CIDs, your identity, and your capacity to the Private Indexer |
| Accelerator | Serve reads close to the node, using the indexer’s ranking and a local cache                  |

The node does not bootstrap into public IPFS, and it does not announce to the public DHT. The central indexer is the catalog. Your node points at it. A full re-announce, about every 12 hours, keeps your records inside their 24-hour lifetime.

The core of the network runs the indexer. Operator nodes run storage, announce, and, when useful, a local accelerator.

### How you join

Bring-up is Docker: Kubo, the announcer, and the accelerator, aimed at the Neova indexer, with the swarm key that makes the handshake succeed. Without that key, the machine never becomes a peer, whatever else is configured.

Today, the practical path is a **Nodes-as-a-Service** partner. They operate the machine, you fund the capacity, and you follow it from the operator dashboard. That dashboard shows your nodes, their availability, and the points they have accumulated. Open self-hosting comes later, on this same swarm and this same announce protocol.

### Points follow the indexer

A node that exists only in a signup form is not capacity. Points follow the peers the Private Indexer can actually see: present on the swarm, recently seen, reachable by the prober.

While the indexer marks the node available, online time accumulates, and that time is what becomes operator points. When the node leaves the swarm, the clock stops. Freshness, latency, and success rate also decide whether the accelerator prefers you for reads. A node that is up, announced, and quick is the node the network uses. A node that is dark earns nothing for the hours it was dark, because those hours were not measured.

This is the supply side of the network. People who store files in NeoDrive earn usage points on their side. Operators earn for keeping the disk online. One side needs somewhere to put files. The other needs files worth storing.

Points are the live counter. They are the record the network will carry into operator rewards when the network asset is in circulation. Quality is already enforced by the score: a slow or failing node is asked less often, and an offline node does not accrue time.

### What a strong node looks like

* **Reachable.** The prober samples round-trip time about every 30 seconds. High latency pushes you down the provider list.
* **Honest about its pins.** The announcer republishes what Kubo has pinned. A fresh announce is what keeps you in lookup results.
* **Honest about capacity.** Declared storage is how the network understands the room you are offering. Kubo’s own repository limit is what triggers garbage collection on the machine. Set both for the disk you really have.
* **Still a member.** Drop the swarm key, or get removed, and the handshake fails. With Swarm Keys v2, removal can target your node alone: revoke the credential, leave every other operator untouched.

### Why the network is a swarm

A classic cloud grows by adding disks in one provider’s buildings. NeoDrive grows by adding peers that already have room: a partner running nodes as a service, a company with spare capacity, a region where the data is supposed to live. Each peer that stays healthy gives the indexer another provider and gives the accelerator another path around a slow disk.

The indexer, the accelerator, and Swarm Keys v2 exist so that adding the next operator is a repeatable join, published and specified, rather than a one-off integration. The protocol pages are Private Indexer, Swarm Accelerator, and Open-source contribution.

Organizations that want their own capacity on this swarm, or a zone of their own, should read Enterprise.