---
title: Introduction
description: minipaw pipes stdin/stdout between two machines, peer to peer. Like netcat, but it gets through NATs, needs no accounts, and every byte is end-to-end encrypted.
---

One side listens and prints a ticket; the other pastes it. Whatever goes into
one side comes out of the other.

```console
$ minipaw                                  # machine A
# 🐾 listening; connect with:
minipaw mpAQDEiiVb-s5zPPFvR0SjX0lVJgAkCAESINgMwzfDtX-D_vKZ0slyfVb4K-lw-ijkyHNLfPt1UkM2

$ echo hello | minipaw mpAQDEiiVb-s5zPPF…  # machine B
```

- **Gets through NATs.** Both sides meet through a relay, then hole punching
  upgrades the connection to a direct path when the networks allow.
- **No accounts.** The ticket is the whole address. There's nothing to sign
  up for and no control plane.
- **End-to-end encrypted.** The relay only ever sees ciphertext, and both
  sides are authenticated by their peer IDs.

minipaw is an alternative to [tailcat](https://github.com/tailscale/tailcat)
built on [minip2p](https://github.com/deepso7/minip2p), a small libp2p
implementation in Rust. The networking is also a [Rust library](/docs/library)
you can embed.

**[Installation](/docs/installation)**

Build and install the `minipaw` binary.

**[Usage](/docs/usage)**

Chat, send files, and pipe anything between machines.

**[SSH over minipaw](/docs/ssh)**

Reach a machine's sshd, or a built-in SSH server, by ticket.

**[How it works](/docs/how-it-works)**

Tickets, relays, hole punching, and resumable sessions.