Protocol Labs ends funding for IPFS maintainer Shipyard

Protocol Labs declined to renew funding for Shipyard, an independent collective that maintains InterPlanetary File System software. Shipyard will end its engineering, maintenance and infrastructure operations on Sept. 30. Projects affected include Kubo, Helia, Boxo, Rainbow, IPFS Desktop and IPFS Companion. Shipyard will also stop operating public infrastructure such as ipfs.io, dweb.link, delegated-ipfs.dev and IPFS bootstrap nodes. Protocol Labs owns the related domains and infrastructure and will determine their future. IPFS itself will not shut down. Shipyard's wind-down will remove dedicated stewardship from many implementations and services unless other maintainers take them over. Molly Mackinlay, Protocol Labs' engineering and research lead, said IPFS would shift to lighter-weight stewardship through IPFS Foundation grants to individual maintainers. Mackinlay said development would continue on decentralized public infrastructure. Shipyard was established in 2024 by longtime IPFS developers who previously worked at Protocol Labs.