foks

foks 0.1.7, released by publisher ne43, is a lightweight command-line utility that provides shell-level access to FOKS—the Federated Open Key Service—allowing administrators, developers, and security engineers to query, validate, and distribute public-key material across decentralized domains without relying on a single certificate authority. Designed for automation, the tool accepts standard stdin/stdout pipelines and returns JSON or ASCII-armored key blocks that can be fed directly to gpg, OpenSSL, or CI/CD secrets managers; typical use cases include unattended container startup scripts that fetch signing keys, federated single-sign-on orchestrators that refresh identity assertions every hour, and audit pipelines that verify that every artifact in a software supply chain is countersigned by a trustee listed in the FOKS ledger. Because the client speaks the emerging FOKS wire protocol over mutual-TLS, it can roam across any number of peer keyservers while caching responses locally, reducing both latency and single-point trust. The project has iterated through six public releases since its inception, with 0.1.7 bringing stricter OIDC token refresh, ed25519 verification by default, and a rewritten Rust core that compiles to native binaries for Windows 10/11, Server 2019+, and corresponding Windows Core editions. As a result, Windows shops that already standardize on PowerShell or WinGet can slot foks into existing scripts with no additional runtime dependencies. The software is available for free on get.nero.com, with downloads provided via trusted Windows package sources such as winget, always delivering the latest version, and supporting batch installation of multiple applications.

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