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# System prepended metadata

title: w3name

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# w3name

This documentation describes how to use our HTTP API for w3name. 

This API will allow you to build applications that create and manage IPNS records. IPNS is short for InterPlanetary Name System and adds a new layer to the powerful content addressing that IPFS provides. w3name is a service that provides secure, stable identifiers for content addressable and mutable data (that changes over time).

While you can interact with this API in a simple way using our [JS client library](https://web3.storage/docs/how-tos/w3name/), we also provide this API on its own for you to leverage in your application. 

This API will allow you to create, update and retrieve a w3name record. However, in order to do this, you will first need to create a k5 public key by publishing your CID to IPNS. You can do this for example through the IPNS CLI ([documentation here].(https://docs.ipfs.tech/concepts/ipns/#example-ipns-setup-with-cli)). Once the keypair is created you can use the public key in our w3name API payload to create a new w3name record and publish it to the DHT.


