We rely on users and volunteers to find problems in our software and
suggest directions for its improvement. Although Arti isn't yet ready
for production use, you can test it as a SOCKS proxy (if you're willing
to compile from source) and as an embeddable library (if you don't mind
a little API instability).
Assuming you've installed Arti (with `cargo install arti`, or directly
from a cloned repository), you can use it to start a simple SOCKS proxy
for making connections via Tor with:
```
$ arti proxy -p 9150
```
and use it more or less as you would use the C Tor implementation!
(It doesn't support onion services yet. If compilation doesn't work, make sure you have development files for libsqlite installed on your platform.)
If you want to build a program with Arti, you probably want to start with the [`arti-client`](https://docs.rs/arti-client/latest/arti_client/index.html) crate. Be sure to check out the [examples](https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/core/arti/-/tree/main/crates/arti-client/examples) too.
For more information, check out the [README](https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/core/arti/-/blob/main/README.md) file. (For now, it assumes that you're comfortable building Rust programs from the command line). Our [CONTRIBUTING](https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/core/arti/-/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md) file has more information on installing development tools, and on using Arti inside of Tor Browser. (If you want to try that, please be aware that Arti doesn't support onion services yet.)
When you find bugs, please report them [on our bugtracker](https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/core/arti/). You can [request an account](https://gitlab.onionize.space/) or [report a bug anonymously](https://anonticket.onionize.space/).
And if this documentation doesn't make sense, please ask questions! The questions you ask today might help improve the documentation tomorrow.
# Call for feedback
Our priority for the coming months is to make Arti a production-quality Tor client, for the purposes of direct connections to the internet. (Onion services will come later.) We know some of the steps we'll need to take to get there, but not all of them: we need to know what's missing _for your use-cases_.
Whether you're a user or a developer, please give Arti a try, and let us know what you think. The sooner we learn what you need, the better our chances of getting it into an early milestone.
# Acknowledgments
Thanks to everybody who has contributed to this release, including
Christian Grigis, Dimitris Apostolou, Samanta Navarro, and
Trinity Pointard.
And thanks, of course, to [Zcash Community Grants](https://grants.zfnd.org/proposals/215972995-arti-a-pure-rust-tor-implementation-for-zcash-and-beyond) (formerly Zcash Open Major Grants (ZOMG)) for funding this project!
