# Reference



Reference is the technical description of how Bare works. It's information-oriented: comprehensive, accurate, and dry. Use it to look up an API signature or a module.

If you're trying to accomplish a specific task, see **[How To](/bare/how-to)**. For the design rationale, see **[About Bare](/bare/explanation/use-bare-standalone)**.

<Callout type="info">
  **Pear is the platform on top.** Install the `pear` CLI when you want peer-to-peer app distribution, over-the-air updates, and one command to stage and release—the core you write here moves across unchanged. Start on the [Pear tab](/), or read [How the stack fits together](/p2p/explanation/how-the-stack-fits-together).
</Callout>

<Callout type="info">
  **P2P is the peer-to-peer building blocks.** Hypercore, Hyperswarm, Autobase, Hyperbee, Hyperdrive, HyperDHT, and Corestore—independent JavaScript modules for storage, discovery, and replication, with their own docs on the [P2P tab](/p2p). [How the stack fits together](/p2p/explanation/how-the-stack-fits-together) maps the layers.
</Callout>

## In this section [#in-this-section]

### Bare [#bare]

* [Bare runtime API](/bare/reference/bare/runtime)—the `Bare` global: process properties, lifecycle, addons, threads, IPC.
* [Embedder context API](/bare/reference/bare/embedder-context)—the C registry an embedder uses to pass native handles, such as the Android `JavaVM *`, to addons.
* [Bare CLI](/bare/reference/bare/cli)—run a script or REPL with the `bare` command.
* [Bare Kit](/bare/reference/bare/bare-kit)—the Worklet and IPC API for iOS, Android, and React Native.
* [Native-addon CI prebuilds](/bare/reference/native-addon-prebuilds)—building and publishing prebuilt native addons.

### Module catalog [#module-catalog]

* [Bare modules](/bare/reference/bare/modules)—the full `bare-*` standard library, with the Node.js compatibility table.

For the peer-to-peer building blocks, helpers, and tools that run on top of Bare—Hypercore, Hyperswarm, Autobase, and the rest—see [P2P's Reference](/p2p/reference). For Pear's CLI, configuration, and release tooling, see [Pear's Reference](/pear/reference).

## Stability legend [#stability-legend]

Module pages call out a stability indicator. The four levels:

| Stability                       | Description                                                 |
| ------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------- |
| <Status level="stable" />       | Unlikely to change or be removed in the foreseeable future. |
| <Status level="experimental" /> | New, untested, or has known issues.                         |
| <Status level="deprecated" />   | Being removed or replaced in the future.                    |
| <Status level="unstable" />     | May change or be removed without warning.                   |