> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://number0-improve-contact.mintlify.site/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Use your own relay

> Configure dedicated relays so your endpoints don't share infrastructure with the public network

By default, iroh endpoints use the public relays maintained by [n0.computer](https://n0.computer) to facilitate connections when direct peer-to-peer links aren't possible. The public relays are great for development and testing, but production deployments should run their own.

## Configure your endpoint

Once you have one or more relay URLs, configure your endpoint to use them:

Your dedicated relays require authentication by default. Your endpoint
authenticates to them with your project's API key. The `iroh_services::preset()` builder handles
this for you: it mints a short-lived access token scoped to your endpoint's key
and configures the endpoint to use your relays.

Add the `iroh-services` crate to your project:

```bash theme={null}
cargo add iroh-services
```

Then build a preset and bind your endpoint with it:

```rust theme={null}
use iroh::Endpoint;

#[tokio::main]
async fn main() -> anyhow::Result<()> {
    // Build a preset pointing at your dedicated relays, authenticated with
    // your project's API key. In production, load the key from a config file
    // or environment variable instead of hardcoding it.
    let preset = iroh_services::preset()
        .relays([
            "YOUR_RELAY_URL_US",
            "YOUR_RELAY_URL_EU",
        ])?
        .api_secret_from_str("YOUR_API_KEY")?
        .build()?;

    // Bind the endpoint with the preset, then wait until it's online to
    // confirm it has an authorized connection to a relay.
    let endpoint = Endpoint::bind(preset).await?;
    endpoint.online().await;

    Ok(())
}
```

<Note>
  Custom relay URLs are available on Pro and Enterprise projects. On a free project, pass your API key to the preset without `relays(...)` to authenticate against the public relays and surface your relay traffic on the dashboard.
</Note>

Relays you self-host outside of Iroh Services are configured directly with `RelayMode::Custom`; see [Dedicated Infrastructure](/deployment/dedicated-infrastructure).

## Why use your own relay?

Running dedicated relays gives you:

* **Isolation**: your traffic isn't mixed with other applications
* **Performance**: relays close to your users reduce latency and improve NAT traversal success
* **Capacity**: the shared public infrastructure is rate-limited
* **Redundancy**: distribute relays across regions or cloud providers for failover
* **Compliance**: keep relayed traffic inside your own network or jurisdiction

Iroh's relay architecture is uniquely suited to multi-relay deployments because
relays are stateless. Clients automatically fail over between relays in your
list, so adding capacity or surviving an outage is just a matter of running more
relay processes. See [Dedicated
Infrastructure](/deployment/dedicated-infrastructure) for the deeper
architecture story.

## Get a relay

You have two paths. Pick **managed** if you want a relay running today. But
you're never locked in! You can always self-host later if you want.

<Card title="Deploy a managed relay" icon="server" href="https://services.iroh.computer?utm_source=docs&utm_content=add-a-relay">
  Sign up for Iroh Services and spin up a managed relay for your project in minutes.
</Card>

<Card title="Self-host a relay" icon="wrench" href="https://github.com/n0-computer/iroh/tree/main/iroh-relay">
  Run the `iroh-relay` binary on a server with a public IP and DNS name. Automatic TLS via ACME is built in.
</Card>

## Recommended setup

For production, run at least two relays in different geographic regions, for example one in North America and one in Europe. iroh clients try multiple relays automatically, so if one becomes unreachable they'll seamlessly fall back to another.

Each relay handles up to 60,000 concurrent connections. For larger deployments, run multiple relays per region or [contact us](https://cal.com/team/number-0/n0-protocol-services) to size up.

## Learn more

For the full architecture story (why stateless relays make uptime management easier, how multi-cloud resilience works, and managed relay deployment steps) see [Dedicated Infrastructure](/deployment/dedicated-infrastructure).