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High level firefox sync interactions

On a high level, Firefox Sync has three main components:

  • The Firefox Account Server: Which uses oauth to authenticate and provide users with scoped access. The FxA Server also stores input that will be used by the clients to generate the sync keys.
  • Firefox: This is the firefox app itself, which implements the client logic to communicate with the firefox account servers, generate sync keys, use them to encrypt data and send/receive encrypted data to/from the sync storage servers
  • Sync Storage Server: The server that stores encrypted sync data. The clients would retrieve the encrypted data and decrypt it client side

Additionally, the token server assists in providing metadata to Firefox, so that it knows which sync server to communicate with. Diagram showing on a high level, how Firefox sync interacts with Firefox Accounts and Sync Services

Multi-platform sync diagram

Since we have multiple Firefox apps (Desktop, iOS, Android, Focus, etc) Firefox sync can sync across platforms. Allowing users to access their up-to-date data across apps and devices. Diagram showing how firefox sync is a multi-platform feature

Before: How sync was

Before our Rust Components came to life, each application had its own implementation of the sync and FxA client protocols. This lead to duplicate logic across platforms. This was problematic since any modification to the sync or FxA client business logic would need to be modified in all implementations and the likelihood of errors was high. Diagram showing how firefox sync used to be, with each platform having its own implementation

Now: Sync is starting to streamline its components

Currently, we are in the process of migrating many of the sync implementation to use our Rust Component strategy. Fenix primarily uses our Rust Components and iOS has some integrated as well. Additionally, Firefox Desktop also uses one Rust component (Web Extension Storage).

The Rust components not only unify the different implementations of sync, they also provide a convenient local storage for the apps. In other words, the apps can use the components for storage, with or without syncing to the server. Diagram showing how firefox sync is now, with iOS and Fenix platform sharing some implementations

Current Status

The following table has the status of each of our sync Rust Components

Application\Component Bookmarks History Tabs Passwords Autofill Web Extension Storage FxA Client
Fenix ✔️ ✔️ ✔️ ✔️ ✔️ ✔️
Firefox iOS ✔️ ✔️ ✔️ ✔️
Firefox Desktop ✔️
Focus

Future: Only one implementation for each sync engine

In an aspirational future, all the applications would use the same implementation for Sync. However, it's unlikely that we would migrate everything to use the Rust components since some implementations may not be prioritized, this is especially true for desktop which already has stable implementations. That said, we can get close to this future and minimize duplicate logic and the likelihood of errors. Diagram showing how firefox sync should be, with all platforms using one implementation

You can edit the diagrams in the following lucid chart (Note: Currently only Mozilla Employees can edit those diagrams): https://lucid.app/lucidchart/invitations/accept/inv_ab72e218-3ad9-4604-a7cd-7e0b0c259aa2

Once they are edited, you can re-import them here by replacing the old diagrams in the docs/diagrams directory on GitHub. As long as the names are the same, you shouldn't need to edit those docs!