Who builds WireGuard, where the source lives, how development happens, the licensing, and how to get in touch.
WireGuard is the work of Jason A. Donenfeld, who owns the trademarks and holds the copyright. It comes out of ZX2C4 and Edge Security, an information security research firm.
That is a short “who we are” section, and it is short because the answer is genuinely small — which is part of the point. A protocol meant to be auditable by one person is plausibly maintained by a small group.
Where the source is
Section titled “Where the source is”The code is split across several repositories, hosted on the project’s own git server rather than a commercial forge. There is a repository index on the official site listing every component — the kernel module, the tools, the userspace implementations, and the platform applications.
- The project’s repository list
- git.zx2c4.com — the git server itself
wg(8)manual page
How development happens
Section titled “How development happens”Development runs on a mailing list, in the older and still quite effective
style: discussion happens in the open, and patches are sent inline with
git send-email rather than as pull requests. If you have contributed to the
Linux kernel, this will be familiar; if you haven’t, the list is the place to
learn how before sending anything.
There is also an IRC channel, #wireguard on Libera.Chat, where both
development planning and user help happen. If you are stuck configuring
something, this is the right room — better than email, because more people who
know the answer are in it.
Getting in touch
Section titled “Getting in touch”Pick the channel by what you need, because the addresses are not interchangeable.
| What you have | Where it goes |
|---|---|
| A security vulnerability | security@wireguard.com — only here, never a public channel |
| Trouble setting it up | #wireguard on Libera.Chat |
| Development discussion, patches | the mailing list |
| Something private that is not a security issue | team@wireguard.com |
The project asks specifically that security reports go to the security address and nothing else go there. Both halves of that matter: a vulnerability posted to the mailing list is public the moment it lands, and support questions sent to the security alias crowd out the reports that need attention.
Postal contact is not published; the project is reached through the addresses and channels above.Licensing
Section titled “Licensing”The kernel components are released under the GPLv2, matching the Linux kernel they live in. Other components carry MIT, BSD, Apache 2.0 or GPL licences depending on what they are and where they run. Check the individual repository for the component you care about rather than assuming.
The name and logo are separate from the code: “WireGuard” and the WireGuard logo are registered trademarks of Jason A. Donenfeld, with a published usage policy. Open source code does not imply open trademark use, and the policy is worth reading before you put the name on anything.
Supporting it
Section titled “Supporting it”The project accepts donations, which is the funding model you would expect for something with no commercial product attached.
About this redesign
Section titled “About this redesign”This site is coursework: an unsolicited redesign of wireguard.com built for ANU COMP4020. It is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by the WireGuard project, and it is not a source of truth. Everything factual here was taken from the project’s own documentation; the wording is mine, and any error in it is mine too.
The original site’s technical writing is genuinely good. What I changed is how you get to it: a sidebar and search instead of one long page, a table of contents per page, a readable line length, and a layout that survives a phone. The project’s own material — the whitepaper, the formal verification work, the limitations page — deserved to be findable.
Built with Astro and Starlight, using the Lucode Starlight theme by Lucas Colombo, MIT licensed.