is it possible to create ipns mutable folders using pinata.cloud ?

No, it is not possible to create or use IPNS mutable folders directly on Pinata. Pinata does not support IPNS because of its slow speeds and the infrastructure complexity required to implement it at scale.

Because IPFS is inherently immutable, standard folders pinned to Pinata cannot be altered after being shared; any change to the content results in a new Content Identifier (CID). To achieve mutability with Pinata, users must rely on alternative methods:

Hot Swaps Plugin: Pinata offers a Gateway Plugin called Hot Swaps (available on paid plans) that allows you to map one CID to another, effectively making the content mutable at the gateway level without changing the original reference CID.
Local IPFS Node: You can use a local IPFS node to handle IPNS publishing and Mutable File System (MFS) operations, then use Pinata's pinByHash API to pin the new content.
Groups: Pinata’s Groups feature allows for organizational mutability, enabling you to move files and folders between groups, though this does not provide the same cryptographic name resolution as IPNS.

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Elaborate

What are the limitations of Pinata's Hot Swaps plugin? How does Pinata Groups differ from IPNS? What are the costs for Pinata's paid features?

docs.pinata.cloud › gateways › plugins › hot-swaps

Hot Swaps - Pinata Docs

The Hot Swaps plugin can be used to “redirect” a CID to another CID. This can be useful when you need to replace content without updaing the CID hash. While it may seem like this undermines the benefits of IPFS’ imutable content system, ...

pinata.cloud › blog › introducing-hot-swaps-the-easiest-way-to-make-ipfs-content-mutable

Introducing Hot Swaps: The Easiest Way To Make IPFS Content Mutable

19 August 2024 - Hot Swaps is a Gateway-level plugin. That means it only impacts the Gateway the plugin is installed on. Everyone else’s Dedicated Gateways and Public IPFS Gateways are not impacted.

pinata.cloud › blog › how-to-update-an-nft-image-using-hot-swaps

How to Update an NFT Image using Hot Swaps

3 October 2024 - Pinata recently announced a new feature for gateways called Hot Swaps. This is a opt-in plugin you can install on a Pinata Dedicated Gateway that allows you to swap one CID for another.

reddit.com › r/ipfs › ipfs provider recommendations which support mutable file system (mfs) and ipns?

r/ipfs on Reddit: ipfs provider recommendations which support Mutable File System (MFS) and ipns?

2 October 2023 -

Up until now I've been using infura as an ipfs provider for my web app to store nft metadata and any linked media files. But now I would like to make nft metadata mutable by using ipns to point to updated content. As far as I can see, infura doesn't support this: https://community.infura.io/t/api-does-not-have-mfs/4571

I am not really up to date on the ipfs provider ecosystem, or what makes one better than another... It doesn't help that my understanding of ipfs in general isn't the best. But I was looking at other options like web3.storage or filebase.io however it looks like both basically don't support the ipfs api: https://docs.ipfs.tech/reference/kubo/rpc/#rpc-commands and a lot of options just expose some sort of s3 interface? Should I just switch my webapp to using a s3 client instead of something like Helia?
So I'm looking a bit confused what my options are. It looks like pinata supports what I want, but they are kind of ridiculously expensive imo.

Top answer

1 of 3

You can probably do that modification using the Mutable File System in your IPFS node then sending an updated hash to pin

2 of 3

In general, no, you can't upload something new to a folder. To get a little technical, IPFS doesn't really store files and folders. It just stores data of any sort, and the address, the CID, is calculated based on the content of the data. Change the content in any way and you'll get a different address. That's why you can't change a file. But a folder to IPFS is just more data, this time a list of files. Try to change the folder by adding a file and you'll change the list, which changes the content, which again gets you a different address to the folder.

Pinata

pinata.cloud › blog › introducing-hot-swaps-the-easiest-way-to-make-ipfs-content-mutable

Introducing Hot Swaps: The Easiest Way To Make IPFS Content Mutable

19 August 2024 - We are, however, acting on years of customer research to introduce a new way to give IPFS CIDs mutable properties. Starting today, customers on our paid plans can install a new Gateway Plugin called Hot Swaps.

Pinata

pinata.cloud › blog › how-to-use-pinata-a-step-by-step-guide-for-beginners

How to Use Pinata: A Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners

24 January 2025 - Our web app is a useful way to test file uploads before jumping into the API. From the web application, click the files page. From there, you can choose to upload a single file or a folder.

Pinata

pinata.cloud › blog › organize-your-ipfs-files-with-groups

Organize Your IPFS Files With Groups

5 December 2024 - With Groups, you can organize content without requiring individual files to live in an immutable folder. In fact, you can organize folders of files inside Groups.

Pinata

pinata.cloud › blog › ipcm-vs-ipns

IPCM vs IPNS

30 January 2025 - One of the main reasons to use ... moments when an app needs dynamic content. IPNS (InterPlanetary Name Service) has been the go-to method for dynamic and mutable content on IPFS, as it uses a name system to resolve and point ...

reddit.com › r/ipfs › deploy dapp frontend using ipfs and pinatasdk

r/ipfs on Reddit: Deploy DAPP frontend using IPFS and PinataSDK

21 January 2019 - I looked at Pinata, but doesn't support IPNS... so does not help as an mutable file gateway.

Pinata

pinata.cloud › blog › introducing-pinata-gateway-plugins

Introducing Pinata Gateway Plugins

21 May 2024 - One of the most requested features we get from customers is an IPNS-like solution that is flexible and performant. While IPFS is immutable, there are plenty of valid use cases for being able to swap out the content of an IPFS CID in an auditable way without having to change the entire URL.

reddit.com › r › ethdev › comments › vrzoaq › ipns_with_ipfs_cid_created_on_pinata

r/ethdev on Reddit: IPNS with ipfs CID created on Pinata.

17 August 2022 - How did you push the IPNS record? Also, you might need to retry a little while to see if the other gateway finally find your CID/file. ... Pinata gateway does not support IPNS. But it does support IPFS V2, while other gateways don't support IPFS V2.

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Pinata

pinata.cloud › blog › how-to-use-the-pinata-sdk

How to Use the Pinata SDK

19 March 2025 - Sometimes you want to move files around and edit a folder’s contents, but since IPFS is immutable it requires re-uploading the folder. Pinata’s Groups feature is designed to solve that!

Pinata

app.pinata.cloud › ipfs

Pinata | Effortless IPFS File Management

The internet's file API

Pinata

pinata.cloud

Pinata | Autonomous File Storage

Add file uploads and retrieval in minutes so you can focus on your app —because you’ve got better things to code than infrastructure.

GitHub

github.com › ItalyPaleAle › pinatapinner

GitHub - ItalyPaleAle/pinatapinner: Publish folders on IPFS using Pinata

12 July 2019 - Pinata Pinner can only pin folders (if you want to pin individual files, the Pinata APIs are easy to invoke with just a curl call).

Author: ItalyPaleAle

Pinata

knowledge.pinata.cloud › all collections › nfts › can i update a folder that is pinned on ipfs?

Can I Update a Folder That is Pinned on IPFS? | Pinata Help Center

22 September 2021 - Coming from the traditional file storage world, it's easy to get lost in how IPFS differs. This particular question is the most common one we receive and highlights the biggest difference in content-addressed file systems · When a file or folder is pinned to IPFS, a content identifier (CID) ...

reddit.com › r/ipfs › ways to make data mutable - ipns not working properly

r/ipfs on Reddit: Ways to make data mutable - IPNS not working properly

15 January 2025 -

Hello there,

I am building a DApp for a uni project, where multiple users access mutable data.

I am using React, Ethereum blockchain for user management and a free Pinata account for the files.

I was planning on using IPNS to make the data mutable: One file's CID published to an IPNS name, any file update published to the same name. So, I could share the data among the users and only store the IPNS name in the smart contract.

I've impllemented the publishing to Pinata (which works fine) and included IPNS, only to find out that it doesn't work properly. I've read up on IPNS and people's experiences and it seems to never have worked properly at all.

My question now: Is there anything like a pinning service for IPNS? Or is there any other (decentralized) way to make the changing CIDs retrievable?

I've thought about including the naming in the smart contract, but the option doesn't really make sense, either, since any little change in the file would result in a transaction, which costs money and time.

Any ideas would be appreciated, thanks in advance!