Add the Rationale section to README (closes #121)

REPO_POLICIES.md requires a Rationale section saying why the program exists. RIS Live sends only the changes to the routing table, so it cannot answer which AS an address is routed to now; routewatch keeps the table the changes add up to and answers from it. Model: opus-5-5
2026-10-20 02:10:29 +00:00
parent 651a9e22f6
commit 74a58d8c37
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@@ -5,6 +5,16 @@ table in real time: it streams BGP UPDATE messages from the RIPE RIS Live
 service, maintains a live routing table in SQLite, and provides HTTP APIs for
 querying routing information.
 ## Rationale
 RIPE RIS Live streams the BGP updates that RIPE's route collectors receive, as
 they happen, from the moment a client connects. It reports changes, not the
 routing table they add up to, so it cannot say which AS an IP address is routed
 to now or which routes a prefix has. RouteWatch keeps that table: it applies the
 feed's updates to live routing tables in its own SQLite database and answers
 from them, so an IP-to-AS lookup or a prefix page shows the routes as the feed
 last reported them.
 ## Features
 - Real-time streaming of BGP updates from RIPE RIS Live