diff --git a/changelog.md b/changelog.md
index a4acdd0..47fb150 100644
--- a/changelog.md
+++ b/changelog.md
@@ -1,5 +1,12 @@
 # Changelog
 
+## 2026-03-21 - 6.3.0 - feat(readme)
+document distributed cluster mode, erasure coding, and QUIC-based architecture
+
+- Expand README overview and feature matrix to highlight clustering, multi-drive awareness, and distributed storage capabilities
+- Add standalone and cluster mode usage examples plus cluster configuration options
+- Document clustering internals including erasure coding, quorum behavior, QUIC transport, self-healing, and on-disk layout
+
 ## 2026-03-21 - 6.2.0 - feat(cluster)
 add shard healing, drive health heartbeats, and clustered policy directory support
 
diff --git a/readme.md b/readme.md
index 700a2f0..aa6d02f 100644
--- a/readme.md
+++ b/readme.md
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 # @push.rocks/smartstorage
 
-A high-performance, S3-compatible local storage server powered by a **Rust core** with a clean TypeScript API. Drop-in replacement for AWS S3 during development and testing — no cloud, no Docker, no MinIO. Just `npm install` and go.
+A high-performance, S3-compatible storage server powered by a **Rust core** with a clean TypeScript API. Runs standalone for dev/test — or scales out as a **distributed, erasure-coded cluster** with QUIC-based inter-node communication. No cloud, no Docker. Just `npm install` and go. 🚀
 
 ## Issue Reporting and Security
 
@@ -15,23 +15,34 @@ For reporting bugs, issues, or security vulnerabilities, please visit [community
 | Large file uploads | Streaming, zero-copy | Yes | OOM risk |
 | Range requests | Seek-based | Yes | Full read |
 | Language | Rust + TypeScript | Go | JavaScript |
-| Multipart uploads | Full support | Yes | No |
+| Multipart uploads | ✅ Full support | Yes | No |
 | Auth | AWS SigV4 (full verification) | Full IAM | Basic |
 | Bucket policies | IAM-style evaluation | Yes | No |
+| Clustering | ✅ Erasure-coded, QUIC | Yes | No |
+| Multi-drive awareness | ✅ Per-drive health | Yes | No |
 
 ### Core Features
 
-- **Rust-powered HTTP server** — hyper 1.x with streaming I/O, zero-copy, backpressure
-- **Full S3-compatible API** — works with AWS SDK v3, SmartBucket, any S3 client
-- **Filesystem-backed storage** — buckets map to directories, objects to files
-- **Streaming multipart uploads** — large files without memory pressure
-- **Byte-range requests** — `seek()` directly to the requested byte offset
-- **AWS SigV4 authentication** — full signature verification with constant-time comparison and 15-min clock skew enforcement
-- **Bucket policies** — IAM-style JSON policies with Allow/Deny evaluation, wildcard matching, and anonymous access support
-- **CORS middleware** — configurable cross-origin support
-- **Structured logging** — tracing-based, error through debug levels
-- **Clean slate mode** — wipe storage on startup for test isolation
-- **Test-first design** — start/stop in milliseconds, no port conflicts
+- 🦀 **Rust-powered HTTP server** — hyper 1.x with streaming I/O, zero-copy, backpressure
+- 📦 **Full S3-compatible API** — works with AWS SDK v3, SmartBucket, any S3 client
+- 💾 **Filesystem-backed storage** — buckets map to directories, objects to files
+- 📤 **Streaming multipart uploads** — large files without memory pressure
+- 📐 **Byte-range requests** — `seek()` directly to the requested byte offset
+- 🔐 **AWS SigV4 authentication** — full signature verification with constant-time comparison
+- 📋 **Bucket policies** — IAM-style JSON policies with Allow/Deny evaluation and wildcard matching
+- 🌐 **CORS middleware** — configurable cross-origin support
+- 🧹 **Clean slate mode** — wipe storage on startup for test isolation
+- ⚡ **Test-first design** — start/stop in milliseconds, no port conflicts
+
+### Clustering Features
+
+- 🔗 **Erasure coding** — Reed-Solomon (configurable k data + m parity shards) for storage efficiency and fault tolerance
+- 🚄 **QUIC transport** — multiplexed, encrypted inter-node communication via `quinn` with zero head-of-line blocking
+- 💽 **Multi-drive awareness** — each node manages multiple independent storage paths with health monitoring
+- 🤝 **Cluster membership** — static seed config + runtime join, heartbeat-based failure detection
+- ✍️ **Quorum writes** — data is only acknowledged after k+1 shards are persisted
+- 📖 **Quorum reads** — reconstruct from any k available shards, local-first fast path
+- 🩹 **Self-healing** — background scanner detects and reconstructs missing/corrupt shards
 
 ## Installation
 
@@ -43,6 +54,8 @@ pnpm add @push.rocks/smartstorage -D
 
 ## Quick Start
 
+### Standalone Mode (Dev & Test)
+
 ```typescript
 import { SmartStorage } from '@push.rocks/smartstorage';
 
@@ -63,6 +76,31 @@ const descriptor = await storage.getStorageDescriptor();
 await storage.stop();
 ```
 
+### Cluster Mode (Distributed)
+
+```typescript
+import { SmartStorage } from '@push.rocks/smartstorage';
+
+const storage = await SmartStorage.createAndStart({
+  server: { port: 3000 },
+  cluster: {
+    enabled: true,
+    nodeId: 'node-1',
+    quicPort: 4000,
+    seedNodes: ['192.168.1.11:4000', '192.168.1.12:4000'],
+    erasure: {
+      dataShards: 4,      // k: minimum shards to reconstruct data
+      parityShards: 2,    // m: fault tolerance (can lose up to m shards)
+    },
+    drives: {
+      paths: ['/mnt/disk1', '/mnt/disk2', '/mnt/disk3'],
+    },
+  },
+});
+```
+
+Objects are automatically split into chunks (default 4 MB), erasure-coded into 6 shards (4 data + 2 parity), and distributed across drives/nodes. Any 4 of 6 shards can reconstruct the original data.
+
 ## Configuration
 
 All config fields are optional — sensible defaults are applied automatically.
@@ -75,7 +113,7 @@ const config: ISmartStorageConfig = {
     port: 3000,              // Default: 3000
     address: '0.0.0.0',      // Default: '0.0.0.0'
     silent: false,           // Default: false
-    region: 'us-east-1',    // Default: 'us-east-1' — used for SigV4 signing
+    region: 'us-east-1',     // Default: 'us-east-1' — used for SigV4 signing
   },
   storage: {
     directory: './my-data',  // Default: .nogit/bucketsDir
@@ -111,6 +149,22 @@ const config: ISmartStorageConfig = {
     expirationDays: 7,
     cleanupIntervalMinutes: 60,
   },
+  cluster: {                 // Optional — omit for standalone mode
+    enabled: true,
+    nodeId: 'node-1',        // Auto-generated UUID if omitted
+    quicPort: 4000,          // Default: 4000
+    seedNodes: [],           // Addresses of existing cluster members
+    erasure: {
+      dataShards: 4,         // Default: 4
+      parityShards: 2,       // Default: 2
+      chunkSizeBytes: 4194304, // Default: 4 MB
+    },
+    drives: {
+      paths: ['/mnt/disk1', '/mnt/disk2'],
+    },
+    heartbeatIntervalMs: 5000,  // Default: 5000
+    heartbeatTimeoutMs: 30000,  // Default: 30000
+  },
 };
 
 const storage = await SmartStorage.createAndStart(config);
@@ -207,7 +261,7 @@ const files = await dir.listFiles();
 
 ## Multipart Uploads
 
-For files larger than 5 MB, use multipart uploads. smartstorage handles them with **streaming I/O** — parts are written directly to disk, never buffered in memory.
+For files larger than 5 MB, use multipart uploads. smartstorage handles them with **streaming I/O** — parts are written directly to disk, never buffered in memory. In cluster mode, each part is independently erasure-coded and distributed.
 
 ```typescript
 import {
@@ -255,8 +309,6 @@ When `auth.enabled` is `true`, the auth pipeline works as follows:
 
 ### Setting a Bucket Policy
 
-Use the S3 `PutBucketPolicy` API (or any S3 client that supports it):
-
 ```typescript
 import { PutBucketPolicyCommand } from '@aws-sdk/client-s3';
 
@@ -294,6 +346,81 @@ await client.send(new PutBucketPolicyCommand({
 
 Deleting a bucket automatically removes its associated policy.
 
+## Clustering Deep Dive 🔗
+
+smartstorage can run as a distributed storage cluster where multiple nodes cooperate to store and retrieve data with built-in redundancy.
+
+### How It Works
+
+```
+Client ──HTTP PUT──▶ Node A (coordinator)
+                       │
+                       ├─ Split object into 4 MB chunks
+                       ├─ Erasure-code each chunk (4 data + 2 parity = 6 shards)
+                       │
+                       ├──QUIC──▶ Node B (shard writes)
+                       ├──QUIC──▶ Node C (shard writes)
+                       └─ Local disk (shard writes)
+```
+
+1. **Any node can coordinate** — the client connects to any cluster member
+2. **Objects are chunked** — large objects split into fixed-size pieces (default 4 MB)
+3. **Each chunk is erasure-coded** — Reed-Solomon produces k data + m parity shards
+4. **Shards are distributed** — placed across different nodes and drives for fault isolation
+5. **Quorum guarantees consistency** — writes need k+1 acks, reads need k shards
+
+### Erasure Coding
+
+With the default `4+2` configuration:
+- Storage overhead: **33%** (vs. 200% for 3x replication)
+- Fault tolerance: **any 2 drives/nodes can fail** simultaneously
+- Read efficiency: only **4 of 6 shards** needed to reconstruct data
+
+| Config | Total Shards | Overhead | Tolerance | Min Nodes |
+|--------|-------------|----------|-----------|-----------|
+| 4+2 | 6 | 33% | 2 failures | 3 |
+| 6+3 | 9 | 50% | 3 failures | 5 |
+| 2+1 | 3 | 50% | 1 failure | 2 |
+
+### QUIC Transport
+
+Inter-node communication uses [QUIC](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QUIC) via the `quinn` library:
+- 🔒 **Built-in TLS** — self-signed certs auto-generated at cluster init
+- 🔀 **Multiplexed streams** — concurrent shard transfers without head-of-line blocking
+- ⚡ **Connection pooling** — persistent connections to peer nodes
+- 🌊 **Natural backpressure** — QUIC flow control prevents overloading slow peers
+
+### Cluster Membership
+
+- **Static seed nodes** — initial cluster defined in config
+- **Runtime join** — new nodes can join a running cluster
+- **Heartbeat monitoring** — every 5s (configurable), with suspect/offline detection
+- **Split-brain prevention** — nodes only mark peers offline when they have majority
+
+### Self-Healing
+
+A background scanner periodically (default: every 24h):
+1. Checks shard checksums (CRC32C) for bit-rot detection
+2. Identifies shards on offline nodes
+3. Reconstructs missing shards from remaining data using Reed-Solomon
+4. Places healed shards on healthy drives
+
+Healing runs at low priority to avoid impacting foreground I/O.
+
+### Erasure Set Formation
+
+Drives are organized into fixed **erasure sets** at cluster initialization:
+
+```
+3 nodes × 4 drives each = 12 drives total
+With 6-shard erasure sets → 2 erasure sets
+
+Set 0: Node1-Disk0, Node2-Disk0, Node3-Disk0, Node1-Disk1, Node2-Disk1, Node3-Disk1
+Set 1: Node1-Disk2, Node2-Disk2, Node3-Disk2, Node1-Disk3, Node2-Disk3, Node3-Disk3
+```
+
+Drives are interleaved across nodes for maximum fault isolation. New nodes form new erasure sets — existing data is never rebalanced.
+
 ## Testing Integration
 
 ```typescript
@@ -358,31 +485,37 @@ Get connection details for S3-compatible clients. Returns:
 smartstorage uses a **hybrid Rust + TypeScript** architecture:
 
 ```
-┌─────────────────────────────────┐
-│  Your Code (AWS SDK, etc.)      │
-│  ↕ HTTP (localhost:3000)        │
-├─────────────────────────────────┤
-│  ruststorage binary (Rust)      │
-│  ├─ hyper 1.x HTTP server      │
-│  ├─ S3 path-style routing      │
-│  ├─ Streaming storage layer    │
-│  ├─ Multipart manager          │
-│  ├─ SigV4 auth + policy engine │
-│  ├─ CORS middleware            │
-│  └─ S3 XML response builder   │
-├─────────────────────────────────┤
-│  TypeScript (thin IPC wrapper)  │
-│  ├─ SmartStorage class         │
-│  ├─ RustBridge (stdin/stdout)  │
-│  └─ Config & S3 descriptor    │
-└─────────────────────────────────┘
+┌──────────────────────────────────────────────┐
+│  Your Code (AWS SDK, SmartBucket, etc.)       │
+│  ↕ HTTP (localhost:3000)                     │
+├──────────────────────────────────────────────┤
+│  ruststorage binary (Rust)                    │
+│  ├─ hyper 1.x HTTP server                   │
+│  ├─ S3 path-style routing                   │
+│  ├─ StorageBackend (Standalone or Clustered) │
+│  │   ├─ FileStore (single-node mode)        │
+│  │   └─ DistributedStore (cluster mode)     │
+│  │       ├─ ErasureCoder (Reed-Solomon)     │
+│  │       ├─ ShardStore (per-drive storage)  │
+│  │       ├─ QuicTransport (quinn)           │
+│  │       ├─ ClusterState & Membership       │
+│  │       └─ HealingService                  │
+│  ├─ SigV4 auth + policy engine              │
+│  ├─ CORS middleware                          │
+│  └─ S3 XML response builder                 │
+├──────────────────────────────────────────────┤
+│  TypeScript (thin IPC wrapper)               │
+│  ├─ SmartStorage class                       │
+│  ├─ RustBridge (stdin/stdout JSON IPC)       │
+│  └─ Config & S3 descriptor                  │
+└──────────────────────────────────────────────┘
 ```
 
-**Why Rust?** The TypeScript implementation had critical perf issues: OOM on multipart uploads (parts buffered in memory), double stream copying, file descriptor leaks on HEAD requests, full-file reads for range requests, and no backpressure. The Rust binary solves all of these with streaming I/O, zero-copy, and direct `seek()` for range requests.
+**Why Rust?** The original TypeScript implementation had critical perf issues: OOM on multipart uploads (parts buffered in memory), double stream copying, file descriptor leaks on HEAD requests, full-file reads for range requests, and no backpressure. The Rust binary solves all of these with streaming I/O, zero-copy, and direct `seek()` for range requests.
 
-**IPC Protocol:** TypeScript spawns the `ruststorage` binary with `--management` and communicates via newline-delimited JSON over stdin/stdout. Commands: `start`, `stop`, `createBucket`.
+**IPC Protocol:** TypeScript spawns the `ruststorage` binary with `--management` and communicates via newline-delimited JSON over stdin/stdout. Commands: `start`, `stop`, `createBucket`, `clusterStatus`.
 
-### S3-Compatible Operations Supported
+### S3-Compatible Operations
 
 | Operation | Method | Path |
 |-----------|--------|------|
@@ -407,26 +540,40 @@ smartstorage uses a **hybrid Rust + TypeScript** architecture:
 
 ### On-Disk Format
 
+**Standalone mode:**
 ```
 {storage.directory}/
   {bucket}/
-    {key}._storage_object              # Object data
+    {key}._storage_object                # Object data
     {key}._storage_object.metadata.json  # Metadata (content-type, x-amz-meta-*, etc.)
-    {key}._storage_object.md5          # Cached MD5 hash
+    {key}._storage_object.md5            # Cached MD5 hash
   .multipart/
     {upload-id}/
-      metadata.json               # Upload metadata (bucket, key, parts)
-      part-1                      # Part data files
-      part-2
-      ...
+      metadata.json                      # Upload metadata
+      part-1, part-2, ...               # Part data files
   .policies/
-    {bucket}.policy.json          # Bucket policy (IAM JSON format)
+    {bucket}.policy.json                 # Bucket policy (IAM JSON format)
+```
+
+**Cluster mode:**
+```
+{drive_path}/.smartstorage/
+  format.json                            # Drive metadata (cluster ID, erasure set)
+  data/{bucket}/{key_hash}/{key}/
+    chunk-{N}/shard-{M}.dat              # Erasure-coded shard data
+    chunk-{N}/shard-{M}.meta             # Shard metadata (checksum, size)
+
+{storage.directory}/
+  .manifests/{bucket}/
+    {key}.manifest.json                  # Object manifest (shard placements, checksums)
+  .buckets/{bucket}/                     # Bucket metadata
+  .policies/{bucket}.policy.json         # Bucket policies
 ```
 
 ## Related Packages
 
 - [`@push.rocks/smartbucket`](https://code.foss.global/push.rocks/smartbucket) — High-level S3-compatible abstraction layer
-- [`@push.rocks/smartrust`](https://code.foss.global/push.rocks/smartrust) — TypeScript <-> Rust IPC bridge
+- [`@push.rocks/smartrust`](https://code.foss.global/push.rocks/smartrust) — TypeScript ↔ Rust IPC bridge
 - [`@git.zone/tsrust`](https://code.foss.global/git.zone/tsrust) — Rust cross-compilation for npm packages
 
 ## License and Legal Information
diff --git a/ts/00_commitinfo_data.ts b/ts/00_commitinfo_data.ts
index e29fcd6..406986b 100644
--- a/ts/00_commitinfo_data.ts
+++ b/ts/00_commitinfo_data.ts
@@ -3,6 +3,6 @@
  */
 export const commitinfo = {
   name: '@push.rocks/smartstorage',
-  version: '6.2.0',
+  version: '6.3.0',
   description: 'A Node.js TypeScript package to create a local S3-compatible storage server using mapped local directories for development and testing purposes.'
 }