Jump straight to the right RFC
When you need the authoritative definition of how the internet works — how HTTP caching behaves, how TLS negotiates, how OAuth issues tokens — the answer is an RFC. But the numbers are hard to remember and many have been superseded. This curated index maps the protocols you actually use to their current RFC numbers, with titles, years, status and a direct link to the canonical document, so you can cite the right one in seconds.
How it works
The index is a hand-picked set of widely-referenced RFCs across the core stack: transport and IP, DNS, email, HTTP, TLS, authentication, JSON and identifiers. Filtering matches your query against the RFC number, the title, and a short summary, so searching cookie, 6265, or http state all find the same entry. Where a newer RFC has replaced an older one, the summary notes the relationship so you cite the current normative document rather than an obsoleted draft.
Tips and notes
Always cite the current RFC: HTTP is now the RFC 9110–9112 series (not 2616 or 7230), and TLS 1.3 is RFC 8446. Numbers are permanent and immutable, so a link to the RFC Editor will always resolve to the exact text you mean. When a spec says a feature is defined “elsewhere”, follow the Updates and Obsoletes headers on the RFC Editor page to trace the full chain. For implementation, prefer Standards Track and BCP documents over Informational ones, which may describe ideas that never became normative.