diff --git a/src/ripple/overlay/README.md b/src/ripple/overlay/README.md
index ff0e0ce21..779ea4635 100644
--- a/src/ripple/overlay/README.md
+++ b/src/ripple/overlay/README.md
@@ -21,5 +21,115 @@ establishes, receives, and maintains connections to peers. Protocol
 messages are exchanged between peers and serialized using
 [_Google Protocol Buffers_][protocol_buffers].
 
+## Handshake
+
+To establish a protocol connection, a peer makes an outgoing TLS encrypted
+connection to a remote peer, then sends a HTTP request with no message body.
+The request uses the [_HTTP/1.1 Upgrade_][upgrade_header] mechanism with some
+custom fields to communicate protocol specific information:
+
+```
+GET / HTTP/1.1
+User-Agent: Ripple-0.26.0
+Local-Address: 192.168.0.101:8421
+Remote-Address: 208.239.76.97:51234
+Upgrade: Ripple/1.2, Ripple/1.3
+Connection: Upgrade
+Connect-As: Leaf, Peer
+Accept-Encoding: identity, zlib, snappy
+Protocol-Public-Key: aBRoQibi2jpDofohooFuzZi9nEzKw9Zdfc4ExVNmuXHaJpSPh8uJ
+Protocol-Session-Cookie: 71ED064155FFADFA38782C5E0158CB26
+```
+
+Upon receipt of a well-formed HTTP request the remote peer will send back a
+HTTP response indicating the connection status:
+
+```
+HTTP/1.1 101 Switching Protocols
+Server: Ripple-0.26.0-rc1
+Local-Address: 192.168.0.101:8421
+Remote-Address: 63.104.209.13:8421
+Upgrade: Ripple/1.2
+Connection: Upgrade
+Connect-As: Leaf
+Transfer-Encoding: snappy
+Protocol-Public-Key: aBRoQibi2jpDofohooFuzZi9nEzKw9Zdfc4ExVNmuXHaJpSPh8uJ
+Protocol-Session-Cookie: 71ED064155FFADFA38782C5E0158CB26
+```
+
+### Fields
+
+* *URL*
+
+    The URL in the request line must be a single forward slash character
+    ("/"). Requests with any other URL must be rejected. Different URL strings
+    are reserved for future protocol implementations.
+
+* *HTTP Version*
+
+    The minimum required HTTP version is 1.1. Requests for HTTP versions
+    earlier than 1.1 must be rejected.
+
+* `User-Agent`
+
+    Contains information about the software originating the request.
+    The specification is identical to RFC2616 Section 14.43.
+
+* `Server`
+
+    Contains information about the software providing the response. The
+    specification is identical to RFC2616 Section 14.38.
+
+* `Local-Address`
+
+    This field must be present and contain the string representation of the
+    IP and port address of the local end of the connection as seen by the peer.
+
+* `Remote-Address`
+
+    This field must be present and contain the string representation of the
+    IP and port address of the remote end of the connection as seen by the peer.
+
+* `Upgrade`
+
+    This field must be present and for requests consist of a comma delimited
+    list of at least one element where each element is of the form "Ripple/"
+    followed by the dotted major and minor protocol version number. For
+    responses the value must be a single element matching one of the elements
+    provided in the corresponding request field. If the server does not
+    understand any of the requested protocols, 
+
+* `Connection`
+
+    This field must be present, containing the value 'Upgrade'.
+
+* `Connect-As`
+
+    For requests the value consists of a comma delimited list of elements
+    where each element describes a possible connection type. Current connection
+    types are:
+
+    - leaf
+    - peer
+
+    If this field is omitted or the value is the empty string, then 'leaf' is
+    assumed.
+
+    For responses, the value must consist of exactly one element from the list
+    of elements specified in the request. If a server does not recognize any
+    of the connection types it must return a HTTP error response.
+
+* `Protocol-Public-Key`
+
+    This field value must be present, and contain a Base58 encoded value used
+    as a server public key identifier.
+
+* `Protocol-Session-Proof`
+
+    This field must be present (TODO)
+
+---
+
 [overlay_network]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overlay_network
 [protocol_buffers]: https://developers.google.com/protocol-buffers/
+[upgrade_header]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP/1.1_Upgrade_header