Reticulum MeshChatX
A Reticulum MeshChat fork from the future.
This project is seperate from the original Reticulum MeshChat project, and is not affiliated with the original project.
Warning
Backup your reticulum-meshchat folder before using, even though MeshChatX will attempt to auto-migrate whatever it can from the old database without breaking things. Its best to keep backups.
Major Features
- Full LXST support w/ custom voicemail, phonebook, contacts, contact sharing and ringtone support.
- RNS Hot Restart: Reload the entire Reticulum stack from settings without restarting the app.
- Multi-identity support.
- Authentication
- Map (OpenLayers w/ MBTiles upload and exporter for offline maps)
- Security improvements (automatic HTTPS, CORS, and much more)
- Modern Custom UI/UX
- More Tools (RNStatus, RNProbe, RNCP and Translator)
- Built-in page archiving and automatic crawler.
- Block LXMF users, Telephony and NomadNet Nodes
- Toast system for notifications
- i18n support (En, De, Ru)
- Raw SQLite database backend (replaced Peewee ORM)
- LXMF Telemetry support (WIP)
Screenshots
Telephony & Calling
Phone
Active Call
Call Ended
Voicemail
Ringtone Settings
Networking & Visualization
Network Visualiser
Page Archives
Archives Browser
Viewing Archived Page
Tools & Identities
Tools
Identity Management
TODO
- RNS hot reload fix
- Offline Reticulum documentation tool
- Spam filter (based on keywords)
- TAK tool/integration
- RNS Tunnel - tunnel your regular services over RNS to another MeshchatX user.
- RNS Filesync - P2P file sync
- RNS Page Node
Usage
Check releases for pre-built binaries or appimages.
Manual Installation (Bare Metal)
If you prefer not to use Docker or pre-built binaries, you can install MeshChatX manually:
-
Clone the repository:
git clone https://git.quad4.io/RNS-Things/MeshChatX cd MeshChatX -
Install Node.js dependencies:
corepack enable pnpm install -
Install Python dependencies:
# It is recommended to use a virtual environment pip install poetry poetry install -
Build the frontend:
pnpm run build-frontend -
Run MeshChatX:
poetry run meshchat --headless --host 127.0.0.1
Architecture Support (ARM64, etc.)
MeshChatX fully supports ARM64 (Raspberry Pi, Pine64, etc.) and other architectures via Docker or manual installation.
Docker (Recommended for ARM64)
The official Docker image is multi-arch and supports linux/amd64 and linux/arm64.
# On a Raspberry Pi, simply pull and run
docker pull git.quad4.io/rns-things/meshchatx:latest
Manual Build for ARM64
If you are building your own multi-arch image:
DOCKER_PLATFORMS=linux/amd64,linux/arm64 task build-docker
Configuration
MeshChatX can be configured via command-line arguments or environment variables. Environment variables are particularly useful when running in Docker.
| Argument | Environment Variable | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
--host |
MESHCHAT_HOST |
127.0.0.1 |
The address the web server should listen on. |
--port |
MESHCHAT_PORT |
8000 |
The port the web server should listen on. |
--no-https |
MESHCHAT_NO_HTTPS |
false |
Disable HTTPS and use HTTP instead. |
--headless |
MESHCHAT_HEADLESS |
false |
Don't launch the web browser automatically. |
--auth |
MESHCHAT_AUTH |
false |
Enable basic authentication. |
--auto-recover |
MESHCHAT_AUTO_RECOVER |
false |
Attempt auto-recovery of SQLite database. |
--storage-dir |
MESHCHAT_STORAGE_DIR |
./storage |
Path for databases and config files. |
--reticulum-config-dir |
MESHCHAT_RETICULUM_CONFIG_DIR |
~/.reticulum |
Path to Reticulum config directory. |
--identity-file |
MESHCHAT_IDENTITY_FILE |
- | Path to a Reticulum Identity file. |
--identity-base64 |
MESHCHAT_IDENTITY_BASE64 |
- | Base64 encoded Reticulum Identity. |
--identity-base32 |
MESHCHAT_IDENTITY_BASE32 |
- | Base32 encoded Reticulum Identity. |
Building
This project uses Task for build automation. Install Task first, then:
task install # installs Python deps via Poetry and Node deps via pnpm
task build
Development with Nix
If you use Nix, a flake.nix is provided for a complete development environment including Python, Node.js, and all packaging tools.
nix develop
You can run task run or task develop (a thin alias) to start the backend + frontend loop locally through poetry run meshchat.
Available Tasks
| Task | Description |
|---|---|
task install |
Install all dependencies (syncs version, installs node modules and python deps) |
task node_modules |
Install Node.js dependencies only |
task python |
Install Python dependencies using Poetry only |
task sync-version |
Sync version numbers across project files |
task run |
Run the application |
task develop |
Run the application in development mode (alias for run) |
task build |
Build the application (frontend and backend) |
task build-frontend |
Build only the frontend |
task clean |
Clean build artifacts and dependencies |
task wheel |
Build Python wheel package (outputs to python-dist/) |
task build-appimage |
Build Linux AppImage |
task build-exe |
Build Windows portable executable |
task dist |
Build distribution (defaults to AppImage) |
task electron-legacy |
Install legacy Electron version |
task build-appimage-legacy |
Build Linux AppImage with legacy Electron version |
task build-exe-legacy |
Build Windows portable executable with legacy Electron version |
task build-docker |
Build Docker image using buildx |
task run-docker |
Run Docker container using docker-compose |
All tasks support environment variable overrides. For example:
PYTHON=python3.12 task installDOCKER_PLATFORMS=linux/amd64,linux/arm64 task build-docker
Python Packaging
The backend uses Poetry with pyproject.toml for dependency management and packaging. package.json is the source of truth for the project version. When you run task install (or any task that builds/runs the app), the version is automatically synced to pyproject.toml and src/version.py. This keeps the CLI release metadata, wheel packages, and other bundles aligned with the Electron build.
Build Artifact Locations
Both poetry build and python -m build generate wheels inside the default dist/ directory. The task wheel shortcut wraps poetry build -f wheel and then runs python scripts/move_wheels.py to relocate the generated .whl files into python-dist/ (the layout expected by scripts/test_wheel.sh and the release automation). Use task wheel if you need the artifacts in python-dist/; poetry build or python -m build alone will leave them in dist/.
Building with Poetry
# Install dependencies
poetry install
# Build the package (wheels land in dist/)
poetry build
# Install locally for testing (consumes dist/)
pip install dist/*.whl
Building with pip (alternative)
If you prefer pip, you can build/install directly:
# Build the wheel
pip install build
python -m build
# Install locally
pip install .
Building in Docker
task build-docker
build-docker creates reticulum-meshchatx:local (or $DOCKER_IMAGE if you override it) via docker buildx. Set DOCKER_PLATFORMS to linux/amd64,linux/arm64 when you need multi-arch images, and adjust DOCKER_BUILD_FLAGS/DOCKER_BUILD_ARGS to control --load/--push.
Running with Docker Compose
task run-docker
run-docker feeds the locally-built image into docker compose -f docker-compose.yml up --remove-orphans --pull never reticulum-meshchatx. The compose file uses the MESHCHAT_IMAGE env var so you can override the target image without editing the YAML (the default still points at ghcr.io/sudo-ivan/reticulum-meshchatx:latest). Use docker compose down or Ctrl+C to stop the container.
The Electron build artifacts will still live under dist/ for releases.
Standalone Executables (cx_Freeze)
The cx_setup.py script uses cx_Freeze for creating standalone executables (AppImage for Linux, NSIS for Windows). This is separate from the Poetry/pip packaging workflow.
Internationalization (i18n)
Multi-language support is in progress. We use vue-i18n for the frontend.
Translation files are located in meshchatx/src/frontend/locales/.
Currently supported languages:
- English (Primary)
- Russian
- German
Credits
- Liam Cottle - Original Reticulum MeshChat
- micron-parser-js by RFnexus