-
-
-
-
-
+Check [releases](https://github.com/Sudo-Ivan/reticulum-meshchatX/releases) for pre-built binaries or appimages.
-## What does it do?
+## Building
-- It can send and receive messages, files and audio calls with peers;
- - Over your local network through Ethernet and WiFi, completely automatically.
- - Over the internet by connecting through a server [hosted by yourself](https://reticulum.network/manual/interfaces.html#tcp-server-interface) or [the community](https://reticulum.network/connect.html).
- - Over low-powered, license-free, ISM band LoRa Radio, with an [RNode](https://github.com/markqvist/RNode_Firmware).
- - ...and via [any other interface](https://reticulum.network/manual/interfaces.html) supported by the Reticulum Network Stack.
-- It communicates securely. Messages can only be decrypted by the intended destination.
-- It can communicate with any other existing [LXMF](https://github.com/markqvist/lxmf) client, such as [Sideband](https://github.com/markqvist/Sideband/) and [Nomadnet](https://github.com/markqvist/nomadnet).
-- It can download files and browse micron pages (decentralised websites) hosted on [Nomad Network](https://github.com/markqvist/nomadnet) nodes.
-
-## Features
-
-- Supports sending and receiving messages between [Reticulum MeshChat](https://github.com/liamcottle/reticulum-meshchat), [Sideband](https://github.com/markqvist/Sideband/) and [Nomadnet](https://github.com/markqvist/nomadnet).
-- Supports receiving and saving images and attachments sent from Sideband.
-- Supports sending images, voice recordings and file attachments.
-- Supports saving inbound and outbound messages to a local database.
-- Supports sending an announce to the network.
-- Supports setting a custom display name to send in your announce.
-- Supports viewing and searching peers discovered from announces.
-- Supports auto resending undelivered messages when an announce is received from the recipient.
-- Supports sending messages to and syncing messages from [LXMF Propagation Nodes](https://github.com/markqvist/lxmf?tab=readme-ov-file#propagation-nodes).
-- Supports running a local LXMF Propagation Node so other users can use your device for message storage and retrieval.
-- Support for browsing pages, and downloading files hosted on Nomad Network Nodes.
-
-## Beta Features
-
-- Support for Audio Calls to other [Reticulum MeshChat](https://github.com/liamcottle/reticulum-meshchat) users.
- - Audio is encoded with [codec2](https://github.com/drowe67/codec2) to support low bandwidth links.
- - Using a microphone requires using the web ui over localhost or https, due to [AudioWorklet](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/AudioWorklet) secure context.
- - I have tested two-way audio calls over LoRa with a single hop. It works well when a [reasonable bitrate](https://unsigned.io/understanding-lora-parameters/) is configured on the RNode.
- - Some browsers such as FireFox don't work as expected. Try using a Chromium based browser if running via the command line.
-
-## Download
-
-You can download the latest version for Windows, Mac and Linux from the [releases](https://github.com/liamcottle/reticulum-meshchat/releases) page.
-
-Alternatively, you can download the source and run it manually from a command line.
-
-See the ["How to use it?"](#how-to-use-it) section, further down on how to do this.
-
-## Other Installation Methods
-
-- [Running MeshChat on Docker](./docs/meshchat_on_docker.md)
-- [Running MeshChat on a Raspberry Pi](./docs/meshchat_on_raspberry_pi.md)
-- [Running MeshChat on Android with Termux](./docs/meshchat_on_android_with_termux.md)
-
-## Getting Started
-
-Once you've downloaded, installed and launched Reticulum MeshChat, there's a few things you need to do in order to start communicating with other people on the network.
-
-1. Create an Identity
-2. Configure your Display Name
-3. Send an Announce
-4. Discover Peers and start sending messages
-5. Configuring additional Network Interfaces
-
-**Create an Identity**
-
-On the Reticulum Network, anyone can have any number of Identities. You may opt to use your real name, or you may decide to be completely anonymous. The choice is yours.
-
-A Reticulum Identity is a public/private key-pair. You control the private key used to generate destination addresses, encrypt content and prove receipt of data with unforgeable delivery acknowledgements.
-
-Your public key is shared with the network when you send an announce, and allows others on the network to automatically discover a route to a destination you control.
-
-At this time, Reticulum MeshChat generates a new Identity the first time you launch it. A future update will allow you to create and manage multiple identities.
-
-For now, if you want to change, or reset your identity, you can access the identity file at `~/.reticulum-meshchat/identity`.
-
-**Configure your Display Name**
-
-The next thing you should do, is set a display name. Your display name is what everyone else on the network will see when looking for someone to communicate with from the Peers list.
-
-You can do this in the `My Identity` section in the bottom left corner. Enter a new display name, and then press `Save`.
-
-**Send an Announce**
-
-When using the Reticulum Network, in order to be contactable, you need to send an `Announce`. You can send an announce as often, or as infrequently as you like.
-
-Sending an announce allows other peers on the network to discover the next-hop across the network their packets should take to arrive at a destination that your identity controls.
-
-If you never send an announce, you will be invisible and no one will ever be able to send anything to you.
-
-When you move across the network, and change entrypoints, such as moving from your home WiFi network, to plugging in to an Ethernet port in a local library or even climbing a mountain and using an RNode over LoRa radio, other peers on the network will only know the previous path to your destinations.
-
-To allow them to discover the new path their packets should take to reach you, you should send an announce.
-
-**Discover Peers and start sending messages**
-
-In the Reticulum Network, you can control an unlimited number of destination addresses. One of these can be an [LXMF](https://github.com/markqvist/lxmf) delivery address.
-
-Your Reticulum Identity allows you to have an LXMF address. Think of an LXMF address as your very own, secure, end-to-end encrypted, unspoofable, email address routed over a mesh network.
-
-When someone else on the network announces themselves (more specifically, their LXMF address), they will show up in the Peers tab.
-
-You can click on any of these discovered peers to open a messaging interface. From here, you can send text messages, files and inline images. If they respond, their messages will show up there too.
-
-As well as being able to announce your LXMF address and discover others, Reticulum MeshChat can also discover [Nomad Network](https://github.com/markqvist/nomadnet) nodes hosted by other users. From the Nodes tab, you are free to explore pages and download files they may be publicly sharing on the network.
-
-A future update is planned to allow you to host your own Node and share pages and files with other peers on the network. For now, you could use the official [Nomad Network](https://github.com/markqvist/nomadnet) client to do this.
-
-Remember, in order to connect with other peers or nodes, they must announce on the network. So don't forget to announce if you want to be discovered!
-
-**Configuring additional Network Interfaces**
-
-> TODO: this section is yet to be written. For now, you can check out the [official documentation for configuring interfaces](https://reticulum.network/manual/interfaces.html) in the Reticulum config file. This file is located at `~/.reticulum/config`
-
-## How does it work?
-
-- A python script ([meshchat.py](./meshchat.py)) runs a Reticulum instance and a WebSocket server.
-- The web page sends and receives LXMF packets encoded in json via the WebSocket.
-- Web Browser -> WebSocket -> Python Reticulum -> (configured interfaces) -> (destination)
-- LXMF messages sent and received are saved to a local SQLite database.
-
-## How to use it?
-
-It is recommended that you [download](#download) a standalone application.
-
-If you don't want to, or a release is unavailable for your device, you will need to;
-
-- install [Python 3](https://www.python.org/downloads/)
-- install [NodeJS v18+](https://nodejs.org/en)
-- clone the source code from this repo
-- install all dependencies
-- then run `meshchat.py`.
-
-```
-# clone repo
-git clone https://github.com/liamcottle/reticulum-meshchat
-cd reticulum-meshchat
-
-# install nodejs deps
-# if you want to build electron binaries, remove "--omit=dev"
-# if you're using termux, add "--ignore-scripts" to fix error with esbuild
-npm install --omit=dev
-
-# build frontend vue components
-npm run build-frontend
-
-# install python deps
-pip install -r requirements.txt
-
-# run meshchat
-python meshchat.py
+```bash
+make install
+make build
```
-> NOTE: You should now be able to access the web interface at http://localhost:8000
+### Building in Docker
-For a full list of command line options, you can run;
-
-```
-python meshchat.py --help
+```bash
+make docker-build
```
-```
-usage: meshchat.py [-h] [--host [HOST]] [--port [PORT]] [--headless] [--identity-file IDENTITY_FILE] [--identity-base64 IDENTITY_BASE64] [--generate-identity-file GENERATE_IDENTITY_FILE] [--generate-identity-base64]
- [--reticulum-config-dir RETICULUM_CONFIG_DIR] [--storage-dir STORAGE_DIR]
+The build will be in the `dist` directory.
-ReticulumMeshChat
+## Development
-options:
- -h, --help show this help message and exit
- --host [HOST] The address the web server should listen on.
- --port [PORT] The port the web server should listen on.
- --headless Web browser will not automatically launch when this flag is passed.
- --identity-file IDENTITY_FILE
- Path to a Reticulum Identity file to use as your LXMF address.
- --identity-base64 IDENTITY_BASE64
- A base64 encoded Reticulum Identity to use as your LXMF address.
- --generate-identity-file GENERATE_IDENTITY_FILE
- Generates and saves a new Reticulum Identity to the provided file path and then exits.
- --generate-identity-base64
- Outputs a randomly generated Reticulum Identity as base64 and then exits.
- --reticulum-config-dir RETICULUM_CONFIG_DIR
- Path to a Reticulum config directory for the RNS stack to use (e.g: ~/.reticulum)
- --storage-dir STORAGE_DIR
- Path to a directory for storing databases and config files (default: ./storage)
+```bash
+make develop
```
-## Using an existing Reticulum Identity
-
-The first time you run this application, a new Reticulum identity is generated and saved to `storage/identity`.
-
-If you want to use an existing identity;
-
-- You can overwrite `storage/identity` with another identity file.
-- Or, you can pass in a custom identity file path as a command line argument.
-
-To use a custom identity file, provide the `--identity-file` argument followed by the path to your custom identity file.
-
-```
-python meshchat.py --identity-file ./custom_identity_file
-```
-
-If you would like to generate a new identity, you can use the [rnid](https://reticulum.network/manual/using.html#the-rnid-utility) utility provided by Reticulum.
-
-```
-rnid --generate ./new_identity_file
-```
-
-If you don't have access to the `rnid` command, you can use the following:
-
-```
-python meshchat.py --generate-identity-file ./new_identity_file
-```
-
-Alternatively, you can provide a base64 encoded private key, like so;
-
-```
-python meshchat.py --identity-base64 "GCN6mMhVemdNIK/fw97C1zvU17qjQPFTXRBotVckeGmoOwQIF8VOjXwNNem3CUOJZCQQpJuc/4U94VSsC39Phw=="
-```
-
-> NOTE: this is a randomly generated identity for example purposes. Do not use it, it has been leaked!
-
-## Build Electron Application
-
-Reticulum MeshChat can be run from source via a command line, as explained above, or as a standalone application.
-
-To run as a standalone application, we need to compile the python script and dependencies to an executable with [cxfreeze](https://github.com/marcelotduarte/cx_Freeze) and then build an [Electron](https://www.electronjs.org/) app which includes a bundled browser that can interact with the compiled python executable.
-
-This allows for the entire application to be run by double clicking a single file without the need for a user to manually install python, nor run any commands in a command line application.
-
-To build a `.exe` when running on Windows or a `.dmg` when running on a Mac, run the following;
-
-```
-pip install -r requirements.txt
-npm install
-npm run dist
-```
-
-> Note: cxfreeze only supports building an executable for the current platform. You will need a Mac to build for Mac, and a Windows PC to build for Windows.
-
-Once completed, you should have a `.exe` or a `.dmg` in the `dist` folder.
-
-## Local Development
-
-I normally run the following commands to work on the project locally.
-
-**Install dependencies**
-
-```
-pip install -r requirements.txt
-npm install
-```
-
-**Build and run Electron App**
-
-```
-npm run electron
-```
-
-
-
-**or; Build and run MeshChat Server**
-
-```
-npm run build-frontend
-python3 meshchat.py --headless
-```
-
-I build the vite app everytime without hot reload, since MeshChat expects everything over its own port, not the vite server port. I will attempt to fix this in the future.
-
-## TODO
-
-- [ ] button to forget announces
-
-# Notes
-
-**LXMF Router**
-
-- By default, the LXMF router rejects inbound messages larger than 1mb.
-- LXMF clients are likely to have [this default limit](https://github.com/markqvist/LXMF/blob/c426c93cc5d63a3dae18ad2264b1299a7ad9e46c/LXMF/LXMRouter.py#L38), and your messages will [fail to send](https://github.com/markqvist/LXMF/blob/c426c93cc5d63a3dae18ad2264b1299a7ad9e46c/LXMF/LXMRouter.py#L1428).
-- MeshChat has increased the receive limit to 10mb to allow for larger attachments.
-
-## License
-
-MIT