termchat

not audited · experimental

termchat

Private messages, right in your terminal.

End-to-end encrypted, text only, no accounts. You are a key pair and a nickname you choose; the server only ever sees ciphertext.

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What it is

Text, in a terminal

A chat that lives where you already work. No images, no link previews, no formatting: less to leak, less to exploit.

No one to sign up with

No phone number, email or name. Your identity is a key pair made on your device, plus a nickname only your contacts see.

A server that knows nothing

The relay passes along envelopes it cannot open. Seizing it gives ciphertext and public keys, nothing more.

What it can do

End-to-end encryption

Olm from vodozemac: an X3DH-style handshake and the Double Ratchet, the design behind Signal and Matrix.

Tor built in

One switch hides your IP address from the relay and your provider. No separate Tor install.

Offline delivery

Messages wait on the relay, encrypted, for up to 14 days until your contact comes online.

Disappearing messages

From 5 minutes to a week, per chat. Or keep a chat in memory only, never on disk.

Duress password

A second password that silently erases everything and shows a fresh install.

Auto-lock

Keys leave memory after 5 idle minutes, or at once with Ctrl+K.

Safety numbers

Compare 60 digits with a friend once and rule out anyone in the middle.

Requests, not inboxes

Strangers wait until you accept. Block, reject or report to the relay operator.

Mouse and themes

Click, scroll, right-click for actions. 18 colour themes, light and dark.

Your own relay

One small binary with SQLite. Run it on any server, with an onion address if you like.

What it protects, and what it does not

The goal is not “impossible to break” but “breaking the server is pointless”.

Protected

  • Message contents, from your provider, Wi-Fi, the relay operator and anyone who seizes the relay.
  • Old messages if a key leaks later, and new ones once the attacker loses access.
  • Tampering, replays and reordering; dropped messages are shown.
  • Impersonation, once you compare the safety number.
  • Your IP address, from the relay and your provider, with Tor on.
  • Your data at rest: encrypted with your password (Argon2id).

Partly

  • Metadata: the relay sees which key writes to which and when, and the size rounded up to 512 / 4096 / 16384 bytes.
  • Someone at your unlocked computer: auto-lock, disappearing messages, chats without history.
  • Being forced to give a password: the duress password does not help if the disk was copied first.
  • A lost device: only with a backup of your identity.

Not protected

  • Malware, a keylogger, a compromised terminal or OS.
  • A global observer correlating traffic timing.
  • Keys in swap or a hibernation file: use disk encryption.

Full threat model →

How it works

  1. 01

    Exchange invites

    Send your invite, a line starting with termchat:, by any channel. It holds only public keys.

  2. 02

    Verify once

    Compare the safety number in person or by phone. Same digits: nobody is in the middle.

  3. 03

    Talk

    Messages travel encrypted through the relay, with a new key for every message.

Install

With Homebrew

brew install prophecy1345/tap/termchat

Or with one command

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/prophecy1345/termchat/main/scripts/install.sh | sh

In PowerShell

irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/prophecy1345/termchat/main/scripts/install.ps1 | iex

Or download the .zip, open it and double-click termchat.exe.

Download the archive for your system from the releases page, check it against SHA256SUMS and run termchat.

Releases

Then type termchat. The setup screen is already filled in with the public relay.

Verify a release →

Run your own relay

The relay is one binary next to termchat in every release: SQLite, rate limits, an optional onion address. Your friends use your server; nobody else needs to know.

Self-hosting guide →