Make Backspace self-hostable in any homelab environment, not just a clean host
that owns ports 80/443.
install.sh is now mode-aware and auto-detects which fits:
- allinone (default): bundled Caddy + auto-HTTPS — unchanged behavior
- proxy: behind your own reverse proxy (nginx / Traefik / Caddy / Nginx Proxy
Manager / SWAG) — app published on 127.0.0.1:APP_PORT, no bundled Caddy,
prints paste-ready proxy snippets
- tunnel: behind a tunnel (Cloudflare / Tailscale) — same, plus a 90MB upload
cap (under Cloudflare's 100MB body limit) and voice force-disabled (WebRTC
over UDP can't traverse a tunnel)
Port detection is Docker-aware (consults `docker ps` published ports, not just
`ss`), so a host whose proxy already owns 80/443 via iptables DNAT — with no
listening socket for `ss` to see — is correctly detected as "taken" instead of
dead-ending.
docker-compose.proxy.yml is a small overlay, layered via COMPOSE_FILE (written
into .env so no `-f` flags are ever needed), that publishes the loopback port and
parks Caddy in an inert profile. The base compose file is untouched, so All-in-One
behaves exactly as before.
Prebuilt image: .github/workflows/docker-publish.yml builds and pushes a
multi-arch (linux/amd64 + linux/arm64) image to ghcr.io/thezwiss/backspace on
release tags (and manual dispatch), so weak/ARM hosts skip the ~1.6GB local build
(the Vite build OOMs small ARM boxes). install.sh and docker-compose.yml default
to pulling it, fall back to an image already present on the host, and finally to a
from-source build — AGPL §13 commit stamping preserved on every path. Kept
deliberately separate from the desktop-installer workflow (release.yml).
Docs: README gains a "Deployment modes" section (all three modes, nginx / Caddy /
Traefik snippets, GUI-proxy field-by-field, cloudflared ingress, the update path,
and voice-per-mode caveats); docs/systems/deployment.md updated to match.
Verified live on a throwaway VM: proxy + all-in-one end-to-end through install.sh
(with a real Let's Encrypt cert), tunnel config generation, loopback-only binding,
and the local-image fallback path.
The @backspace/desktop postinstall runs `electron-rebuild -f -w uiohook-napi`,
which compiles a native module from source and needs a C++ toolchain
(make/g++/python3). On a bare host without those — a typical VPS a self-hoster
clones onto — that failure took the ENTIRE `pnpm install` down (exit 255), so the
server never installed either, even though uiohook-napi is desktop-only and
irrelevant to hosting.
Make the rebuild non-fatal: on failure it now prints a clear one-line warning and
continues. Machines with build tools (CI, desktop devs) are byte-identical — the
fallback never fires; only toolless boxes (which aren't building the desktop app
anyway) skip it. Verified on a bare x86 box: full `pnpm install` now exits 0 and
the server builds and boots from source. Docs note the build-tool requirement for
desktop work and point self-hosters at the Docker installer.
Unpinned `pnpm@latest` in the Dockerfile made fresh builds non-reproducible:
`latest` now resolves to pnpm 11, but the committed lockfile targets pnpm 10, so
`pnpm install --frozen-lockfile` fails with ERR_PNPM_LOCKFILE_CONFIG_MISMATCH on
a clean host. Pin pnpm to 10.34.3 across the Dockerfile, the `packageManager`
field, and the release workflow; pin Node to 20 (LTS) via `.nvmrc` and `engines`
so Docker, CI, and from-source builds all use the same tested toolchain.
Also corrects the docs: the lockfile is v9.0 (requires pnpm 10, not "pnpm 8+"),
and "Node 20+" implied untested newer majors were supported.
- Project status: drop the test-instances mention and the self-contradictory
'no tagged public release yet' framing → 'early-stage and under active development'.
- Moderation: 'Bans with reason and audit trail' overstated it — there's no
append-only audit log and unban hard-deletes the record. Reworded to
'Bans with reason and moderator attribution (who, why, and when)' to match the code.
- Features list: 'read states' -> 'unread tracking (badges + unread divider)',
which is what the code actually does (no read receipts).
- Clarify the PWA bullet (add-to-home-screen standalone app) and the
mobile-responsive touch layout.
- Add a Mobile section: working mobile-browser/PWA today, native iOS/Android
app-store apps planned once traction and license funding are secured.
Replace the placeholder Screenshots section with a hero voice/video shot
and a curated 6-shot grid (chat, screen-share controls, spaces, federated
DMs, social discovery, federation admin), linking to a new
docs/screenshots.md gallery of all 14 shots grouped by feature.
Images are optimized to 1600px WebP (~1.2MB total vs ~45MB raw); raw
originals in demo-pictures/ are gitignored.
- Add Backspace-design-prototype.html: finalized "Aether Drift" design
language with warm matte surfaces and subtle frosted glass accents
- Update CLAUDE.md with DESIGN SYSTEM section and remove Discord clone references
- Rename all Opencord references to Backspace across the full codebase
- Archive outdated design experiments and Discord-specific assets
- Add science-backed accessibility fallback (prefers-reduced-transparency)
TheZwiss