Backspace # Backspace **An open, self-hosted communication platform — text, voice, video, and federation — that you own.** [![License: Elastic License 2.0](https://img.shields.io/badge/license-Elastic%20License%202.0-2563eb.svg)](LICENSE) [![TypeScript](https://img.shields.io/badge/TypeScript-strict-3178c6.svg)](https://www.typescriptlang.org/) [![Node.js](https://img.shields.io/badge/node-%E2%89%A520-339933.svg)](https://nodejs.org/) [![Status](https://img.shields.io/badge/status-active%20development-f59e0b.svg)](#project-status)
--- Backspace is a Discord-style chat platform you run on your own hardware. Spaces, channels, roles, voice and video, screen sharing, direct messages, friends, file sharing, and full-text search — plus **server-to-server federation**, so independent Backspace instances can talk to each other while each stays under its own control. It is **source-available**: free to self-host, modify, and use — including inside a business — but not to resell as a hosted service. See [License](#license) for the exact terms. > **Project status** > Backspace is in active development and runs on live test instances, but has not > had a tagged public release yet. Expect rough edges, and pin to a specific > commit if you deploy it. ## Screenshots
A voice channel with a grid of camera and screen-share tiles A voice channel in full swing — camera tiles alongside live screen-shares, each with its own resolution / frame-rate label.
A text channel with messages and a typing indicator
Text channels — Markdown, replies, reactions, and live typing indicators. 		The screen-share settings popover
Screen-share controls — resolution, frame rate, codec, and bitrate, within admin-set bounds.
The space discovery / Explore view
Spaces & discovery — browse public, request-to-join, and joined spaces. 		A federated group direct message
Direct messages — 1-on-1 and group DMs, including members on peer instances.
The find-people / user discovery view
Friends & social — find people across instances with mutual friends and spaces. 		The federation admin panel showing peered instances
Federation admin — manage peered instances, relay, and secret rotation.
→ See all screenshots
## Features ### Communication - Real-time text channels over WebSocket - `@mention` autocomplete with mention highlighting - Voice and video channels via [LiveKit](https://livekit.io/), with RNNoise noise suppression (on by default) - Screen sharing up to 4K / 120fps — VP9 by default, with an optional hardware-accelerated H.264 mode and a VP8 simulcast fallback; quality bounds are admin-configurable - Picture-in-Picture for voice and video - Direct messages — 1-on-1 and group DMs (up to 10 people) - DM voice/video calls with ring / accept / reject - Message reactions, replies, editing, and deletion - Markdown formatting with syntax highlighting - Typing indicators, read states, and presence - Rich link embeds (YouTube, Vimeo, Spotify, and generic OpenGraph) with SSRF-protected scraping - GIF search (Klipy) ### Organization - Spaces with channel categories - Role-based permissions — bitwise RBAC with category- and channel-level overrides - Customizable user sidebar layout, with personal color-coded folders that group whole spaces - Space discovery (public, request-to-join, and private) - Shareable invite codes ### Social - Friend requests and friendships - User search and discovery - Mutual friends and mutual spaces - User profiles with banner, bio, and accent color - Presence and rich activities (playing, listening, watching, streaming, custom) - Privacy controls — toggle discoverability and activity-status sharing ### Moderation - Bans with reason and audit trail - Voice restrictions (space-level mute/deafen, persisted) - Member move and force-disconnect - Join-request approval for gated spaces ### Federation - Multi-instance peering with HMAC-signed server-to-server requests - Federated identity resolution (`username@instance`) - Cross-instance DMs — messages, reactions, and membership relay - Cross-instance friends and presence - File replication with size validation - Background workers for outbox delivery, file download, peer health, and cleanup ### Platform - File uploads with image thumbnails (via `sharp`) - Full-text search with `from:`, `has:`, `before:`, and `after:` filters, plus jump-to-message - Admin panel — instance settings, user management, registration controls, storage management, and federation/peering, plus granular streaming controls (a per-resolution × per-frame-rate bitrate matrix, min/max caps, quality-slider step, and an optional user-set-bitrate mode) - Automatic SQLite backups (pre-migration, scheduled, and manual) with restore tooling - Electron desktop app (Windows, macOS, Linux) with global keybinds (push-to-talk, mute, deafen) and activity detection - Native desktop notifications and unread badge counts - Installable PWA — service-worker caching and an offline message queue (messages send once you reconnect) - Mobile-responsive web UI - Account management — password change and account deletion with safeguards ## Installation The intended way to deploy Backspace is the **interactive installer** — it configures everything (`.env`, secrets, HTTPS, optional voice) and brings the stack up for you. Everything you need for a working instance is below. ### Requirements - A **Linux host** (VPS, VM, or home server) with **Docker** and **Docker Compose**. - A **domain name** pointed at the host's public IP — Caddy uses it to obtain HTTPS certificates automatically. - The ability to open the firewall ports in step 2. ### 1. Run the installer ```bash git clone https://github.com/TheZwiss/backspace.git cd backspace ./install.sh ``` The installer walks you through everything interactively: - asks for your domain, - generates a secure `JWT_SECRET`, - optionally enables voice/video (sets up the bundled LiveKit server), - writes `.env` (and `livekit.yaml` if voice is enabled), - starts all services with Docker and configures automatic HTTPS via Caddy. ### 2. Open the firewall ports Open these on the host — and, if it's behind a router, port-forward them to the host: | Port | Proto | When | Purpose | |------|-------|------|---------| | `80` | TCP | **Always** | HTTP — Caddy's automatic-HTTPS (ACME) challenge + redirect to HTTPS | | `443` | TCP | **Always** | HTTPS — web app, REST API, WebSocket, and LiveKit signaling (proxied) | | `3478` | UDP | If voice enabled | TURN — NAT traversal for WebRTC | | `7881` | TCP | If voice enabled | WebRTC TCP fallback (clients that can't use UDP) | | `50000–60000` | UDP | If voice enabled | WebRTC media (voice / video / screen-share streams) | Without voice, you only need `80` and `443`. The voice ports are required only when you enable LiveKit. LiveKit's own signaling port (`7880`) stays internal — it's reverse-proxied through Caddy on `443`, so you do **not** forward it. > **Do this together with DNS, ideally before (or right after) running the > installer.** Caddy gets your HTTPS certificate from Let's Encrypt the first > time the stack starts, which requires your domain to resolve to this host > **and** ports `80`/`443` reachable from the internet. If they aren't ready > yet, that's fine — Caddy keeps retrying, and HTTPS comes up automatically once > DNS and the ports are in place. ### 3. Create your admin account Open `https://your-domain` and register. **The first account created becomes the instance admin** — there is no default username or password. If the page doesn't load over HTTPS, it's almost always DNS or ports `80`/`443` not being reachable from outside — check `docker compose logs caddy` for certificate errors. (The installer's health check confirms the app is up internally, not that the certificate was issued.) ### Backups & restore The app takes automatic SQLite snapshots (before every migration, on a schedule, and on demand via `./backup.sh`). Restore from a snapshot with `./restore.sh`. See [`docs/systems/deployment.md`](docs/systems/deployment.md) for the full backup/restore and image-pinning guide. ### Manual setup (advanced, optional) The installer above is the supported path. If you'd rather configure everything by hand, you can skip it and drive Docker Compose directly — but then DNS, `.env`, secrets, voice config, and the same firewall ports from step 2 are your responsibility: ```bash git clone https://github.com/TheZwiss/backspace.git cd backspace cp .env.example .env # Set DOMAIN, and generate a secret: echo "JWT_SECRET=$(openssl rand -hex 32)" >> .env docker compose up -d ``` The stack runs three services via Docker Compose: | Service | Role | |-------------|---------------------------------------------------| | `backspace` | The app (API + WebSocket + built web client) on internal port `3000` | | `caddy` | Reverse proxy with automatic HTTPS for your `DOMAIN` (ports `80`/`443`) | | `livekit` | Voice/video server — optional, enabled with `COMPOSE_PROFILES=voice` | ## Development Requirements: **Node.js 20+** and **pnpm 8+**. ```bash pnpm install cp .env.example .env # set JWT_SECRET (openssl rand -hex 32) pnpm dev # API server on :3005, Vite dev server on :5173 ``` Run the halves separately if you prefer: ```bash pnpm dev:server # API + WebSocket on :3005 pnpm dev:web # Vite dev server on :5173 ``` Build everything for production (shared types → server → web): ```bash pnpm build ``` In production the server serves the built web client directly. ## Configuration All configuration is via environment variables (see [`.env.example`](.env.example)). The most important: | Variable | Required | Default | Description | |----------------------|----------|-------------|-------------| | `DOMAIN` | yes | — | Public domain name of your instance | | `JWT_SECRET` | yes | — | Auth signing secret, **min 32 chars** (`openssl rand -hex 32`) | | `PORT` | no | `3000` | App listen port (behind Caddy in Docker) | | `HOST` | no | `0.0.0.0` | Bind address | | `REGISTRATION_OPEN` | no | `true` | Set `false` to close signups after setup | | `MAX_UPLOAD_SIZE` | no | `104857600` | Max upload size in bytes (100 MB) | | `LIVEKIT_URL` / `LIVEKIT_API_KEY` / `LIVEKIT_API_SECRET` | no | — | Enable voice/video | | `COMPOSE_PROFILES` | no | — | Set to `voice` to start the bundled LiveKit service | ## Voice & Video Voice, video, and screen sharing require a [LiveKit](https://livekit.io/) server. The Docker Compose file bundles one — enable it by setting these in `.env`: ```bash COMPOSE_PROFILES=voice LIVEKIT_URL=wss://your-domain LIVEKIT_API_KEY=your-api-key LIVEKIT_API_SECRET=your-api-secret ``` Enabling voice also requires opening the WebRTC ports (`3478/UDP`, `7881/TCP`, `50000–60000/UDP`) — see [Open the firewall ports](#2-open-the-firewall-ports). Without LiveKit configured, everything else — text, federation, DMs, uploads, search — works fully; only voice/video channels won't connect. ## Federation Backspace instances can peer with each other so users on different servers can become friends, DM, and call across instances, while each instance stays independently owned and operated. Peering is mutual and authenticated with HMAC-signed requests; identities are addressed as `username@instance`. Manage peers from the **Connections** panel in settings. The protocol is documented in [`docs/systems/federation.md`](docs/systems/federation.md) and [`docs/systems/client-federation.md`](docs/systems/client-federation.md). ## Desktop App The Electron desktop app wraps the web client and adds a system tray, native notifications, global keybinds, and activity detection. ```bash cd packages/desktop pnpm build:ts # compile TypeScript pnpm dev # run in development pnpm build # package for distribution ``` Cross-platform builds are produced for Windows, macOS, and Linux. See [`docs/systems/desktop.md`](docs/systems/desktop.md). ## Architecture Backspace is a TypeScript monorepo managed with pnpm workspaces. ``` packages/ shared/ — Shared types, permission bits, constants server/ — Fastify API + WebSocket server, Drizzle/SQLite, federation web/ — React 18 SPA (Vite, Tailwind, Zustand) desktop/ — Electron wrapper ``` | Layer | Technology | |--------------|------------| | Server | Node.js 20+, Fastify 4, TypeScript (strict) | | Database | SQLite (better-sqlite3) + Drizzle ORM | | Auth | JWT + bcrypt | | Frontend | React 18, Vite 6, Tailwind CSS 3, Zustand 5 | | Voice/Video | LiveKit | | Media | sharp (thumbnails), Cheerio (embeds) | | Desktop | Electron 40 | | Deployment | Docker Compose + Caddy (auto-HTTPS) | Every subsystem has a dedicated specification under [`docs/systems/`](docs/systems/) — database schema, REST API, WebSocket protocol, federation, permissions, voice, the design system, and more. **These are the reference for how Backspace works**; start there if you want to understand or extend a subsystem. ## Contributing Contributions are welcome. Please read [`CONTRIBUTING.md`](CONTRIBUTING.md) first. Backspace is a single-owner project, so all contributors sign a [Contributor License Agreement](CLA.md) — a one-time comment on your pull request, handled automatically by a bot. The CLA **assigns copyright in your contribution to the maintainer** (Jannis Braun), who becomes its sole owner; in return you receive a license to reuse the specific code you wrote in your own other projects. If you're not comfortable assigning your contribution, please don't submit it. ## Security If you discover a security vulnerability, please **do not** open a public issue. Instead, report it privately to the maintainer via a GitHub security advisory on this repository, or by direct contact. We'll work with you on a fix and coordinated disclosure. ## License Backspace is licensed under the **[Elastic License 2.0](LICENSE)**. In plain terms: - ✅ You may self-host, run, and use it — including commercially and inside a business. - ✅ You may read, modify, and redistribute the source. - ❌ You may **not** provide Backspace to third parties as a hosted or managed service (i.e. you can't sell Backspace-as-a-service) without a separate commercial license from the maintainer. - ❌ You may not remove or obscure the license and copyright notices. This makes Backspace **source-available**, not OSI "open source" — the only practical difference is the hosted-service restriction above. If you want to offer Backspace as a commercial service, contact the maintainer ([@TheZwiss](https://github.com/TheZwiss)) about a commercial license. Bundled third-party components (the DM Sans font, etc.) retain their own licenses; see [`NOTICE`](NOTICE). "Backspace" and the Backspace logo are trademarks of Jannis Braun and are not covered by the code license. ## Acknowledgements Built on the shoulders of [Fastify](https://fastify.dev/), [Drizzle ORM](https://orm.drizzle.team/), [React](https://react.dev/), [LiveKit](https://livekit.io/), [Tailwind CSS](https://tailwindcss.com/), [Electron](https://www.electronjs.org/), and the broader open-source ecosystem. The interface uses the [DM Sans](https://github.com/googlefonts/dm-fonts) font (SIL Open Font License 1.1).