libchat/bin/chat-cli/README.md

chat-cli

A terminal chat application built on top of libchat. End-to-end encrypted messaging in your terminal.

Building

The native logos-delivery node is built from source by the waku-bindings submodule, so fetch it recursively and build inside the dev shell (which supplies the Nim/C toolchain):

git submodule update --init --recursive
nix develop -c cargo build --release -p chat-cli

The binary lands at target/release/chat-cli. The first build compiles the whole Nim tree and takes tens of minutes; later ones are incremental.

Transports

Both transports are compiled into the binary and selected at runtime via --transport:

Value (--transport)	Description
file (default)	Shared directory; no network needed — great for local testing
logos-delivery	Embedded Waku node on the logos.dev network, one reliable channel per conversation

Quick start

Run two instances in separate terminals:

# Terminal 1
cargo run -p chat-cli -- --name alice --port 60001

# Terminal 2
cargo run -p chat-cli -- --name bob --port 60002

For local-only testing without any network dependency, use the file transport:

# Terminal 1
cargo run -p chat-cli -- --name alice --transport file

# Terminal 2
cargo run -p chat-cli -- --name bob --transport file

Establishing a connection

1. In Alice's terminal, type /intro — the bundle is copied to your clipboard automatically.
2. In Bob's terminal, type /connect <paste bundle here>.
3. Bob's "Hello!" message appears in Alice's terminal. Both can now chat.

Optional: KeyPackage registry

When --registry-url <url> is set, the client publishes its MLS KeyPackage to the keypackage-registry service on startup so other clients can later fetch it by account_id. Without the flag, an in-memory registry is used and is only visible inside the local process.

# Terminal 1 — registry server (from a chat-store checkout)
cargo run -- --bind 127.0.0.1:18080

# Terminal 2 / 3 — chat clients pointing at it
cargo run -p chat-cli -- --name alice --transport file \
  --registry-url http://127.0.0.1:18080
cargo run -p chat-cli -- --name bob --transport file \
  --registry-url http://127.0.0.1:18080

The registry is a throwaway testnet helper; v0.3 replaces it with a λLEZ-based discovery service.

Options

Flag	Default	Description
--transport <kind>	logos-delivery	Transport to use (logos-delivery or file)
--data <dir>	tmp/chat-cli-data	Data directory (UI state and default SQLite path)
--db <path>	<data>/<name>.db	SQLite file for persistent identity
--preset <name>	logos.dev	logos-delivery network preset
--port <n>	60000	TCP port for the embedded logos-delivery node
--registry-url <url>	(unset)	Use the HTTP-backed keypackage-registry at this URL instead of the in-memory registry
--log-file <path>	(stderr, off)	Write logs to a file instead of stderr

Commands

Command	Description
/help	Show available commands
/intro	Generate your introduction bundle (copies to clipboard)
/connect <bundle>	Connect to a user using their introduction bundle
/chats	List all established chats
/switch <user>	Switch active chat
/delete <user>	Delete a chat session
/status	Show identity and connection info
/clear	Clear current chat's message history
/quit · Esc · Ctrl+C	Exit

Storage

All data lives under tmp/chat-cli-data/ by default (override with --data):

Path	Contents
<name>.db	SQLite — identity keys, ratchet state, chat metadata (encrypted)
<name>_state.json	UI state — message history, active chat
transport/<name>/	Inbox directory watched for incoming messages (file transport only)

The SQLite database can be inspected with DB Browser for SQLite: password chat-cli, cipher SQLCipher 4 defaults.

Architecture

bin/chat-cli/
└── src/
    ├── main.rs           entry point, CLI arg parsing, runtime transport dispatch
    ├── app.rs            application state and command handling
    ├── ui.rs             ratatui terminal UI
    ├── utils.rs          shared helpers
    ├── transport.rs      module declarations
    └── transport/
        └── file.rs       file-based transport

The logos-delivery transport is not part of this crate: it lives in extensions/embedded-logos-delivery, which maps each conversation onto a reliable channel and links the native node through waku-bindings.