6. Requirements

Requirements

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End users (client only)

Download the pre-built installer for your platform — no additional software required.

Platform	File
Windows	ChatCLI Setup 0.4.1-beta.exe
Windows (portable)	ChatCLI-0.4.1-beta-win-portable.zip
Linux (Debian/Ubuntu)	chatcli_0.4.1-beta_amd64.deb
Linux (portable)	chatcli_0.4.1-beta_linux_portable.zip

Install the .deb package:

sudo dpkg -i chatcli_0.4.1-beta_amd64.deb

Launch ChatCLI and connect to chat.puam.be — no local backend needed.

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Self-hosting the backend

The following must be installed on the server before running the backend.

Dependency	Minimum version	Notes
Python	3.12.0
MariaDB	10.6	MySQL 8.0.43+ also works; earlier MariaDB versions untested
Node.js	24.7.0	Only needed to build the client from source
git	any

Install MariaDB on Debian/Ubuntu

sudo apt install mariadb-server
sudo systemctl start mariadb

Install Python dependencies

cd src/backend
pip install -r requirements.txt

LiveKit (VoIP)

VoIP calling requires a running LiveKit server. Configure the connection details in .env:

LIVEKIT_URL=ws://your-livekit-host:7880
LIVEKIT_KEY=your_key
LIVEKIT_SECRET=your_secret

LiveKit is optional — the rest of ChatCLI functions without it.

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Python packages (requirements.txt)

See src/backend/requirements.txt in the repository for the full list of Python dependencies.