RICHAT - voice and messaging

Self-hosted Discord-style chat. This repository is the install bundle and the issue tracker. It does not contain application source.

• Run it: Docker Compose in this repo pulls dotnetdummy/richat and PostgreSQL.
• Product site: RICHAT.net
• Issues: file bugs and requests here.

The app runs as a PWA. It supports public and private channels, threads, emoji reactions, custom emojis, GIF search, pinned messages, link previews, and push notifications. Voice is a huddle on an existing text channel (screen share, webcams, soundboard, party mode, poker, and pictionary).

Requirements

• Docker with Compose
• A login provider: a Steam Web API key, email/password, or a generic OAuth2 provider (exactly one)
• VAPID keys (push notifications)
• HTTPS in production (PWA, push, and microphone)

Install

git clone https://github.com/dotnetdummy/richat.git
cd richat
cp .env.example .env

Fill in .env:

1. Set POSTGRES_PASSWORD to a strong password.

2. Set APP_URL to the public origin (https://chat.example.com).

3. Set INITIAL_ADMIN to your email (email/password or OAuth2) or Steam persona name. The first matching sign-in becomes admin.

4. Generate AUTH_SECRET and paste it:

   openssl rand -base64 32

   Keep the same secret. Rotating it invalidates every session. With email/password login it also breaks sign-in, because stored emails are HMAC'd with this value.

5. Generate Web Push VAPID keys and paste VAPID_PUBLIC_KEY / VAPID_PRIVATE_KEY:

   npx --yes web-push generate-vapid-keys

   Set VAPID_SUBJECT to a mailto: address or https: URL that identifies this app. Keep the same key pair; rotating it invalidates every device's push subscription.

6. Enable exactly one login provider: STEAM_API_KEY, AUTH_EMAIL_PASSWORD=true, or OAuth2 (OAUTH2_CLIENT_ID + OAUTH2_CLIENT_SECRET + a discovery URL or explicit endpoints). The app refuses to start with zero or more than one.

Then:

docker compose up -d

Open http://localhost:1987 (or your APP_URL) and sign in as INITIAL_ADMIN. After that, manage the whitelist from Admin (Shield icon next to the logo in the channel menu). The seed creates public channel general.

Chat data lives in the pgdata volume. GET /health is the health check. Pending migrations run when the app starts.

Override the image with RICHAT_IMAGE if you want a pinned tag (default dotnetdummy/richat:latest).

Portainer

Deploy this docker-compose.yml as a stack that pulls RICHAT_IMAGE. Do not add a build: key — Portainer has no app source tree, and compose build fails with mkdir /.docker: permission denied.

Reverse proxy

Terminate TLS in front of port 1987. Set APP_URL (and AUTH_TRUSTED_ORIGINS if the origin list is wider than APP_URL) to the public HTTPS URL. Production needs HTTPS for install-as-app, push, and huddle microphones.

Upgrade

docker compose pull && docker compose up -d

Pending migrations run when the app starts. Pin RICHAT_IMAGE to a version if you do not want to follow latest.

Voice TURN

Optional. Needed on hard NATs. Coturn is a separate compose file in coturn/ (host networking, public IP). It is not in the app image or the root compose file. See docs/turn.md.

Environment

Put these in .env. See .env.example.

Variable	Required	Purpose
POSTGRES_PASSWORD	Yes	Postgres password (compose also builds DATABASE_URL)
AUTH_SECRET	Yes	Session signing secret
APP_URL	Yes.	Public origin of the app
AUTH_TRUSTED_ORIGINS	No (defaults to APP_URL)	Comma-separated allowed origins
STEAM_API_KEY	One login provider	Steam OpenID login
AUTH_EMAIL_PASSWORD	One login provider	true enables email/password login
OAUTH2_CLIENT_ID / OAUTH2_CLIENT_SECRET	One login provider	Generic OAuth2 / OIDC login
OAUTH2_DISCOVERY_URL	With OAuth2	OIDC discovery URL (or set the explicit URLs)
OAUTH2_AUTHORIZATION_URL / OAUTH2_TOKEN_URL	With OAuth2 (no discovery URL)	Explicit OAuth2 endpoints
OAUTH2_USERINFO_URL	No	Explicit userinfo endpoint
OAUTH2_SCOPES	No (default openid,profile,email)	Comma-separated scopes
OAUTH2_PROVIDER_NAME	No (default OAuth)	Login button label
VAPID_PUBLIC_KEY	Yes	Web Push
VAPID_PRIVATE_KEY	Yes	Web Push
VAPID_SUBJECT	Yes	Web Push subject (mailto: or https: URL)
KLIPY_APP_KEY	No	KLIPY GIF search. Without it, only uploaded GIFs.
PORT	No (default 1987)	Host port mapped to the app
INITIAL_ADMIN	First setup	Email or Steam name of the first admin
POSTGRES_USER / POSTGRES_DB	No (default richat)	Postgres role and database name
DB_MIGRATE_ON_START	No (default true)	Run pending migrations when the app starts
RICHAT_IMAGE	No	App image tag
EMAIL_SALT_ROUNDS	No (default 10)	bcrypt rounds for hashed emails
MESSAGE_RETENTION_DAYS	No (default 90)	Last-edit age after which unpinned messages are deleted
PINNED_MESSAGE_RETENTION_DAYS	No (default 365)	Last-edit age after which pinned messages are deleted
USER_RETENTION_DAYS	No (default 365)	Inactivity after which accounts are deleted (0 off)
TURN_HOST / TURN_USERNAME / TURN_CREDENTIAL	No	TURN for voice on hard NATs. See docs/turn.md.
MAX_VOICE_PARTICIPANTS	No (default 8)	Max people in a voice huddle

With email/password there is no email infrastructure: password resets go through Admin → Users → Reset password, which generates a random password the admin hands over out-of-band; the user can then change it in Settings → Profile.

Privacy

• Emails are hashed at registration; the plaintext is never stored. Steam and OAuth2 use bcrypt. Email/password uses a deterministic HMAC-SHA256 (keyed with AUTH_SECRET) because sign-in must look the user up by email.
• Sessions store no IP address and no user agent.
• Whitelist invites hold a plaintext email, Steam name, or @domain. Person rows are consumed at first sign-in. Domain rows stay until they expire. Every row is purged at its chosen TTL (24 hours to 1 year).
• The Steam ID in auth.account stays in plaintext: it is the login identity and is needed for lookup at sign-in.
• A daily retention job (and on demand from Admin → Retention) purges old unpinned and pinned messages, orphan uploads, expired sessions, stale push subscriptions, and inactive accounts. The owner and system user are never auto-deleted. Deleted accounts keep chat shown as Deleted user.
• Push payloads are encrypted to the device. Each user can hide channel names, sender names, and message text from push payloads (Settings → Notifications).
• Link previews are fetched server-side (public addresses only) and cached in memory only.
• The TURN sidecar runs with stdout logging off, because coturn allocation logs contain client IPs.
• Messages and files are stored unencrypted in PostgreSQL; there is no end-to-end encryption. Database dumps contain plaintext content.

Support

• Issues: this repository
• Product site: richat.net