Outpost

outpost-chat.com — project site, server directory, downloads, changelog.

A self-hosted Discord alternative. Each Outpost deployment is one self-hosted community — accounts, text/voice channels, roles, invites, file uploads — reachable from a web browser or the native desktop app.

Built because no existing self-hosted platform (Matrix/Element, Revolt, Mattermost, Rocket.Chat) covers the same combination of chat + real voice/ video in one place with this simple a deployment story. Assembled from proven pieces rather than reinvented: LiveKit for WebRTC voice/video, MinIO for file storage.

Screenshots

Captured from the desktop app on Linux, v0.6.1.

Daylight, the first light theme. The server picks a default; each person can override it for themselves in User Settings -> Appearance.

Join a voice channel and the call takes over the pane. Turn on a camera or share a screen and they tile together.

Direct messages mark where encryption starts and stops. Dropping back to plaintext reads as a warning, because that is what changes your exposure.

Your instance, your rules. Roles, invites, webhooks, reports, audit log.

Delete your own account whenever you want. The owner cannot, because an instance with no owner cannot be administered.

Features

• Accounts, channels (text + voice), roles/permissions, invite-gated or open registration
• Real-time chat: message edit/delete/reactions, typing indicators, presence, file attachments, custom emoji, threads, search and pinning
• Voice channels with push-to-talk or voice-activity detection, device selection, mute/deafen, camera video and screen sharing
• Direct messages and friends, with optional end-to-end encryption (encrypted in your client, so serve your own client if that matters to you -- see deploy/README.md)
• Moderation: reporting with a moderator queue, blocking, kick/ban, an audit log, and a bot/webhook API
• Two-factor auth (authenticator app or passkey), and optional single sign-on against any OpenID Connect provider
• Clients for web, desktop (Windows/macOS/Linux, with auto-update), Android and iOS
• Five built-in themes including a light one, an instance icon, and a description your instance can set for itself
• One instance = one community. The client (web or desktop) keeps a bookmark list of instance addresses instead of a single fixed server — add as many self-hosted instances as you want and switch between them

Self-hosting

The whole backend (API + web client, Postgres, LiveKit, MinIO) runs via Docker Compose:

git clone https://github.com/blindrun/outpost-chat.git
cd outpost-chat/deploy
./install.sh

See deploy/README.md for the manual install path, updating, backups, and port requirements.

Desktop client

Download the latest installer for Windows/macOS/Linux from the Releases page. The desktop app is just the web client packaged with Electron — on first launch, use "Add a Server" to connect to your own (or anyone else's) Outpost instance by address.

Installers are unsigned (no paid code-signing certificate for a personal project), so Windows SmartScreen / macOS Gatekeeper will warn on first run — that's expected, not a sign of a bad build.

On macOS specifically, an unsigned app often shows a scarier message than a simple warning: "Outpost is damaged and can't be opened. You should move it to the Trash." This is Gatekeeper's quarantine check misreporting an unsigned app as corrupted — the download isn't actually damaged. Fix it from Terminal:

xattr -cr /Applications/Outpost.app

(adjust the path if you didn't install to /Applications), then open it normally.

The app checks for updates on launch and installs new ones automatically (via electron-updater against this repo's Releases). On Windows and Linux this works the same as any other install; on macOS, automatic updates need a code-signed build to apply — without one, an update can be detected but not installed automatically, so a new version there still means downloading the installer again from the Releases page.

Linux, via Flatpak

Outpost has its own signed Flatpak repository. Adding the remote also puts it in Bazaar, GNOME Software and KDE Discover:

flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists --user outpost https://flatpak.outpost-chat.com/outpost.flatpakrepo
flatpak install --user outpost io.github.blindrun.OutpostChat

Updates then arrive through Flatpak like any other app, and the build runs sandboxed. Outpost is not on Flathub and will not be, because their policy excludes applications written with AI assistance.

Web client, without installing anything

app.outpost-chat.com runs the same client in a browser. You type your own instance address and it talks to that instance directly, so nothing you send passes through us. Encrypted direct messages are encrypted by the client, which means serving you that client puts us in the trust path. If that matters to you, use the desktop app or serve the client from your own instance.

Building from source

├── src/            backend (Fastify + Prisma + Postgres)
├── web/             web client (React + Vite)
├── electron/         desktop client wrapper (Electron)
├── deploy/           self-host Docker Compose bundle
└── Dockerfile        production image (backend serves the built web client)

Backend:

npm install
docker compose up -d   # Postgres, LiveKit (--dev mode), MinIO
cp .env.example .env
npx prisma migrate dev
npm run dev

Web client (separate terminal):

cd web
npm install
npm run dev

Desktop client:

cd electron
npm install
npm run dev    # builds the web client for Electron, then launches it
npm run dist   # produces an installer for your current platform

Changelog

See CHANGELOG.md for release notes.

Who builds this

Outpost is built by Son of a Tech.

The same homelab runs the reverse proxy, WireGuard tunnels, Proxmox backups and monitoring that this project was developed against. Every problem worth writing down from that work ends up in the wiki, including several found while building Outpost itself:

• Electron screen share is denied silently
• A backgrounded WKWebView kills your audio after 27 seconds
• Desktop SSO through the system browser and a custom URL scheme
• NOT IN drops every row with a NULL

License

MIT — see LICENSE.