Telex

Telex is an account-centric chat server with an IRC-compatible edge.

It keeps the useful shape of IRC—small servers, ordinary IRC clients, channels, text-first conversation, and operator ownership—while treating an account, a client installation, a network connection, and a read cursor as different things.

Status: pre-alpha. Telex is running in a small real-world deployment, but interfaces and storage formats can still change. Review the configuration and operations guides before exposing it to the internet.

What is here

• One Rust daemon, one SQLite database, and no required external services.
• IRC over TCP/TLS and standard IRCv3 WebSocket transports.
• Human accounts with one password across devices and revocable, cursor-only installation credentials.
• Durable channels, authenticated direct messages, history, read markers, reactions, replies, multiline messages, topics, moderation, and retention.
• A transient per-channel Stage for externally encoded text-cell video and optional synchronized AAC audio; Stage packets never become chat history.
• Invite-gated onboarding, narrow account capabilities, and audited operator changes.
• A responsive installable web client that coexists with traditional IRC clients, including opt-in remembered-device login.
• Visibly automated bot and agent accounts with independently revocable app keys and explicit per-channel grants.
• Optional automation command catalogs for client-side leading-! autocomplete without changing ordinary PRIVMSG command transport.
• A structured native gateway and an MCP adapter for integrations that need more than IRC can express.

Telex does not host models, prompts, arbitrary uploads, or automation-provider credentials. It is not a federated or multi-server IRC network and does not claim end-to-end encryption.

Run it locally

Requirements:

• Rust 1.95 or newer
• Node.js 22 or newer for the reference clients and automation examples

Start the loopback-only development listener:

cargo run --locked

Then connect an IRC client to 127.0.0.1:6667 without TLS. The development defaults allow anonymous use and do not expose a control or WebSocket listener.

Run the main checks:

cargo test --locked --all-targets --all-features
cargo clippy --locked --all-targets --all-features -- -D warnings
cd clients
npm ci
npm test
npm run check

The optional container lab exercises a production-shaped TLS, onboarding, restart, backup, and recovery lifecycle without publishing ports beyond host loopback.

Configure a server

Copy the public example, replace every example.net name and path, and decide the admission and retention policies explicitly:

sudo install -d -m 0750 /etc/telex
sudo install -m 0640 config/examples/public.toml /etc/telex/server.toml

IRC_CONFIG=/etc/telex/server.toml \
  target/release/telex-ircd config check

The checked-in example is documentation, not a safe drop-in production configuration. See configuration, standalone operations, and database recovery before starting a public listener.

Build the web client

cd clients
npm ci
npm run build:web:release

The static output is written to clients/web/dist/. The generic Nginx example shows the expected same-origin WebSocket and control boundaries. The web-client guide covers development, deployment, local state, privacy, and browser testing.

Build an automation

Start with the automation examples index. The smallest invocation integration is CommandBot: it receives only a visible addressed command, has zero preceding context, and replies through the durable native path. CatalogBot is the corresponding leading-! example: it publishes !hello, !time, and !help metadata, reads new human messages, and replies causally.

Automation app keys are native/control credentials, not IRC SASL passwords. The examples connect to the HTTPS control origin (commonly port 8098), obtain a one-use attenuated ticket, and open the structured native session. Traditional IRC libraries on the IRC or IRC-over-WebSocket listeners cannot use an app key.

The examples intentionally separate common shapes:

• explicit command and response;
• discoverable leading-! commands;
• scheduled publication;
• bounded roster lookup;
• recoverable background work;
• model-backed channel participation; and
• external artifact catalogues with HTTPS or DCC transfer.

An automation does not inherit access merely because a channel is public. Its app key, native ticket, channel grant, chatter policy, and current guardrails all apply; the most restrictive decision wins. See automated participants, the native gateway guide, and the MCP adapter for the full boundary.

Publish a Stage

Stage is a transient text-cell presentation attached to a channel. The daemon relays already-encoded complete frames and optional AAC-LC/fMP4 audio; it does not decode media, retain packets, or turn frames into IRC messages.

The Stage publisher kit can preview or stream a local file, encode a reusable .tstage archive, play an archive, or schedule a station playlist. The publishing guide covers provisioning the narrow stage.publish grant, building the projector, and using the container image.

Documentation

The documentation index is organized by task:

• use the server and its reference clients;
• operate a standalone deployment;
• build a client, bot, agent, or content provider; or
• understand and change the implementation.

The architecture describes the shared domain model. The public roadmap records implemented capabilities, known gaps, and deliberate non-goals. Release changes are summarized in CHANGELOG.md.

Contributing and security

Read CONTRIBUTING.md before proposing a change. Please report security-sensitive problems privately as described in SECURITY.md rather than opening a public issue.

License

Telex is licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License, version 3 only. If you operate a modified Telex over a network, the license requires you to offer the corresponding source of that modified version to its users.