rchat

A peer-to-peer group terminal chat that rides on the rnet WireGuard overlay. Everyone on the same rnet network runs rchat and talks in one room — no server, no cloud. The links are already encrypted + authenticated by WireGuard. The UI is a calm greyscale ratatui with a block-font banner.

How it works (N-peer full mesh)

1. rnet puts every node on 10.42.0.0/24 via mynet0 (up to 254 peers).
2. rchat reads its own overlay IP from mynet0 and the full member list from rnet's ~/.config/mynet/peers.toml (falling back to the classic .1/.2 pair before that file exists).
3. Mesh rule: every node listens, and only dials peers with a lower overlay IP — so each pair forms exactly one TCP connection. A peer is identified by the overlay IP it declares in its Hello.
4. A message is broadcast to all connected peers. Messages are newline-delimited JSON; TCP gives ordering + reliability, WireGuard gives confidentiality.
5. New members that join rnet mid-session are picked up automatically — the dialer re-reads peers.toml every couple of seconds.

Build

cargo build --release   # binary at target/release/rchat

Use

On every laptop, after rnet is connected:

rchat                 # auto-discovers overlay IP + all peers, opens the room
rchat --nick alice    # override display name (default: $USER)
rchat --port 8086     # override TCP port (default 8086)
rchat status          # print own IP, discovered peers + roles, history path

The status bar shows the live roster: your name, how many peers are online, and their names. Keys: Enter send · PgUp/PgDn scroll · Esc / Ctrl-C quit.

History

Appended as JSON Lines under ~/.config/rchat/history/:

• group.jsonl — rolling group history (replayed on restart)
• session-<ts>.jsonl — this run only

Each line: {"ts":…,"iso":"…","dir":"in|out|event","nick":"…","body":"…"}.

Layout

src/
├── main.rs      # CLI + orchestration
├── config.rs    # own overlay IP (mynet0 → local.toml) + peer set (peers.toml)
├── proto.rs     # JSON wire protocol (hello{from,nick} / msg / ping / bye)
├── net.rs       # full-mesh hub: listener + dialer, per-conn reader/writer, broadcast
├── history.rs   # group JSONL logging under ~/.config/rchat
└── ui.rs        # greyscale ratatui UI (block banner, roster, chat + input)