GroupChat2

GroupChat2 is a full-stack group chat application with live rooms, invite flows, profile management, image uploads, and an AI participant that can respond in-room using OpenRouter plus web tools.

The project is split into two main apps:

• Client README
• Server README

What It Does

• Real-time group chat over WebSockets
• Account registration and login with JWT auth
• Optional Nostr-based authentication
• Room creation, membership, invite links, and Nostr invites
• AI-assisted rooms with configurable model, prompt, and assistant name
• Streaming AI responses with tool usage indicators
• Chat image uploads and user avatar uploads
• Message permalinks backed by stored message hashes
• SQLite persistence with automatic startup backups

Project Layout

GroupChat2/
|- client/   Riot.js + Vite single-page app
|- server/   Rust + Axum API, WebSocket server, SQLite storage
|- dev.ps1   Windows dev runner
|- dev.sh    macOS/Linux dev runner
|- prod.sh   Production build/run script

Stack

• Frontend: Riot.js, Vite, vanilla JS, markdown-it, highlight.js
• Backend: Rust, Axum, Tokio, SQLx, SQLite
• AI: OpenRouter with optional Tavily or Brave search
• Auth: JWT, Argon2 passwords, Nostr challenge/verify flow

Quick Start

1. Copy server/.env.example to server/.env.
2. Fill in at least OPENROUTER_API_KEY and the search provider keys required by SEARCH_PROVIDER.
3. Start the app with one of the repo scripts:

./dev.ps1

./dev.sh

If you prefer running each side manually:

cd server
cargo run

cd client
npm install
npm run dev

Default local ports:

• Windows dev script: client http://localhost:3000, server http://localhost:3001
• macOS/Linux dev script: client http://localhost:3003, server http://localhost:3002
• Manual defaults: client http://localhost:3000, server http://localhost:3001

Development Notes

• The client proxies /api, /ws, and /uploads to the server during local development.
• The server serves client/dist directly in production.
• Database migrations are executed at server startup.
• Before opening the SQLite database, the server creates a timestamped backup and retains the 10 most recent copies.

Where To Read Next

• Client README for UI structure, frontend commands, and browser behavior
• Server README for env vars, endpoints, storage, and backend architecture