Sidera

Sidera is a minimalist cosmic message board where anonymous thoughts become stars.

Users write a message, launch it into the void, and watch it appear as a brighter point in a black vertical starfield. Older signals stay in space, while the live console shows the latest transmissions in real time.

Concept

Sidera is built around a small ritual:

• write something you do not want to send to a real person;
• launch it into space instead;
• let it exist anonymously as a star among other drifting messages.

It is not a messenger and not a social network. It is a quiet visual place for release.

Features

• minimalist black-space UI with animated nebula and stars;
• anonymous message creation;
• procedural destination stars with weighted distance ranges;
• clickable message-stars placed into sectors of up to 20 stars per screen;
• live console with time search and fading overflow;
• clean mode, sound toggle, signal receipt, and modal transitions;
• API-backed storage instead of mock data.

Stack

• HTML5
• CSS3
• Vanilla JavaScript
• Node.js
• Vercel Functions
• Turso / libSQL

Architecture

Frontend:

• index.html
• styles.css
• app.js

Backend:

• api/messages.mjs
• api/destination-preview.mjs
• shared logic in lib/*.cjs

Storage:

• Turso in production
• local file: libSQL database for optional local fallback

API

• GET /api/messages
• GET /api/messages?after=<timestamp>
• GET /api/destination-preview
• POST /api/messages

Example payload:

{
  "message": "I needed to say this somewhere.",
  "destination": {
    "name": "Astra Reach",
    "distance": 128.4,
    "bucketKey": "mid"
  }
}

destination is optional. If omitted, the server generates one automatically.

Local Development

Install dependencies:

npm install

Run locally:

npm start

Then open:

http://127.0.0.1:4173

If TURSO_DATABASE_URL is set, the app talks to Turso.

If it is not set, local development falls back to a local file database:

data/sidera.db

Environment Variables

Create .env.local or set project variables in Vercel:

TURSO_DATABASE_URL=libsql://your-database-name-your-org.turso.io
TURSO_AUTH_TOKEN=your_turso_auth_token

Template:

.env.example

Deploy on Vercel

1. Create a Turso database.
2. Get the database URL.
3. Create a Turso auth token.
4. Create a Vercel project from this repository.
5. Add TURSO_DATABASE_URL and TURSO_AUTH_TOKEN in Vercel Environment Variables.
6. Deploy.

Because the API is implemented in /api, Vercel will expose it automatically as serverless endpoints.

Turso Setup

Typical flow:

turso db create sidera
turso db show sidera --url
turso db tokens create sidera

Use the returned values in your local .env.local and in Vercel project settings.

Project Structure

.
├── api/
│   ├── destination-preview.mjs
│   └── messages.mjs
├── app.js
├── docs/
│   └── banner.svg
├── favicon.svg
├── index.html
├── lib/
│   ├── db.cjs
│   ├── destinations.cjs
│   └── messages.cjs
├── package.json
├── README.md
├── server.js
└── styles.css

Notes

• server.js is only for local development convenience;
• production deployment is designed for Vercel + Turso;
• data/ is ignored by git and should not be committed;
• old local database files like unsent.db or aether.db are leftovers from earlier naming stages and are not required by the current app.

Roadmap

• production deployment;
• custom social preview image;
• moderation and rate limiting;
• richer signal exploration and filtering.

Write it. Launch it. Let it drift.

License

2026 BERT info@tenyokj

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, version 3 of the License, or any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program. If not, see https://www.gnu.org/licenses/.