Aparté

A terminal XMPP client written in Rust. Keyboard-driven with a vim-style modal interface, inspired by Profanity.

Features

Messaging

• Multi-user chat (MUC) and direct messages
• Message Archive Management (MAM) with lazy history fetch
• XEP-0333 displayed markers — track read state in MUC
• XEP-0184 / XEP-0333 delivery status — outgoing 1-on-1 messages show ✓ (delivered) and ✓✓ (read)
• XEP-0444 message reactions — emoji reactions displayed below messages
• XEP-0393 inline message styling — bold, italic, strikethrough
• Inline image display via Sixel

Privacy

• OMEMO end-to-end encryption, including MUC
• Decrypted messages are persisted locally so they remain readable after restarts, even though the OMEMO ratchet prevents re-decryption

Interface

• Vim-style modal editing — Normal, Insert, and Command modes
• Message search with /
• Tab completion for commands, JIDs, and nicks
• Consistent per-contact color generation
• Built-in color themes: profanity, catppuccin-mocha, catppuccin-latte, catppuccin-frappe
• Roster and bookmark management

Getting started

Aparté starts in Insert mode — type and press Enter to send. Press Escape to enter Normal mode for navigation, or : to enter Command mode.

Connect to your account:

:connect me@example.org

Join a room:

:join room@conference.example.org

Switch windows with Alt+[1-9] or :win <name>.

Screen layout

The top row is a tab bar listing every open window in open order: the current window is shown emphasized in brackets, and windows with unread activity carry their notification count. When the tabs overflow, the current window always stays visible and the cut sides show an ellipsis.

Channel (MUC) windows carry a topic bar as their first row showing the room name and subject; 1-on-1 chat windows have none. The status line shows 🔒 when the current conversation is OMEMO-encrypted.

The bottom of the screen is a vim-style stack: the status line (mode, connected account, suspended edit indicators) and the command bar at the very bottom. Each chat and channel window has its own input bar at the bottom of the window frame, identified by a > prompt. The console window has no input bar — it is read-only. : commands, / searches and password prompts are typed in the command bar, so a half-typed message never mixes with a command — the draft stays visible in the input bar and is untouched when the command runs or is cancelled. Because each window owns its input, drafts also survive switching to another window and back. Pending Normal-mode keys (e.g. 2j) show at the right of the command bar. The input bar and the command bar each keep their own history (↑/↓). Failed commands echo their error on the command bar until the next keypress (and are also logged to the console window).

Modal interface

From	Key	To / Action
Insert	Escape	Normal mode
Normal	i	Insert mode (edit selected message if on frame)
Normal	o	Insert mode on input bar
Normal	:	Command mode
Normal	/	Search mode
Normal	j / ↓	Select next message
Normal	k / ↑	Select previous message
Normal	gg	Scroll to top
Normal	G	Scroll to bottom
Normal	n / N	Next / previous search match
Command	Escape	Normal mode
Insert	Tab	Auto-complete
Any	Ctrl+L	Force full screen repaint

Commands accept unique prefixes: :conn resolves to :connect when unambiguous.

Vim motions in the input bar

Normal mode supports vim-style text motions on the input bar. A motion can be prefixed with a count (3w) and an operator (d, c, y). Text deleted or yanked is stored in a register and can be pasted with p / P.

Key	Motion
h / l	Left / right one character
w / W	Forward to next word / WORD
b / B	Backward to start of word / WORD
e / E	Forward to end of word / WORD
0	Start of line
^	First non-blank character
$	End of line

Key	Operator
d{mot}	Delete over motion
c{mot}	Change (delete + enter Insert)
y{mot}	Yank (copy) over motion
dd	Delete whole input
cc	Clear input and enter Insert
yy	Yank whole input
x / X	Delete char under / before cursor
p / P	Paste after / before cursor

Registers: prefix any operator with "a (e.g. "adw) to use a named register. Uppercase letters append to the named register ("Adw).

Correcting a sent message

In Normal mode, navigate with k/j to one of your own sent messages and press i. The cursor moves onto the message itself (steady bar), pre-filled with the current body. Edit the text and press Enter to send the correction (XEP-0308): the message updates in place and is marked with a ✎ icon. Press Esc to cancel the edit and revert. Incoming messages are not editable.

Once a message is selected, vim text motions (h, l, w, b, e, 0, $, count prefixes, etc.) apply to the message body immediately — no extra keypress needed. Press i to enter Insert mode on the message (cursor becomes a bar, free typing). Press Esc to return to Normal mode on the message (motions apply again). Press Esc once more to cancel the edit.

Install

Cargo

cargo install aparte

Arch Linux (AUR)

paru -S aparte-git
# or manually:
git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/aparte-git.git && cd aparte-git && makepkg -si

Guix

# From the GuixRUs channel (https://git.sr.ht/~whereiseveryone/guixrus):
guix pull && guix install aparte

# Or build from source:
git clone https://github.com/paulfariello/aparte --branch develop
cd aparte && guix package -f guix.scm

Windows (WSL)

Inside a Debian-based WSL environment:

sudo apt update && sudo apt install libssl-dev pkg-config curl
curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh
source ~/.cargo/env
cargo install --git https://github.com/paulfariello/aparte --branch develop

Configuration

Config file location: $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/aparte/config.toml (falls back to ~/.config/aparte/config.toml).

# Audio bell on mention
bell = true

# Built-in themes: profanity, catppuccin-mocha, catppuccin-latte, catppuccin-frappe
theme_name = "catppuccin-mocha"

[accounts.example]
jid = "me@example.org/aparte"
autoconnect = true

Contact

Join aparte@conference.fariello.eu