AnonChat

Serverless · End-to-End Encrypted · Onion Routing

A privacy-first desktop messenger that routes every message through the Anyone Protocol onion routing hidden services. No central servers. No phone number. No metadata harvesting. Your .anyone address is your only identity.

Features · How It Works · Architecture · Getting Started · Security Model · Roadmap · FAQ · License

Why AnonChat ?

Most messengers route your conversations through corporate servers that can see who you talk to, when, and how often - even when they can't read the contents. AnonChat is built differently:

No central servers - messages travel peer-to-peer between devices over Anyone Protocol hidden services.
Onion-routed transport - your IP is never exposed to the people you talk to; everyone is reachable only through a .anyone address.
End-to-end encryption - a Signal-inspired Double Ratchet with authenticated (signed) prekeys protects every message.
Local-first - all history lives on your device, encrypted at rest. Nothing is uploaded anywhere.
No identifiers - no phone number, no email, no account. You are your key.

Features

Privacy & Security

End-to-end encryption - Double Ratchet (X3DH handshake, forward secrecy) over NIST P-256, AES-256-GCM, HKDF/HMAC-SHA256.
Signed prekeys - your medium-term prekey is signed by a separate identity signing key (ECDSA P-256), so a man-in-the-middle can't substitute it. Verification is fail-closed.
Anyone Protocol hidden services for all transport - content and network location are hidden.
Encrypted at rest - history is sealed with a PBKDF2-600k + AES-GCM key. Optionally bound to the OS keychain for frictionless unlock, or protected by a PIN.
Trust-on-first-use pinning with safety-number verification per contact.

Messaging

Real-time 1:1 messaging over the onion network, with optimistic send and delivery status.
Group chats (up to 10 members) with admin controls, descriptions, and member management.
Replies, reactions, and disappearing messages (per-conversation TTL).
Voice messages and drag-and-drop file / image / video sharing (session-only by design).
Read receipts (opt-in), pinned conversations, unread separators, and jump-to-latest.
Message search across a conversation, and local petnames for contacts.

Experience

Neutral dark & light themes, adjustable chat font size.
OpenMoji emoji picker (~1,270 emoji) organized into the categories you expect - Recent, Smileys, People, Animals, Food, Activities, Travel, Objects, Symbols, Flags.
Six languages out of the box: English, Spanish, French, Italian, German, Portuguese.

Network insight (unique to onion-native messaging)

Live Circuits / Relays panel and World globe showing the actual relays your traffic passes through - nickname, fingerprint, bandwidth, and flags.
Hidden-service health and bootstrap status.
Manual circuit rotation.

How It Works

Identity creation — on first launch, AnonChat generates your encryption keys and starts an Anyone Protocol hidden service. Your .anyone address is derived from your key.
Address exchange — you and your contact share .anyone addresses through a channel you already trust (in person, or another secure app). Never rely on a stranger sending you one.
Session establishment — adding a contact fetches and pins their public keys and signed prekey; the first message runs an X3DH handshake to derive a shared secret.
Secure messaging — every message is sealed with the Double Ratchet and routed as ciphertext through the onion network. Your node only ever relays encrypted payloads.

No metadata leaks

No phone number or email
No account or central server logs
No IP exposure to peers
Only encrypted payloads over anonymous routing

Architecture

AnonChat is an Electron desktop app wrapping a local Node.js backend and a sandboxed web UI. There is no cloud component — the "server" is a loopback process on your own machine that speaks to the Anyone network.

Layer	Technology
Desktop shell	Electron 42 (Chromium 148, Node 22 LTS)
UI	Vanilla JS in a sandboxed renderer (`contextIsolation`, `sandbox`, no `nodeIntegration`)
Local backend	Express / Node.js (`server.js`) — onion-facing + loopback routers
Encryption	WebCrypto: Double Ratchet + X3DH, P-256, AES-256-GCM, ECDSA-signed prekeys
Transport	Anyone Protocol hidden services (`.anyone` addresses)
At-rest	PBKDF2-600k + AES-GCM, optional OS-keychain key wrapping (`safeStorage`)
i18n	6 languages, ~220 keys each

anyone-chat/
├── server.js            # local backend: onion-facing + loopback APIs
├── start.js             # bootstrap + process supervision
├── public/              # web UI (sandboxed renderer)
│   ├── app.js           #   client logic
│   ├── ratchet.js       #   Double Ratchet + X3DH + signed prekeys
│   ├── crypto.js        #   primitives
│   ├── i18n.js          #   6-language strings
│   ├── emoji/           #   OpenMoji PNGs
│   └── styles.css
├── lib/                 # circuits, outbox, pow, ratelimit, store
└── desktop/             # Electron main process, preload, splash, packaging

Getting Started

Prerequisites

Node.js 22 LTS
An Anyone Protocol anon binary, v0.4.10.2 or newer (required for .anyone address support). Either place it on your PATH as anon, or point ANON_BINARY at it.
Linux, macOS, or Windows

Run from source

AnonChat can be started in two modes:

Desktop app (Electron shell — recommended):

# Clone
git clone https://github.com/xmranonp/anyone-chat.git
cd anyone-chat

# 1. Install backend dependencies (express, ws, etc.)
npm install

# 2. Install the Electron shell and build tooling
cd desktop && npm install

# 3. Stage the app + portable Node runtime + anon binary into desktop/resources/.
#    Required once after cloning, and again whenever you re-extract a build tarball.
ANON_BIN=/path/to/anon-v0.4.10.2/anon ./prepare-resources.sh

# 4. Launch the Electron desktop app.
ANON_BIN=/path/to/anon-v0.4.10.2/anon npm start

Web-only mode (no Electron — opens in your browser at http://localhost:4000):

# From the repo root (after npm install):
ANON_BINARY=/path/to/anon-v0.4.10.2/anon npm start

Build a desktop package (AppImage / .deb)

Packaging stages the app, a portable Node runtime, and the anon binary into a distributable. Run the staging script from desktop/ with ANON_BIN pointing at your anon binary, then build:

cd desktop

# Install the build tooling (Electron + electron-builder)
npm install

# Stage resources (copies the anon binary + Node runtime into desktop/resources/)
ANON_BIN=/path/to/anon-v0.4.10.2/anon ./prepare-resources.sh

# Build for your platform (build each native package on its own OS):
npm run build          # Ubuntu/Debian -> AppImage + .deb
npm run build:pacman   # Arch/CachyOS  -> .pacman + AppImage  (needs libxcrypt-compat)
# Windows: run in PowerShell — use prepare-resources.ps1, then:
#   npm run build:win  # -> NSIS installer (.exe)

Security Model

AnonChat layers three independent protections:

Transport — Anyone Protocol onion routing hides both message content and your network location.
Application — a Double Ratchet (X3DH + forward secrecy) encrypts every message end-to-end, with signed prekeys authenticating the handshake.
Storage — local history is encrypted at rest (PBKDF2-600k + AES-GCM), optionally bound to the OS keychain or a PIN.

Threat model

Threat	Mitigation
Server compromise	No servers exist to compromise
Network surveillance	Anyone Protocol onion routing
Message interception	Double Ratchet end-to-end encryption
Prekey substitution / MITM	ECDSA-signed prekeys, pinned per contact (fail-closed)
Replay	Per-message consumed-key set in the ratchet
Offline disk access	At-rest encryption (keychain- or PIN-derived key)
Metadata analysis	No central server means no central metadata to collect

Roadmap

Note: It is worth noting that this roadmap is a living document and is subject to change without prior notice.

Disclaimer

AnonChat is provided as-is for privacy-focused communication. It implements industry-standard techniques, but no software can guarantee absolute security, and the cryptography has not been formally audited by an independent third party. You are responsible for your own operational security.

License

Licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 or later (AGPL-3.0-or-later). See LICENSE for the full text.

Bundled third-party components (globe.gl, three.js, OpenMoji, Natural Earth data, the Anyone anon daemon, and npm dependencies) remain under their own licenses — see THIRD-PARTY-LICENSES.md.

Built for people who believe privacy is a right, not a feature.

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
.github/workflows		.github/workflows
data		data
desktop		desktop
lib		lib
public		public
tools		tools
.gitignore		.gitignore
.npmrc		.npmrc
.nvmrc		.nvmrc
BUILD.md		BUILD.md
FAQ.md		FAQ.md
LICENSE		LICENSE
README.md		README.md
THIRD-PARTY-LICENSES.md		THIRD-PARTY-LICENSES.md
package-lock.json		package-lock.json
package.json		package.json
server.js		server.js
start.js		start.js

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AnonChat

Why AnonChat ?

Features

Privacy & Security

Messaging

Experience

Network insight (unique to onion-native messaging)

How It Works

No metadata leaks

Architecture

Getting Started

Prerequisites

Run from source

Build a desktop package (AppImage / .deb)

Security Model

Threat model

Roadmap

Disclaimer

License

About

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AnonChat

Why AnonChat ?

Features

Privacy & Security

Messaging

Experience

Network insight (unique to onion-native messaging)

How It Works

No metadata leaks

Architecture

Getting Started

Prerequisites

Run from source

Build a desktop package (AppImage / .deb)

Security Model

Threat model

Roadmap

Disclaimer

License

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