chat-ma

Cinematic Matrix-style one-time terminal messenger distributed as an npm CLI package.

Features

• WebSocket-based incoming message notifications.
• Full-screen terminal UI with Matrix digital rain and glitching header.
• Green hacker status boxes for register/login/send flows.
• One-time ephemeral messages only stored in memory.
• SQLite storage only for users + bcrypt password hashes.
• Password confirmation required before decrypting a message.

Install

npm install

Server URL used by CLI

Default CLI server URL is:

https://api.secondhandcell.com/chat-ma

Override any time with:

export CHAT_MA_SERVER=https://api.secondhandcell.com/chat-ma

Run server directly

npm run serve

Server defaults:

• PORT=3000
• CHAT_MA_BASE_PATH=/chat-ma

So API endpoints are served under /chat-ma/*.

Run server with PM2 (always on)

npm run pm2:start
npm run pm2:logs

Restart / stop:

npm run pm2:restart
npm run pm2:stop

Persist across host reboot:

npx pm2 save
npx pm2 startup

Reverse proxy example

Proxy https://api.secondhandcell.com/chat-ma (including websocket upgrades) to your Node process on 127.0.0.1:3000.

• HTTP: /chat-ma/register, /chat-ma/login, /chat-ma/send, /chat-ma/verify-password
• WS: /chat-ma/ws

Use CLI

npx chat-ma register
npx chat-ma login
npx chat-ma send
npx chat-ma open

Authentication + local config

After successful register/login, client stores token in:

~/.chat-ma/config.json

Example:

{
  "serverUrl": "https://api.secondhandcell.com/chat-ma",
  "token": "...",
  "username": "alice"
}

Security model

• Passwords are hashed with bcrypt and never stored plaintext.
• JWT session token for API/WebSocket auth.
• In-memory messages only (never written to SQLite).
• Message TTL defaults to 5 minutes.
• Message is destroyed after close (VIEW_CLOSE) or expiry.
• Basic rate limiting on register/login endpoints.

Publish to npm

1. Update version in package.json.
2. Login to npm:

   npm login

3. Publish:

   npm publish --access public

Project structure

chat-ma/
  package.json
  README.md
  /bin
    chat.js
  /server
    server.js
    ws.js
    auth.js
    userDb.js
    memoryMessages.js
    rateLimit.js
    config.js
  /client
    /lib
      ui.js
      matrixRain.js
      glitch.js
      hackerBoxes.js
      decryptAnimation.js
      wsClient.js
      prompts.js
      localConfig.js