Drift Chat CLI

Terminal-based chat client for Drift Chat - create and join temporary chat rooms from your command line

🚀 Quick Start

Installation

npm install -g drift-chat-cli

Usage

drift

✨ Features

• 🆕 Create rooms - Generate unique room codes instantly
• 🚪 Join rooms - Connect using room codes
• 💬 Real-time chat - WebSocket-powered messaging
• 🎨 Beautiful interface - Colorful terminal UI
• ⚡ Fast & lightweight - No browser required
• 🔒 Temporary rooms - Rooms auto-delete when empty

🎯 How to Use

1. Install the CLI globally:

   npm install -g drift-chat-cli

2. Start the CLI:

   drift

3. Choose an option:

   • Create a new chat room
   • Join an existing room with a code

4. Start chatting!

🕶️ Incognito Mode

Disguises the chat as terminal log output — ideal when you don't want shoulder-surfers reading your screen.

drift --incognito
# or
drift -ic

Disguise styles — pick how the screen looks with --mode=:

drift -ic --mode=htop    # process monitor (default)
drift -ic --mode=syslog  # plain syslog lines
drift -ic --mode=json    # structured JSON logs
drift -ic --mode=ci      # CI/CD pipeline (green ✓ steps; messages as ✗ failures)
drift -ic --mode=claude  # Claude Code agent (tool-call stream; messages as Update() code edits)
drift -ic --mode=build   # Vite dev server (HMR stream; messages as build errors)

Set a default mode so you don't have to pass --mode= every time:

drift --set-mode=json    # saved to ~/.config/drift/config.json
drift -ic                # now uses json
drift -ic --mode=htop    # a --mode= flag still overrides the saved default

Precedence: --mode= flag → saved default → htop.

In json mode every line is a JSON log object ({"timestamp","level","author","log"}). A background stream of decoy info/debug/warn logs keeps the screen busy; your incoming chat messages arrive at level: "error" fenced with full-width === bars so you can spot them at a glance while a passerby just sees a noisy service log.

Entry flow:

• host: — room code to join (leave blank to create a new room)
• user: — your nickname

In-chat commands (incognito):

| Command | Action | |---------|--------| | exit | Leave the room | | pwd | Show room code as /rooms/ABC123 | | seed | Toggle the background decoy-log stream on/off | | hide | Toggle hiding real messages (show only decoy noise) | | mode? | List available disguises (current one marked) | | mode=<name> | Switch disguise live, e.g. mode=htop — re-renders the conversation so far in the new style (decoy noise is dropped and refills) | | man | Show usage help |

Messages render as fake timestamped log lines. Games, emoji suggestions, and slash commands are disabled.

💬 Chat Commands

While in a chat room (normal mode), you can use these commands:

• /quit - Leave the current room
• /room - Show the current room code

🌐 About Drift Chat

Drift Chat is a real-time chat application that allows you to create temporary chat rooms for quick conversations. No registration required - just create a room, share the code, and start chatting!

• Web version: drift.abhinavaditya.com
• Source code: GitHub

🛠️ Requirements

• Node.js >= 14.0.0
• Internet connection

📝 License

MIT © Abhinav Aditya

🐛 Issues & Support

Found a bug or have a suggestion? Please open an issue on GitHub.