LanText

A lightweight local area network chat application that enables real-time communication between WiFi-connected devices.

Why LanText Exists

Sending a quick message from your phone to your laptop or to a colleague’s device is surprisingly frustrating. Most solutions require WhatsApp, Telegram, or cloud apps, which is overkill for a single text. LanText solves this by providing direct, local, real-time messaging with minimal setup.

Features

• Auto-discovery: Automatically finds the chat server on the network
• Multiple clients: Support for multiple simultaneous connections
• Hotspot mode: WiFi hotspot devices can both host and participate in chat
• Real-time messaging: Instant message delivery across the network
• Global CLI: Install once, run anywhere with lantext command

Installation

Global Installation (Recommended)

npm install -g lantext

Local Installation

npm install lantext

Usage

Interactive Mode (Recommended)

Simply run lantext and choose your mode:

lantext

The CLI will ask you whether you want to be a WiFi client (connect to existing network) or hotspot (create server).

Direct Mode

You can also specify the mode directly:

# Connect as WiFi client
lantext client
# or
lantext wifi

# Start as hotspot server
lantext hotspot
# or
lantext server

Multi-line Messages

LanText supports sending multiple lines of text as a single message. To send a multi-line message:

1. Type your first line and press Enter
2. Continue typing additional lines, pressing Enter after each line
3. When done, press Enter again on an empty line to send the entire message

Example:

> Line 1 of my message
Line 2 of my message
Line 3 of my message
[SENT]:
Line 1 of my message
Line 2 of my message
Line 3 of my message
>

Debug Mode

DEBUG=true lantext client

Connect to Specific Server

SERVER=192.168.1.5 lantext client

Architecture

• Client (src/client.js): Discovers and connects to a server on the network
• Hotspot (src/hotspot.js): Runs both server and client for hotspot devices
• Main (src/main.js): CLI entry point with interactive mode

Configuration

Environment variables:

• DEBUG=true - Enable debug logging
• SERVER=<ip> - Specify server IP address (skips discovery)

License

MIT