Solid Chat

Modern, decentralized chat app built on the Solid protocol.

Live App: solid-chat.com/app

Features

Core

• Clean, WhatsApp-style messenger UI
• Decentralized - messages stored in Solid pods
• Implements the Solid Chat specification
• Works with any Solid pod provider (solidweb.org, solidcommunity.net, inrupt.net, etc.)
• No React/heavy frameworks - vanilla JS

Authentication

• Solid OIDC authentication
• Multi-provider support (enter any IDP)
• Persistent sessions

Real-time

• WebSocket updates (NSS Updates-Via header)
• WebSocketChannel2023 support (CSS/solidcommunity.net)
• Notification sounds (toggleable)

Messaging

• Send and receive messages
• Edit your own messages (requires Write permission)
• Delete your own messages (requires Write permission)
• Simple markdown: *bold*, _italic_, ~strike~, `code`, ```code blocks```
• Emoji picker
• Emoji reactions: 👍 ❤️ 😂 😮 😢 🎉

Media

• File upload to your pod (📎 button)
• Paste images directly (Ctrl+V)
• Auto-expand images, video, and audio inline
• Clickable URLs

Sidebar

• Chat list with recent chats
• Type Index auto-discovery of your chats
• Create new chats on your pod
• Manual chat URL addition
• Persistent storage (localStorage)

Sharing & Deep Links

• Share button (📋) copies shareable link
• Deep link support: ?chat=<url> loads or creates chat
• Auto-create: links to your pod create rooms on demand
• Type Index registration for discoverability

UI/UX

• Avatar display from WebID profiles
• Clickable author names (links to WebID)
• Clickable timestamps (permalinks to message URI)
• "(edited)" indicator for edited messages
• Message count in header
• Unread message badges
• Remember current room across refreshes

Themes

• Wave (WhatsApp-style green)
• Signal (clean blue)
• Telegram (blue with patterns)
• Solid (purple/gradient)

Saved Messages

• Telegram-style "notes to self"
• Auto-created on your pod
• Private by default

Quick Start

# Run instantly (no clone needed)
npx solid-chat

# Or clone and run
git clone https://github.com/solid-chat/app.git
cd app
npm install
npm start

Usage

1. Enter your Solid IDP (e.g., solidweb.org) and click Login
2. Select a chat from the sidebar or add a new one
3. Start chatting!

Default Global Chats

• https://solid-chat.solidweb.org/public/global/chat.ttl (faster)
• https://solid-chat.solidcommunity.net/public/global/chat.ttl

Deep Links

Share chats with a URL:

https://solid-chat.com/app?chat=https://you.solidweb.org/public/chats/my-room.ttl

Behavior:

• If chat exists → loads it
• If chat doesn't exist AND it's your pod → creates it automatically
• Change one character → instant new room

Create rooms on demand:

https://solid-chat.com/app?chat=https://you.pod/public/chats/meeting-monday.ttl
https://solid-chat.com/app?chat=https://you.pod/public/chats/meeting-tuesday.ttl

Click the share button (📋) in any chat to copy the shareable link.

Chat Data Format

Messages use standard Solid chat vocabularies (RDF/Turtle):

@prefix sioc: <http://rdfs.org/sioc/ns#>.
@prefix dct: <http://purl.org/dc/terms/>.
@prefix foaf: <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/>.

<#msg-1234567890>
    a <http://www.w3.org/2005/01/wf/flow#Message> ;
    sioc:content "Hello world!" ;
    dct:created "2024-12-30T10:00:00Z"^^xsd:dateTime ;
    foaf:maker <https://you.solidweb.org/profile/card#me> .

Reactions use Schema.org:

@prefix schema: <http://schema.org/>.

<#reaction-1234567890>
    a schema:ReactAction ;
    schema:about <#msg-123> ;
    schema:agent <https://you.solidweb.org/profile/card#me> ;
    schema:name "👍" .

Testing

npm install
npm test

Specification

This app implements the Solid Chat specification.

Roadmap

• [x] Solid OIDC authentication
• [x] Chat list sidebar
• [x] Real-time updates (WebSocket + WebSocketChannel2023)
• [x] Notification sounds
• [x] File upload
• [x] Image paste
• [x] Media auto-expand
• [x] Simple markdown
• [x] Edit/delete messages
• [x] Emoji reactions
• [x] Create new chats
• [x] Deep link sharing (?chat=<url>)
• [x] Type Index registration
• [x] Mobile responsive sidebar
• [x] Unread message badges
• [x] Theme support
• [x] Saved Messages
• [ ] @mentions with notifications
• [ ] End-to-end encryption
• [ ] Message search
• [ ] Push notifications
• [ ] Offline support

License

See LICENSE