🚇 Tunnel Chat

Ephemeral peer-to-peer tunnel chat from the terminal

Create secure, temporary chat rooms that connect peers directly through WebRTC tunnels. Perfect for quick collaboration, file sharing, or secure communication without leaving your terminal.

✨ Features

• 🔒 End-to-end encrypted peer-to-peer communication
• 🚀 Zero configuration - works out of the box
• 📱 Cross-platform - works on macOS, Linux, and Windows
• 🌐 NAT traversal - connects through firewalls and routers
• 💬 Real-time chat with typing indicators
• 📁 File sharing capabilities
• 🎯 Ephemeral rooms - automatically cleaned up
• 🔑 Pro features with TURN servers for reliable connections

🚀 Quick Start

Basic Usage (Free)

# Start a chat room
npx tunnel-chat@latest

# Join an existing room
npx tunnel-chat@latest join <room-name>

Pro Usage (Paid)

Get your API key and unlock premium features:

# Get your Pro API key
npx tunnel-chat@latest auth [email protected]

# Set your API key
export TUNNEL_API_KEY="sk_..."

# Now enjoy Pro features with reliable TURN servers
npx tunnel-chat@latest

📦 Installation

Global Installation

npm install -g tunnel-chat
# or
pnpm add -g tunnel-chat

One-time Usage

npx tunnel-chat@latest

🎮 Commands

| Command | Description | |---------|-------------| | tunnel-chat | Create or join a chat room | | tunnel-chat join <name> | Join a specific room | | tunnel-chat auth <email> | Get your Pro API key | | tunnel-chat upgrade | Upgrade to Pro plan |

In-Chat Commands

| Command | Description | |---------|-------------| | /help | Show available commands | | /quit or /exit | Leave the chat | | /upload <file> | Share a file (Pro only) | | /fpkey | Show DTLS fingerprints for verification |

🔧 Configuration

Environment Variables

| Variable | Description | Required | |----------|-------------|----------| | TUNNEL_API_KEY | Your Pro API key for premium features | No | | TUNNEL_SIGNAL | Custom signaling server URL | No | | BILLING_SERVER | Custom billing server URL | No |

Example Configuration

# Set your Pro API key
export TUNNEL_API_KEY="sk_ditch_abc123..."

# Optional: Use custom signaling server
export TUNNEL_SIGNAL="wss://your-server.com"

💎 Pro Features

Upgrade to Pro for enhanced reliability and features:

• 🌐 TURN servers for guaranteed connectivity through corporate firewalls
• 📁 File uploads to cloud storage
• 🔄 Multi-peer rooms (coming soon)
• 🛡️ Priority support

Upgrade to Pro →

🏗️ Self-Hosting

Want to run your own instance? Here's how:

Server Requirements

• Node.js 20+
• Stripe account (for billing)
• Resend account (for emails)
• Optional: TURN server for NAT traversal

Environment Variables

# Required for billing
STRIPE_SECRET_KEY=sk_live_...
STRIPE_PRICE_ID=price_...
STRIPE_WEBHOOK_SECRET=whsec_...

# Required for email auth
RESEND_API_KEY=re_...
[email protected]
PUBLIC_BASE_URL=https://yourdomain.com

# Optional TURN server
TURN_SECRET=your-coturn-secret
TURN_REALM=yourdomain.com

# Server config
PORT=8787
KEYS_PATH=./server/keys.json

Deploy with Docker

# Build the image
docker build -t tunnel-chat .

# Run with environment variables
docker run -p 8787:8787 \
  -e STRIPE_SECRET_KEY=sk_live_... \
  -e RESEND_API_KEY=re_... \
  tunnel-chat

Deploy to Fly.io

# Install Fly CLI
curl -L https://fly.io/install.sh | sh

# Deploy
fly deploy

🔒 Security

• End-to-end encryption: All messages are encrypted using WebRTC's built-in DTLS
• Ephemeral: Rooms are automatically deleted after inactivity
• No data retention: Messages are never stored on servers
• Peer verification: Use /fpkey to verify connection fingerprints
• Open source: Full transparency - audit the code yourself

🛠️ Development

Setup

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/razchiriac/tunnel-chat.git
cd tunnel-chat

# Install dependencies
pnpm install

# Build the project
pnpm run build

Scripts

pnpm run dev          # Development CLI
pnpm run server       # Run signaling server only
pnpm run combined     # Run combined billing + signaling server
pnpm run build        # Build TypeScript to JavaScript

Architecture

┌─────────────┐    ┌─────────────┐    ┌─────────────┐
│   Client A  │    │  Signaling  │    │   Client B  │
│             │◄──►│   Server    │◄──►│             │
│             │    │             │    │             │
└─────────────┘    └─────────────┘    └─────────────┘
       │                                      │
       │            Direct P2P Connection     │
       └──────────────────────────────────────┘

• Signaling Server: Facilitates WebRTC handshake
• TURN Servers: Help with NAT traversal (Pro only)
• Billing Server: Handles Stripe subscriptions and API keys
• P2P Connection: Direct encrypted communication between peers

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

Guidelines

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add amazing feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/amazing-feature)
5. Open a Pull Request

📄 License

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details.

🆘 Support

• 🐛 Issues: GitHub Issues

🙏 Acknowledgments

• Built with WebRTC for peer-to-peer communication
• Stripe for payment processing
• Resend for transactional emails
• Cloudflare for CDN and DNS services
• Fly.io for hosting

Made with ❤️ by the Tunnel Chat team

Website • GitHub