Ditchcord (Zep)

Ditchcord is a sovereign, self-hosted communication platform designed for people who want to own their data without sacrificing a modern chat experience. Built with Svelte 5 and SpacetimeDB, it provides text, voice, and video messaging for private communities, teams, and groups of friends.

Stop renting your community. Ditchcord puts your data back where it belongs: on your hardware, under your control.

Why Ditchcord?

• Data Sovereignty: You own the database. No middleman, no telemetry, and no "AI training" on your private conversations.
• Frictionless Hosting: Deploy your own instance in minutes. We favor a "one-command" philosophy to make self-hosting accessible to everyone.
• Modern Performance: Experience instant channel switching and fluid reactivity powered by Svelte 5 Runes and a relational WASM backend.
• Low Idle Resources: Ditchcord is designed to be lean. It won't eat your RAM or CPU while you aren't using it.
• Secure by Default: Built-in identity management and support for PGP-encrypted messaging.

Core Features

• Universal Communication: High-fidelity voice channels, screen sharing, and rich text messaging with threading.
• Private Communities: Create private servers that require unique, secure invite links to join.
• Client-Side Speed: Aggressive denormalization and keyed lookups ensure O(1) performance even as your history grows.
• Rich Media: Built-in image management with automatic memory cleanup and custom emoji support.
• Cross-Platform: Access via any modern web browser or as a native desktop application via Tauri.

The Technology Stack

Ditchcord is built on a "Lean & Fast" philosophy:

• Frontend: Svelte 5 (Runes), TypeScript, Vite, Vanilla CSS.
• Backend: SpacetimeDB — a relational database and server-side logic engine compiled to WASM.
• Voice/Video: Peer-to-peer WebRTC mesh for zero-latency communication.
• Desktop: Native system integration via Tauri.

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Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Node.js (v18+)
• pnpm
• SpacetimeDB CLI (spacetime)
• For Docker: Docker and Docker Compose

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One-Command Deployment (Recommended)

The fastest way to take control of your data is using Docker. This builds and starts both the frontend and your private SpacetimeDB instance in a single step.

pnpm run deploy:local

Once running, navigate to http://localhost:5173 to start your community.

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Local Development (Manual Setup)

1. Backend Setup

1. Navigate to the backend directory: cd spacetimedb
2. Install dependencies: npm install
3. Publish the module to a local SpacetimeDB instance:

   pnpm run spacetime:publish:local
   

2. Frontend Setup

1. Navigate to the project root and install dependencies: pnpm install
2. Configure .env.local for local development:

   VITE_SPACETIMEDB_HOST=ws://localhost:3000
   VITE_SPACETIMEDB_DB_NAME=<your-db-name>
   

3. Start the development server: pnpm run dev
   • For local network testing with SSL, use pnpm run dev:ssl.

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Production Deployment

Option 1: Docker

Zep can be deployed using Docker Compose for a production-like local environment or self-hosting.

pnpm run deploy:local

Option 2: Cloud (SpacetimeDB Maincloud + Cloudflare Pages)

Backend (SpacetimeDB Maincloud)

1. Publish the module to Maincloud:

   pnpm run spacetime:publish
   

Frontend (Cloudflare Pages)

1. Build and deploy using Wrangler:

   pnpm run deploy:cloudflare
   

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License

This project is open-source. See the LICENSE file for details.

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Important

Disclaimer: This project is "vibe coded" and makes heavy use of AI. Expect experimental patterns and rapid structural changes.