Tuwunel

Overview

Tuwunel is a Matrix homeserver written in Rust. Matrix is an open chat network, like email for chat: people on different servers can talk to each other. Tuwunel keeps your accounts, rooms and messages on your own box, and it is much lighter than the usual Matrix server.

Features

• Private chats and group rooms, with end-to-end encryption in the Matrix apps that support it
• Talk with people on other Matrix servers, such as matrix.org
• Works with any Matrix app: Element, Element X, FluffyChat and others, on the web, desktop and phone
• File, image and voice message sharing
• Sign-up with an invite token, so only people you give the token to can make an account
• Server settings and user management through an admin room, right inside your Matrix app
• One small program with its own built-in database, nothing else to run

Setting up

Tuwunel is a server only. It has no web page of its own to chat in. To use it:

1. Install a Matrix app, such as Element, Element X or FluffyChat.
2. When the app asks for a homeserver, type this app's web address.
3. Create an account. The app asks for a registration token: type the one you chose when you installed Tuwunel.

The first account you create becomes the server administrator. Share the registration token only with people you want on your server.

Good to know

Your user names end in this app's address, for example @alice:tuwunel.example.onmoose.network. That part is fixed when the app first starts. If the app's address changes later, your accounts keep the old name, and other Matrix servers can no longer reach you.

Talking with other Matrix servers needs the public address a hosted box gives each app. On a box you run at home, Tuwunel works only on your home network and only between accounts on this server. Some Matrix apps also refuse its plain http address there, so you may need to try more than one.