GETTING STARTED

Up and running
in seconds.

One command to install. One command to launch. Start chatting on your LAN immediately.

Installation

Quick Install

curl -fsSL https://go.qincai.xyz/getmeshtalk | bash

Downloads the latest release for your platform and installs to ~/.local/bin (Linux/macOS) or %LOCALAPPDATA%\MeshTalk (Windows).

Options:

--non-interactive skip prompts, accept defaults
--version TAG install a specific version
--install-dir DIR custom install directory
--prerelease include pre-release versions
--uninstall remove MeshTalk
--dry-run preview without installing

Manual Install

Download the .tar.gz for your platform from the latest release, extract it, and run ./meshtalk. The archive contains everything — no Python, Bun, or package manager needed.

Supported platforms:

✓ macOS (Intel + Apple Silicon)
✓ Linux x64 (glibc 2.38+)
✓ Linux ARM64
✓ Windows x64

Quick Start

# Launch the TUI
$ ./meshtalk
# The TUI starts an attached backend automatically.
# Press Ctrl+P for commands.
# Peers on your LAN appear automatically.

MeshTalk creates fresh state in ~/.meshtalk. The TUI shows peers on the left sidebar and conversations on the right.

Remote Setup

For peers on different networks, configure a control service. Press Ctrl+P in the TUI and select Control server.

# Via CLI
$ meshtalk control set-url wss://control.example/v1/rendezvous
# The public server is pre-configured. Custom servers must use wss://.

Note: Production control services must use wss://. Plain ws:// is accepted only for localhost development.

Group Chats

# Create a named group
$ meshtalk room create "Project Team"
✓ Invite copied to clipboard
# Share the invite through a trusted channel
# On the other end:
$ meshtalk room join 'meshtalk-group:...'
# Send a message
$ meshtalk group_send "Project Team" "Hello team!"

Group messages are encrypted independently for each member. No shared group key. Offline members receive queued delivery.

Docker

# Pull images
$ docker pull ghcr.io/qincai-rui/meshtalk/control:latest
$ docker pull ghcr.io/qincai-rui/meshtalk/client:latest
# Run with docker compose
$ docker compose up -d
$ docker compose run -it client

Build from Source

Requires Bun and uv.

$ git clone https://github.com/QinCai-rui/MeshTalk.git
$ cd meshtalk
$ bun install
$ bun run meshtalk

Updating

# Update the current installation
$ ./meshtalk update --install
# Update a different installation
$ ./meshtalk update --install --dir /path/to/MeshTalk

Updates use QinCai-rui/MeshTalk by default. Configure another repo with meshtalk update repo.