hack.chat

hack.chat is a minimal chat application built around the idea of simple, disappearing conversations. It requires no accounts, keeps no logs and is designed to be distraction-free, so people can join a channel by name and start talking. It runs on Node.js with WebSockets and can be deployed as your own private service.

The bundled client renders LaTeX using KaTeX and highlights code using highlight.js. The server code is a backwards-compatible continuation of earlier work by Andrew Belt and has been updated to ES6, with extra commands and hot-reloading of commands and the protocol. A separate list collects third-party software for the framework, including bots, clients and Docker containers, and documentation is provided.

Installation for development means cloning the repository, running npm install and npm start, while a separate deployment guide covers live setups; Node.js 16.14 or newer is required. The README states the project is under the MIT licence, although the repository metadata lists none. It suits people who want a quick anonymous chat room for a small community or for experimenting with a simple chat server.