torchat 0.1.0

A gRPC-based anonymous chat node (client / server) built with Dart and Tor/Arti

TorChat Dart Node

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A full, cross-platform Tor/Arti-powered TorChat written 100 % in Dart.
Spin it up on Windows, macOS, Linux—even mobile or Raspberry Pi—no C tool-chain, no hassle.

TL;DR
dart pub global activate whisper_node
whisper_node run
Voilà: a fully-functional relay + client with gRPC endpoints and a sweet high-level SDK.

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🌐 What Is It?

TorChat-Dart is the reference implementation of the TorChat protocol in pure Dart.
It exposes:

Layer	Purpose
gRPC API	Full power, language-agnostic. Auto-generated protobuf docs & stubs.
Dart SDK	High-level classes (WhisperClient, WhisperRelay, GroupChat, …).
Tor/Arti wrapper	Boots a hidden service automatically; no Tor install required.

Perfect for bots, CLIs, desktop apps, or embedding in Flutter.

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🚀 Features

• Multi-platform – runs anywhere Dart VM runs ✔
• Automatic Tor/Arti – dart run whisper_node:tor launches a hidden service for you ✔
• gRPC over onion – multiplexed, binary, schema-safe ✔
• Envelope store-and-forward – offline delivery with spam-PoW ✔
• Group chat – federated membership & signed admin events ✔
• Identity graph – user profiles + attestations ✔
• Pluggable back-end – swap LMDB ⇄ Hive ⇄ SQLite with one flag ✔

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📦 Installation

# 1. Install Dart ≥ 3.4
# 2. Install TorChat globally
dart pub global activate whisper_node
# 3. Run a node
whisper_node run

First launch will:

1. Generate an Ed25519 keypair.
2. Start Arti & publish xxxxxx.onion.
3. Sync seed-peers and begin relaying.

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🔧 Configuration

whisper_node.yaml (auto-created in $HOME/.whisper_node/):

listen_port: 20900
data_dir: ~/.whisper_node/data
tor:
  enabled: true
  socks_port: 9050          # 0 = random
storage:
  backend: hive             # hive | sqlite | lmdb
pow:
  difficulty: 20            # leading zero bits

Change, save, restart — settings hot-reload.

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📚 gRPC & Protobuf Docs

• Protos live in /proto and are versioned in this repo.
• make protodocs autogenerates HTML docs for every RPC & message.
• Language stubs: dart run build_runner (Dart) or buf generate (all major languages).

Quick test with grpcurl

grpcurl -plaintext -protoset out/descriptor.pb \
  -d '{"value":"<your pubkey hex>"}' \
  127.0.0.1:20900 torchat.Relay/GetEnvelopes

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🛠️ Dart SDK snippet

import 'package:whisper_node/whisper.dart';

void main() async {
  final node = await TorChat.bootstrap();       // starts Tor + gRPC
  final client = node.client;

  await client.sendMessage(
    recipientPk: '<hex>',
    text: 'Hello, dark net!',
  );

  client.onMessage.listen((msg) {
    print('${msg.senderShort}: ${msg.text}');
  });
}

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🗺 Roadmap

Phase	Goal	ETA
v0.1	MVP relay + direct messages	✅ now
v0.2	Group chats + signed admin events	Jun 2025
v0.3	Mobile Flutter wrapper	Q3 2025
v1.0	Plugin marketplace, file transfer, sticker packs	Q1 2026

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🤝 Contributing

1. git clone https://foss.haveno.com/haveno-network/whisper_node_dart
2. dart pub get
3. dart test
4. PRs welcome — keep commits sign-off (-s) for DCO.

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🛡 License

AGPL-3.0-or-later — code wants to stay free.

“They can block the site, they can censor the net — but they can’t stop the whisper.”

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