About this project

Flamenet Messenger is a private messenger, built in the open by people who would rather explain how it works than ask you to take it on faith.

What it is

There are three parts. The apps you install, which do the locking and unlocking on your own device. The server, which passes sealed messages along without being able to read them. And a written description of exactly how the two talk to each other, detailed enough that somebody else could build a compatible app from it.

All of it is free, and all of it is published. The server is small enough that running your own is an afternoon rather than a project.

Why it exists

Most private messengers ask you to trust a company you cannot look inside and a server you cannot run. That is a reasonable thing to ask, and plenty of people are happy to say yes. This project is built for the case where you would rather not have to: the design is written down, the code is there to read, and if you would prefer your messages never touched our machines at all, you can run the whole thing on your own.

What it isn't

It isn't finished. The apps are still being built, and some of what the design describes is working on one platform and not yet on another. Rather than round that up into a single claim, we track it platform by platform in the specification and on the roadmap.

No outside security firm has reviewed it yet. That costs real money, and it is what donations are for.

It also isn't anonymous. The server has to know who to deliver a message to, so it can see that you wrote to someone and roughly when — it simply cannot read what you said. There is a page listing exactly what is kept, field by field.

Licence

The apps and the server are published under the MIT licence, which means anyone may read, use or build on this work. See licences for the full text and for the other open source components this project relies on.