⬡ HAVEN — Private Chat That Lives On Your Machine

Your server. Your rules. No cloud. No accounts with Big Tech. No one reading your messages.

Haven is a private chat server you run on your own computer. Think Discord, but:

• You own everything — messages, data, the server itself
• Nothing leaves your machine — no cloud, no telemetry, no analytics
• No account with anyone — no email, no phone number, no verification
• Free forever — no subscriptions, no Nitro, no ads

You launch it, your friends connect to your IP address, and you have a private group chat with voice, images, streaming, music, themes, and games. That's it.

Download and install from nodejs.org (LTS version). Restart your PC after installing.

Download this repository and unzip it anywhere. Desktop is fine.

Double-click Start Haven.bat

A terminal window opens. When you see HAVEN is running, it's ready.

Your browser should open automatically. If not, go to:

https://localhost:3000

You'll see a certificate warning — that's normal. Click Advanced → Proceed. Haven uses a self-signed certificate for encryption.

1. Click Register
2. Use the username admin (or whatever you set in your data directory's .env)
3. Pick a password
4. You're now the admin — you can create channels

1. Type a channel name in the sidebar and click Create
2. A channel code appears (8 characters like a3f8b2c1)
3. Send this code + your IP address to your friends
4. They go to https://YOUR_IP:3000, register, and enter the code

chmod +x start.sh
./start.sh

The script handles everything: checks Node.js, installs dependencies, generates SSL certs, and launches.

Or manually:

npm install
node server.js

If your friends aren't on your WiFi, you need to open a port on your router.

Go to whatismyip.com. That's the address your friends will use.

1. Log into your router (usually http://192.168.1.1 or http://10.0.0.1)
2. Find Port Forwarding (sometimes called NAT or Virtual Servers)
3. Forward port 3000 (TCP) to your PC's local IP
4. Save

Find your local IP: Open Command Prompt → type ipconfig → look for IPv4 Address (e.g. 192.168.1.50)

Open PowerShell as Administrator and run:

New-NetFirewallRule -DisplayName "Haven Chat" -Direction Inbound -LocalPort 3000 -Protocol TCP -Action Allow

Send them:

https://YOUR_PUBLIC_IP:3000

Tell them to click Advanced → Proceed on the certificate warning. It's normal.

Settings are in the .env file, stored in your data directory (created automatically on first launch):

After editing .env, restart the server.

Type / in the message box to see the full list. Here are some highlights:

12 themes, switchable from the sidebar:

Haven · Discord · Matrix · Tron · HALO · Lord of the Rings · Cyberpunk · Nord · Dracula · Bloodborne · Ice · Abyss

Your theme choice persists across sessions.

1. Join a text channel
2. Click 🎤 Join Voice
3. Allow microphone access
4. Adjust anyone's volume with their slider
5. Click 📞 Leave when done

Voice is peer-to-peer — audio goes directly between users, not through the server. Requires HTTPS.

• Join / leave cues — synthesized audio tones when users enter or leave voice.
• Talking indicators — usernames glow green when speaking (300 ms hysteresis for smooth animation).
• Screen sharing — click 🖥️ Share Screen to broadcast your display. Multiple users can share simultaneously in a tiled grid.

If you registered with the admin username, you can:

• Create / delete channels
• Kick users — disconnects them (they can rejoin)
• Mute users — timed mute (can't send messages)
• Ban users — permanent ban (can't connect)
• Delete users — remove banned accounts (frees up their username)
• Auto-cleanup — configure automatic deletion of old messages (Settings → Admin)
• Server settings — EULA, max message age, DB size limits

Access admin controls in the Settings panel (⚙️ gear icon in the sidebar).

Haven automatically generates self-signed SSL certificates on first launch — but only if OpenSSL is installed on your system.

How to tell which mode you're in: Look at the startup banner in the terminal window. If the URL shows http:// — you're on HTTP. If it shows https:// — you're on HTTPS.

If Haven falls back to HTTP (no OpenSSL, or cert generation failed):

• Everything works fine for local use — just use http://localhost:3000
• Voice chat will only work on localhost, not for remote friends
• To enable HTTPS:
  1. Install OpenSSL: slproweb.com/products/Win32OpenSSL.html (the "Light" version)
  2. During install, choose "Copy OpenSSL DLLs to the Windows system directory"
  3. Restart your PC
  4. Delete %APPDATA%\Haven\certs and re-launch Start Haven.bat

All your data lives in a dedicated directory outside the Haven code folder:

Inside you'll find:

• haven.db — all messages, users, and channels
• .env — your configuration
• certs/ — SSL certificates
• uploads/ — uploaded images

Copy the entire folder somewhere safe to back up everything. The Haven code directory contains no personal data.

Haven has a built-in GIF picker powered by GIPHY. To enable it you need a free API key.

1. Go to developers.giphy.com
2. Sign up for an account (or sign in)

1. Click Create an App
2. Choose API (not SDK)
3. Give it any name (e.g. "Haven Chat") and a short description
4. Copy the API Key shown on the next page

1. Log into Haven as your admin account
2. Click the GIF button (🎞️) in the message input area
3. You'll see a setup prompt — paste your API key and save
4. The key is stored server-side in the database — only admins can see or change it

That's it. All users can now search and send GIFs.

Free tier: GIPHY's free tier allows plenty of requests for a private chat server — you'll never come close to the limit.

Planned features — roughly in priority order:

Want something else? Open an issue — PRs are always welcome.

MIT-NC — free to use, modify, and share. Not for resale. See LICENSE.

Original project: github.com/ancsemi/Haven

⬡ Haven — Because your conversations are yours.