Fauna

Local and end-to-end encrypted messaging.

Fauna is an early Rust foundation for a peer-to-peer, end-to-end encrypted messaging app. The long-term goal is a lightweight desktop app where the person who starts a chat can use their own computer like a small server, without storing message contents on a central service.

Current Scope

This repository starts with the parts that should stay independent from any UI:

• fauna-core: identity keys, invite encoding, key agreement, and symmetric message encryption primitives.
• fauna-cli: a small developer CLI for generating identities and invites while the core is evolving.
• fauna-desktop: a native Rust desktop app for hosting or joining direct encrypted chats without a terminal chat UI.

The desktop app uses a native Rust UI instead of Electron or a bundled browser runtime.

Requirements

Install Rust from:

https://rustup.rs

Then verify:

rustc --version
cargo --version

Development

cargo test
cargo run -p fauna-desktop
cargo run -p fauna-cli -- identity
cargo run -p fauna-cli -- invite --name "Kivan" --addr "/ip4/192.168.1.10/tcp/45123"

Desktop App

Run the native windowed app:

cargo run -p fauna-desktop

Inside the app:

1. Enter your display name.
2. Keep Tor modu enabled for internet use without port forwarding.
3. Keep Tor'u Fauna baslatsin enabled if the package includes bin/tor/tor.exe.
4. Click Sohbet Baslat and share the generated fauna://join/... invite link.
5. On the other device, paste the invite link under Davete Katil and click Baglan.

If no bundled Tor binary is present, Fauna falls back to the tor command on PATH. You can also disable auto-start and use Tor Browser ports manually: control 127.0.0.1:9151, SOCKS 127.0.0.1:9150.

For direct LAN testing without Tor, disable Tor modu, set Host adresi to 0.0.0.0:45123, and set Paylasilan adres to the host computer's LAN address, for example 192.168.1.10:45123.

Tor Mode

Tor mode creates a temporary onion service for the host and puts its .onion address inside the Fauna invite. This avoids router port forwarding and usually works across countries and CGNAT connections.

Fauna still encrypts the chat payload itself:

Tor = reachability and IP privacy
Fauna crypto = message confidentiality

If Tor Browser control authentication is not available on your machine, install and run Tor Expert Bundle or configure Tor with a reachable ControlPort and SocksPort.

Windows Package

Build and package a downloadable Windows zip:

cargo build -p fauna-desktop --release
.\scripts\package-windows.ps1

The package is written to:

dist/fauna-windows-x64.zip

It contains:

Fauna.exe
bin/tor/tor.exe
README.md
LICENSE
THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.txt

GitHub Actions also includes a Release workflow. Run it manually from GitHub Actions to get a downloadable artifact, or push a tag like v0.1.0 to publish fauna-windows-x64.zip as a GitHub Release asset.

Direct Encrypted Chat

Fauna can run a one-to-one encrypted chat without a central server. The host opens a TCP listener on their own computer and shares the generated invite. The CLI remains useful for development and debugging.

On the host computer:

cargo run -p fauna-cli -- host --name "Kivan" --bind "0.0.0.0:45123" --public-addr "192.168.1.10:45123"

On the joining computer:

cargo run -p fauna-cli -- join --name "Ada" "fauna://join/..."

Notes:

• Both devices must be online at the same time.
• On the same Wi-Fi, use the host computer's local IP as --public-addr.
• Over the internet, the host needs firewall permission and router port forwarding.
• For internet use without port forwarding, prefer the desktop app's Tor mode.
• Message contents are encrypted before they are written to the socket.

Architecture Direction

fauna-core
  identity      Ed25519 device identity and peer id derivation
  key_exchange  X25519 session key agreement
  crypto        XChaCha20-Poly1305 local message encryption
  invite        shareable connection invite payloads

future
  network       direct TCP and Tor onion service mode now
  storage       encrypted local SQLite
  desktop       native Rust UI

Security Note

This is a starter foundation, not audited cryptographic software. Before real users rely on Fauna, the protocol design, key exchange, storage encryption, and authentication UX should be reviewed carefully.