River is a decentralized chat application built on Freenet with the following key characteristics:
- Frontend: Dioxus-based WebAssembly UI running in the browser
- Backend: Freenet network for decentralized storage and communication
- Deployment: The application is packaged, signed, and published as a Freenet contract
- Communication: Uses WebSocket API to interact with the local Freenet node
- FreenetApiSynchronizer – Manages WebSocket communication with Freenet
- Room State Management – Implements a commutative monoid pattern for order-agnostic state updates
- Invitation System – Allows users to invite others to chat rooms
- Cryptographic Security – Uses ed25519 for signatures and authentication
- Uses a comprehensive logging system for debugging WebSocket interactions
- State updates are designed to be commutative (order-independent)
- Handles both full state updates and delta updates
- Implements proper error handling and status reporting
- Build the UI:
cargo make build-ui - Compress the webapp:
cargo make compress-webapp - Sign the webapp:
cargo make sign-webapp - Publish to Freenet:
cargo make publish-river
- Testing requires the full deployment pipeline
- Cannot easily test components in isolation
- Need to publish to Freenet and access via the Freenet web interface
- Core functionality is implemented
- WebSocket API integration is ready for testing
- Invitation system is implemented but untested
- Limited runway to prove the concept works