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* Add capability bits to announce TLV Announces now carry an optional capabilities TLV (0x05): a little-endian bitfield with named bits for upcoming features (prekeys, wifiBulk, gateway, groups, board, vouch, meshDiagnostics). Old clients skip the unknown TLV; peers without it decode as nil so features can distinguish "legacy peer" from "advertises nothing". PeerCapabilities lives in BitFoundation with a minimal-length encoding that preserves unknown bits for forward compatibility. Peer capabilities are stored in the BLE peer registry on verified announce and exposed via BLEService.peerCapabilities(_:). The local advertisement set is empty until each feature ships its bit. Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com> * Prekey bundles: forward-secret async first contact for courier mail Courier envelopes were sealed with one-way Noise X to the recipient's long-lived static key, so a later compromise of that key exposed every envelope captured in transit. This adds one-time prekey bundles: - PrekeyBundle (MessageType 0x24): 8 one-time Curve25519 public prekeys bound to the owner's Noise static key by an Ed25519 signature over "bitchat-prekey-bundle-v1" canonical bytes; gossiped mesh-wide on its own 60s sync round (SyncTypeFlags bit 9, 200-peer cap, 24h freshness) and verified against the announce-bound signing key before caching. - Sealed envelope v2: Noise X where the responder static is the one-time prekey, prologue "bitchat-prekey-v1" || prekeyID. Sender identity rides encrypted inside and is authenticated exactly like v1 (blocked-sender check included). CourierEnvelope gains an optional prekeyID TLV that v1 decoders skip as unknown. - Local prekeys live in the Keychain; consumed privates survive a 48h grace window for spray-and-wait redeliveries, then are deleted (the forward-secrecy clock starts at deletion). The batch tops back up and re-gossips when unconsumed count drops below 3, and everything is wiped in panic mode. - Routing: courier sealing picks a cached verified bundle when one exists (one prekey per message, reused across deposit retries), with the advertised .prekeys capability as a veto for on-mesh peers, and falls back to static sealing otherwise. Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com> * Prekeys: authenticate bundle packets, fix consume-republish, deflake CI Fixes the prekey-bundle PR review + CI failure: - CI root cause: the receive queue (mesh.message) is concurrent, so a gossiped prekey bundle can be processed before the announce that binds its owner's signing key. The old handler dropped such bundles outright, so under CI parallel load the bundle was permanently lost and the cache/gossip tests flaked (verifiedBundleEntersGossipStore, prekeySealedMailTravelsViaCourierAndOpens). Bundles that arrive before their binding are now retained per-owner (bounded) and re-attempted when the verified announce lands, atomically to avoid a check-then-act race. - Authenticate the OUTER prekey-bundle packet (Codex P2 / review MEDIUM): require senderID == PeerID(bundle.noiseStaticPublicKey) and verify the packet's Ed25519 signature (covers senderID + timestamp) against the owner's bound signing key, in addition to the inner bundle signature. Stops replay under a fresh timestamp / fake senderID. - Key the gossip prekey-bundle store/dedup by the bundle's authenticated identity (noiseStaticPublicKey), not the unauthenticated packet senderID, so one valid bundle sprayed under many fabricated sender IDs can't multiply entries and exhaust the 200-owner cap. - Bump published-bundle generatedAt strictly on consume (Codex P1): consuming a prekey shrinks the published bundle, so it now republishes with a strictly newer generatedAt and re-gossips, so peers replace the cached copy and stop assigning the consumed ID before its 48h grace. - Guard the panic/clear detached Application Support tree-deletes behind TestEnvironment.isRunningTests: the SPM test process shares that tree, so the wipe could land mid-test and flake file-dependent tests. Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com> * Update sync tests for prekeyBundle as bit 9 / default sync round Prekeys makes bit 9 (prekeyBundle) a known SyncTypeFlags bit and enables a prekey sync round by default. That broke tests authored by other PRs that assumed bit 9 was phantom or that only their own sync round fires: - SyncTypeFlags(Board)Tests: move the "unknown bits" probes to bits 10+ (0xFE -> 0xFC / 0xFD), since bit 9 is now assigned. - GossipSync(Board)Tests + GossipSyncManagerTests: disable the prekey sync round in configs that run maintenance (as they already do for message/ fragment/fileTransfer), so they isolate the behavior under test. Full app suite (1301 tests) green locally via SPM. Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com> --------- Co-authored-by: jack <jackjackbits@users.noreply.github.com> Co-authored-by: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
bitchat
A decentralized peer-to-peer messaging app with dual transport architecture: local Bluetooth mesh networks for offline communication and internet-based Nostr protocol for global reach. No accounts, no phone numbers, no central servers. It's the side-groupchat.
License
This project is released into the public domain. See the LICENSE file for details.
Features
- Dual Transport Architecture: Bluetooth mesh for offline + Nostr protocol for internet-based messaging
- Location-Based Channels: Geographic chat rooms using geohash coordinates over global Nostr relays
- Intelligent Message Routing: Automatically chooses best transport (Bluetooth → Nostr fallback)
- Decentralized Mesh Network: Automatic peer discovery and multi-hop message relay over Bluetooth LE
- Privacy First: No accounts, no phone numbers, no persistent identifiers
- Private Message End-to-End Encryption: Noise Protocol for mesh, NIP-17 for Nostr
- IRC-Style Commands: Familiar
/slap,/msg,/whostyle interface - Universal App: Native support for iOS and macOS
- Emergency Wipe: Triple-tap to instantly clear all data
- Performance Optimizations: LZ4 message compression, adaptive battery modes, and optimized networking
Technical Architecture
BitChat uses a hybrid messaging architecture with two complementary transport layers:
Bluetooth Mesh Network (Offline)
- Local Communication: Direct peer-to-peer within Bluetooth range
- Multi-hop Relay: Messages route through nearby devices (max 7 hops)
- No Internet Required: Works completely offline in disaster scenarios
- Noise Protocol Encryption: End-to-end encryption with forward secrecy
- Binary Protocol: Compact packet format optimized for Bluetooth LE constraints
- Automatic Discovery: Peer discovery and connection management
- Adaptive Power: Battery-optimized duty cycling
Nostr Protocol (Internet)
- Global Reach: Connect with users worldwide via internet relays
- Location Channels: Geographic chat rooms using geohash coordinates
- 290+ Relay Network: Distributed across the globe for reliability
- NIP-17 Encryption: Gift-wrapped private messages for internet privacy
- Ephemeral Keys: Fresh cryptographic identity per geohash area
Channel Types
mesh #bluetooth
- Transport: Bluetooth Low Energy mesh network
- Scope: Local devices within multi-hop range
- Internet: Not required
- Use Case: Offline communication, protests, disasters, remote areas
Location Channels (block #dr5rsj7, neighborhood #dr5rs, country #dr)
- Transport: Nostr protocol over internet
- Scope: Geographic areas defined by geohash precision
block(7 chars): City block levelneighborhood(6 chars): District/neighborhoodcity(5 chars): City levelprovince(4 chars): State/provinceregion(2 chars): Country/large region
- Internet: Required (connects to Nostr relays)
- Use Case: Location-based community chat, local events, regional discussions
Direct Message Routing
Private messages use intelligent transport selection:
-
Bluetooth First (preferred when available)
- Direct connection with established Noise session
- Fastest and most private option
-
Nostr Fallback (when Bluetooth unavailable)
- Uses recipient's Nostr public key
- NIP-17 gift-wrapping for privacy
- Routes through global relay network
-
Smart Queuing (when neither available)
- Messages queued until transport becomes available
- Automatic delivery when connection established
For detailed protocol documentation, see the Technical Whitepaper.
Setup
Option 1: Using Xcode
cd bitchat
open bitchat.xcodeproj
To run on a device there're a few steps to prepare the code:
- Clone the local configs:
cp Configs/Local.xcconfig.example Configs/Local.xcconfig - Add your Developer Team ID into the newly created
Configs/Local.xcconfig- Bundle ID would be set to
chat.bitchat.<team_id>(unless you set to something else)
- Bundle ID would be set to
- Entitlements need to be updated manually (TODO: Automate):
- Search and replace
group.chat.bitchatwithgroup.<your_bundle_id>(e.g.group.chat.bitchat.ABC123)
- Search and replace
Option 2: Using just
brew install just
Want to try this on macos: just run will set it up and run from source.
Run just clean afterwards to restore things to original state for mobile app building and development.
Localization
- Base app resources live under
bitchat/Localization/Base.lproj/. Add new copy toLocalizable.stringsand plural rules toLocalizable.stringsdict. - Share extension strings are separate in
bitchatShareExtension/Localization/Base.lproj/Localizable.strings. - Prefer keys that describe intent (
app_info.features.offline.title) and reuse existing ones where possible. - Run
xcodebuild -project bitchat.xcodeproj -scheme "bitchat (macOS)" -configuration Debug CODE_SIGNING_ALLOWED=NO buildto compile-check any localization updates.