Tlon Messenger (TM)

Tlon Messenger is a new kind of messenger which you can fully control. The user ID is your cryptographic property, while all your data is stored in a single file, yours to keep and yours to take. With TM, you own a distinct node on the network, which you can use to host a community, a blog, or run any other computation. This repository contains the source code of the two main components of TM:

• TM client, which is available on iOS, Android and Desktop
• TM backend, which is deployed on the Urbit platform

Client

The client is written in React Native. The mobile version is available on iOS and Android, while the desktop version is available via browser (with a desktop app planned soon for macOS, Linux, and Windows).

Backend

The TM backend consists of a number of independent components, called agents.

%groups

%groups allows creation of communities that aggregate distinct communication channels. Each group sets its own rules by defining user roles and the entry policy, and defines a set of channels available for group members to subscribe to.

%channels

%channels facilitates communication between any number of parties by designating one node as the host. A channel can function as a group chat, a gallery or a notebook. Channels can be further customized with hooks, which allow you to program custom behaviours triggered by various channel events.

%chat

%chat is a direct-message agent, which, unlike %channels, establishes peer-to-peer connection between two parties.

%contacts

%activity

%activity is TM's activity tracker. It aggregates events sent by other agents and alerts the user based on his notification settings.

%profile

%profile allows the user to expose a personal webpage accessible through their node's URL. The webpage can feature a preview of user's favorite groups or widgets registered by any other agents.

%expose

%expose allows the user to publish the content available in one of the channels to the clearweb.

%steward

%steward is the harness-agnostic agent that manages a node's bot. It runs on both the bot's node and its owner's node, and keeps the gateway's liveness, a durable record of each bot turn, the bot's scheduled tasks, and the bot's prompt files. The owner can read all of it locally and edit a bot's tasks and prompts from their own ship. %steward's run record is what drives Context Lens, the Tlon Messenger UI element that allows a user to inspect all of their bot's past activity.

%notes

%notes provides shared notebooks for groups. The group host stores the notebook, while subscribed members can create, organize, and collaborate on Markdown notes.

%buckets

%buckets provides shared file storage for groups. It manages file metadata, permissions, and uploads, while file contents are stored directly in object storage owned by the group host.

%presence

%presence provides short-lived activity indicators across direct messages, groups, and channels, including when someone is typing or a bot is working on a response.