A quick, secure, and temporary channel to share secrets. Create an ephemeral room and send the link. Your browser is the host and the person with the link can see what you enter only while your browser keeps the room open.

Running in development

Start the server

1. Create a .env file, following the variables in .env.template
2. Install dependencies with yarn install
3. Start the server with yarn dev

Run the client in development mode

1. Create a .env file, following the variables in client/.env.template
2. Start the client app with cd client && yarn start
3. Visit localhost:3001 in your browser

Redis data structure

A room consists of 2 elements in Redis:

1. eph:room:room-token STRING A room token issued to the room opener to keep room open. Expires in 120 seconds without a keep-alive message.
2. eph:room:${roomId} CHANNEL A pub sub channel for sending messages to the host and guests of a room.

API design

Host open a room:

POST /api/room returns { roomId, roomToken }

Keep-alive & opens for host (keeps roomToken in Redis, which expires after unuse) websocket:

{
  "type": "host-keepalive",
  "roomId": "roomId",
  "body": "roomToken"
}

Host broadcast content

Broadcast content:

{
  "type": "send-room",
  "roomId": "roomId",
  "body": "encryptedRoomContent"
}

Room closed (closed by host or expired)

{
  "type": "close-room",
  "roomId": "roomId"
}

Host receive guest attendance

Guest joined and/or keep alive, will re-broadcast room content:

{
  "type": "guest-keepalive",
  "roomId": "roomId",
  "body": {
    "guestId": "Unique guest ID",
    "os": "Operating System",
    "browser": "Browser Name",
    "location": "Location description",
    "ip": "IP Address"
  }
}

Guest disconnected:

{
  "type": "guest-disconnect",
  "roomId": "roomId",
  "body": {
    "guestId": "Unique guest ID"
  }
}

Signaling server

Messages

hostKeepalive - Sent by the host of the room to keep the room open. Resets the TTL on the roomId:roomToken

{
  "type": "hostKeepalive",
  "roomId": "<roomId>",
  "roomToken": "<roomToken>",
}

hostSendMessage - Sent by the host of the room to send a message to a specific guest

{
  "type": "hostSendMessage",
  "roomId": "<roomId>",
  "roomToken": "<roomToken>",
  "guestId": "<targetGuestId>",
  "message": "<messageContent>"
}

guestKeepalive - Send by a guest of the room to send id and profile information to the host. Makes the host send the message to the guest again.

{
  "type": "guestKeepalive",
  "roomId": "<roomId>"
}

The server then adds details to the guestKeepalive from the User Agent and IP address details, resulting in the following getting forwarded to the host:

{
  "type": "guestKeepalive",
  "roomId": "<roomId>"
}