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Dior
Dior

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Building a RAM-Only, End-to-End Encrypted Chat for the Terminal (Python)

I built cmd-chat, a peer-to-peer chat application that runs entirely in the terminal and leaves no trace on disk.

The core idea was to explore how much privacy and security you can get with:

  • zero servers
  • zero persistence
  • and a minimal CLI interface

What it does

  • End-to-end encrypted messaging
  • Secure authentication using SRP (passwords are never sent)
  • All messages and keys live in RAM only
  • Pure terminal/command-line UX
  • Written entirely in Python

When the process exits, everything disappears.

Why I built it

This started as a learning experiment around:

  • authentication without trusted servers
  • minimizing attack surface
  • ephemeral communication by default

It’s not meant to replace Signal or Matrix - it’s intentionally simple and infrastructure-light.

What I’d love feedback on

  • Threat model assumptions
  • Crypto choices and protocol flow
  • CLI UX improvements

GitHub repo:
👉 https://github.com/diorwave/cmd-chat

If you’re into terminals, crypto, or privacy-focused tooling, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

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