Quick Start

Introduction

Everything you need to get your own Chatto instance started is bundled into a single chatto binary. Depending on where and how you want to host it, there’s also a Docker image available; we also have example configuration files for Docker Compose, Kubernetes and more in the Deployment section.

Using Docker (Recommended)

The fastest way to try Chatto:

docker run -p 4000:4000 ghcr.io/hmans/chatto:latest

Open http://localhost:4000 in your browser.

Note

This runs Chatto with default settings and an embedded NATS server. Data is stored inside the container and will be lost when it stops. See below for persistent setup.

Persistent Docker Setup

To keep your configuration and data across container restarts, use a bind mount:

1. Create a directory for Chatto data:

   mkdir -p chatto-data

2. Generate a configuration file:

   docker run --rm \
     -v ./chatto-data:/data \
     ghcr.io/hmans/chatto:latest \
     init -c /data/chatto.toml

   This writes chatto.toml with generated secrets into your chatto-data/ directory on the host.

3. Start the server:

   docker run -p 4000:4000 \
     -v ./chatto-data:/data \
     ghcr.io/hmans/chatto:latest \
     run -c /data/chatto.toml

4. Open your browser to http://localhost:4000.

From Binary

1. Download the latest release from GitHub Releases.

2. Generate a configuration file:

   chatto init

   This creates a chatto.toml with random secrets for cookie signing, asset signing, and NATS authentication.

3. Start the server:

   chatto run

4. Open your browser to http://localhost:4000.

The chatto init command generates a configuration like this:

# chatto.toml (generated by chatto init)
[general]
log_level = "debug"

[webserver]
port = 4000
url = "http://localhost:4000"
cookie_signing_secret = "<generated>"

[core.assets]
signing_secret = "<generated>"
max_upload_size = "25 MB"

[nats.embedded]
enabled = true
port = 4222
bind_address = "127.0.0.1"
http_port = 8222
data_dir = "./data"
auth_token = "<generated>"

[nats.client]
url = "nats://localhost:4222"
auth_method = "token"
token = "<generated>"