late.sh

A cozy command-line clubhouse for computer people. Chat, music, games, art, coding, and tech news. Connect with any SSH client!

ssh late.sh

late.sh is a terminal-first social app: real-time chat, music, games, news, profiles, and a shared always-on space you can enter from any SSH client.

Status

This repository is the main codebase for late.sh.

• The project is open for source reading, local development, audits, and contributions.
• The public hosted late.sh service remains the canonical deployment.
• The code is source-available, not OSI open source, during the FSL protection period.

Read the details in LICENSE, the plain-English policy in LICENSING.md, and contribution rules in CONTRIBUTING.md.

What It Includes

• SSH TUI with dashboard, chat, profile, news, and arcade screens
• Real-time global chat and shared activity feed
• Audio streaming via Icecast/Liquidsoap, played by the paired CLI or the public /listen page
• Terminal games including 2048, Sudoku, Nonograms, Minesweeper, and Solitaire
• Web frontend for landing, profiles, and the token-less /listen page
• Companion CLI for local audio playback and synced visualizer data

Workspace

This is a Rust workspace with five crates:

The stack is backed by PostgreSQL, Icecast, and Liquidsoap.

Quick Start

Try the live service:

ssh late.sh

The SSH login name is discarded rather than used as a public handle. On the first connection, a new account receives a random modifier-and-noun username; the username can still be changed later in Settings.

Run it yourself (requires Docker):

git clone https://github.com/mpiorowski/late-sh
cd late-sh
make start

Then connect to your local instance:

ssh localhost -p 2222

That's it. Postgres, Icecast, and Liquidsoap all come up automatically.

Companion CLI

Install the companion CLI for local audio playback and synced visualizer:

macOS / Linux / Termux:

curl -fsSL https://cli.late.sh/install.sh | bash

On Termux, the installer fetches the Android CLI build instead of the GNU/Linux one.

Windows PowerShell (x64):

irm https://cli.late.sh/install.ps1 | iex

mise (from the GitHub Release archives):

mise use -g github:mpiorowski/late-sh

Nix / NixOS:

nix run github:mpiorowski/late-sh#late

Or build it from source:

mise install        # optional — sets up the expected Rust toolchain
cargo build --release --bin late

Local Development

For development without Docker wrapping the Rust builds, you can run the infrastructure in Docker and the apps natively:

docker compose up -d postgres icecast liquidsoap
cargo run -p late-ssh
cargo run -p late-web

Local host development can use Cargo's normal defaults, including the standard repo-local target/ directory. The /app/target path is only for Docker/dev containers.

export CARGO_HOME=$HOME/.cargo

Use mise install to get the expected Rust toolchain, mold linker, and cargo-nextest.

To test newspaper scrolling in the Docker stack, run make seed-paper, then open /paper in the TUI. This replaces today's Reading and Outside sections with clearly marked sample text and enables the paper. Use make seed-paper PAPER_PARAGRAPHS=5 for a shorter edition (default: 100; range: 1–1000). Close and reopen /paper after reseeding; no restart is needed.

Verification

Run the local gate before opening a PR:

make check

This runs cargo fmt --check, then cargo clippy and cargo nextest across the whole workspace with --features otel. It is the full pre-merge sweep and the only place the otel (telemetry) build is exercised, since CI skips otel to stay fast; otel breakage is caught here or at the release build, never in prod. The local check starts a dedicated Compose Postgres project (late-check) on port 55433 and points DB-backed tests at it via TEST_DATABASE_URL. Override CHECK_INSTANCE or CHECK_PG_HOST_PORT if you need a parallel check database.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome, but read the project policy first:

• CONTRIBUTING.md
• LICENSING.md
• LICENSE

This repository uses DCO sign-off for commits:

git commit -s

If you distribute a fork, do not present it as the official late.sh service or use the project branding as your own.

More Context

• CONTEXT.md — architecture, invariants, and working context. Written for LLMs — feed this to your AI editor for best results.
• CONTRIBUTING.md — workflow, test rules, module patterns, and AI-assisted development tips.
• THEME.md — how to contribute a new built-in SSH theme via PR.
• late-cli/README.md — CLI-specific usage and behavior.