VanishText Self-Hosting

Websocket-based, anonymous and open source chatroom site.

Official EU instance: https://vanishtxt-eu.chjk.xyz/

Official US instance: https://vanishtxt-us.chjk.xyz/

Instance status: https://status.chjk.xyz/status/vanishtxt

IMPORTANT

Please update your instance’s install or run script if your instance is on version 1.2.0 or later due to a change in the file structure.

Setting up your own instance:

Requirements:

• Node.js (>v18 LTS recommended)
• NPM (v9+ recommended)
• git

Linux / MacOS:

Install:

git clone https://github.com/Felixstro-dev/vanishtxt.git
cd vanishtxt
npm install

Start:

cd /path/to/your/install
npm run main

Update:

cd /path/to/your/install
git pull
npm install #just to be safe

Windows:

(Not tested on windows)

Environment Variables

Variable	Type	Default	Description
PORT	string	3500	Port to run the server on
ENABLE_PROTECTION	boolean	false	Enable password protection
PROTECTION_PASSWORDS	string	-	Comma-separated list of allowed passwords
ENABLE_IMAGES	boolean	true	Enable image sharing
ENABLE_COMMANDS	boolean	true	Enable ”/!” commands
NODE_ENV	string	-	if “production” all cross-origin requests are denied
ENABLE_RECONNECT	boolean	false	Automatically reconnect to the last room on connection/disconnect (only supported on some frontends)

This setup focuses on the standard bundled frontend.

For a full technical breakdown, see VanishText More Info.