this post was submitted on 10 Feb 2026
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GitHub - spacebarchat/spacebarchat: πŸ“¬ Spacebar is a free open source selfhostable discord compatible communication platform (github.com)
submitted 3 hours ago by moonpiedumplings@programming.dev to c/selfhosted@lemmy.world
29 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Has anyone tried this? It's discord reverse engineered.

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[–] wreckedcarzz@lemmy.world 9 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago) (2 children)

I set this container up yesterday. Technically it's running. But all the settings are in the fucking sql db, and I know fuck all about sql other than drop tables is funny meme from xkcd. But also, ignoring the settings, I would like to point out that there is effectively no client. I mean, there are two official ones - the depreciated one, and the alpha one, and the alpha one has a total of 4 releases with the newest being two years ago. How do you deprecate a client when the server is still in alpha? What the fuck? And on all pages it screams 'this is alpha testing software, do not use as a daily'. Also the docs are, uhh... rough. If rough was falling 4 stories into a bed of poisonous cacti. It took me 3 hours to get the container running properly and finally poking at the db. It's as organized as my bedroom ('it's somewhere in this dresser, I think...').

The idea, the potential, is brilliant. Literally everything about getting it working though...

[–] paraphrand@lemmy.world 5 points 57 minutes ago

Lots of great software ideas out there. It’s always the execution, availability of resources, and the reality of capitalism getting in the way.

[–] Neptr@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 52 minutes ago* (last edited 52 minutes ago)

You can use the WebCord app for Spacebar.

[–] Comrade_Spood@quokk.au 1 points 17 minutes ago (1 children)

This wont go anywhere until they have an app that is easy to download. And then everyone says Revolt/Stoat but that doesnt even fucking work cause their verification system is ass (probably because they use gen AI to code) and also is difficult to download the mobile app

[–] Truscape@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 4 minutes ago

Stoat has 3rd party clients that are easy to install, I already got the Clerotri app downloaded directly from Accrescent on GrapheneOS (although I believe they have an F-Droid release).

[–] jjlinux@lemmy.zip 2 points 59 minutes ago (1 children)

3 years of abandonment? Absolutely not.

[–] SleveMcDichael@programming.dev 4 points 47 minutes ago

Where are you getting three years of abandonment from? The branding repo OP linked was last updated 10 months ago, while the server repo appears to have had pretty steady development for the last month at least (as far back as I bothered checking on mobile)

[–] CoreLabJoe@piefed.ca 31 points 3 hours ago (3 children)

HHhhmm... Do container/docker install option. This is why it's probably stagnated in adoption from the selfhosted community.

It needs a container based install, no one likes installing dependencies and crud onto their pristine environments any longer.

[–] irmadlad@lemmy.world 3 points 58 minutes ago

no one likes installing dependencies and crud onto their pristine environments any longer

It just depends, however, containers sure do make things a lot cleaner.

[–] tofu@lemmy.nocturnal.garden 16 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

It's just not mentioned prominently https://github.com/spacebarchat/docker

[–] hexagonwin@lemmy.today 10 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

last commit 3yrs ago.. seems unmaintained

[–] moonpiedumplings@programming.dev 36 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 8 minutes ago) (2 children)

Docker compose's don't really need to be maintained though. As long as the app doesn't need new components old docker composes should work.

EDIT: Oops, it does look like spacebarchat's docker images have last been updated over 2 years ago:

https://hub.docker.com/r/spacebarchat/server

EDIT2: Although this is outdated, I think their github repo has an action to autobuild docker images on pushes. Still investigating.

EDIT3: Okay, they don't seem to be actually ran.

But using nix to build a docker image is pretty cool.

EDIT4: Oh shit, the docker image build workflows were added just 2 hours ago. Of course they haven't been ran!

Docker support soon, probably.

EDIT5: the workflow ran, but it looks like it's private for now.

[–] Railcar8095@lemmy.world 24 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

You got my heart racing with the twists!

[–] Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafe 5 points 1 hour ago

Right? Reading that was like watching an action movie!

[–] rudyharrelson@lemmy.radio 6 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

Perhaps more relevantly, the Docker image itself has not been updated in over 2 years: https://hub.docker.com/r/spacebarchat/server

[–] moonpiedumplings@programming.dev 5 points 2 hours ago

Faster than my edits, I see.

[–] Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 10 points 3 hours ago

It’s weird that the server has a .dockerignore file without a Dockerfile.

[–] ulkesh@piefed.social 2 points 1 hour ago

Doesn't seem terribly well-maintained.

[–] scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech 7 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

Decentralized (no abuse of power and doesn't have a single point of failure)

There is a direct server though, is it federated? The readme doesn't say it's federated at all

[–] moonpiedumplings@programming.dev 5 points 2 hours ago (2 children)

It's not federated, just easy to self host and point custom clients at.

[–] scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech 1 points 1 hour ago

That's too bad, that's a hard line for me, it has to have the option of federation.

Also, so it's a direct server, so it is centralized, there's nothing decentralized about it

[–] Lumisal@lemmy.world 1 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

Are you sure? Because they also seem to be behind Fermi which sounds federated

[–] moonpiedumplings@programming.dev 1 points 52 minutes ago

Fermi is just a custom client for discord/spacebar. It's not federated.

[–] nfreak@lemmy.ml 6 points 3 hours ago (3 children)

Interesting, seems like this has been around for a while but I haven't heard of it until now. With how much Discord's shitting the fan and becoming (well, always has been) a privacy nightmare, this seems worth a try. The alternatives out there either need time to mature (Stoat) or don't really fill the same role (Matrix).

[–] lemming@anarchist.nexus 5 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

shitting the fan

Huh, like a more disastrous and direct combo-approach. I like it.

[–] nfreak@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 hour ago

You know I didn't even realize I said this and I'm gonna start using this one LMFAO

[–] Lemmchen@feddit.org 4 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

Spacebar was called Fosscord before. Maybe you have heard of that.

[–] mrnobody@reddthat.com 4 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

Never heard of it either. Will check out cuz initially sounded like some vibecode app to quickly replace Discord since the news.

[–] wreckedcarzz@lemmy.world 2 points 1 hour ago

It's been around a few years. I investigated it last year. It had a name change some times ago.

I can't vouch for the code quality, but it's too old to be slop.