🔐 Real-Time Secure Chat

A private, self-destructing real-time chat application built with Next.js, Elysia, and Upstash. This project creates ephemeral, 1-on-1 chat rooms that automatically expire after a fixed duration or can be manually destroyed, ensuring strong privacy and security by design.

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🚀 Features

• 1-on-1 Secure Messaging Chat rooms are strictly limited to two participants, ensuring private and focused conversations.

• Self-Destructing Rooms

  • Auto-Expiry: Rooms and all associated messages automatically delete themselves after 10 minutes.
  • Manual Destruction: Either participant can trigger an instant kill switch to immediately wipe the room and disconnect all users.

• Real-Time Updates Instant message delivery and room state updates powered by Upstash Realtime.

• Ephemeral Identity No sign-up or login required. User identities are generated per session and discarded once the room expires.

• Full-Stack Type Safety End-to-end type safety using ElysiaJS with Eden Treaty, seamlessly connected to a Next.js App Router frontend.

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🛠️ Tech Stack

• Runtime: Bun
• Frontend Framework: Next.js 16 (App Router)
• Backend API: ElysiaJS (served via Next.js Route Handlers)
• Database & Realtime: Upstash Redis
• Styling: Tailwind CSS v4
• State Management: TanStack Query

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📋 Prerequisites

Before getting started, ensure the following are installed:

1. Bun (runtime & package manager)

   curl -fsSL https://bun.sh/install | bash

2. Upstash Account A Redis database from Upstash is required for message storage, TTL handling, and real-time updates.

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📦 Installation & Setup

1. Clone the repository

   git clone https://github.com/yourusername/realtime-chat.git
   cd realtime-chat

2. Install dependencies

   bun install

3. Run the development server

   bun dev

4. Open the application Visit: http://localhost:3000

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🏗️ Project Structure

src/
├── app/
│   └── api/
│       └── [[...slugs]]/
│           └── route.ts
├── lib/
│   └── client.ts
└── proxy.ts

Key Files

• /src/app/api/[[...slugs]]/route.ts Core backend logic. Initializes the Elysia app that handles room creation, messaging, TTL enforcement, and destruction, all exposed through a Next.js Route Handler.

• /src/proxy.ts Middleware proxy responsible for room access control. It ensures that no more than two users can join a room and assigns ephemeral session tokens.

• /src/lib/client.ts Type-safe Eden client that creates a shared contract between the Elysia backend and the React frontend.

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🛡️ Privacy & Security Details

• Message Retention Messages are stored in Redis with a strict TTL (Time To Live). Once the TTL expires or a room is manually destroyed, all data is permanently removed.

• Room Capacity Enforcement The proxy.ts logic checks the active connection count in Redis before allowing access, strictly enforcing a 2-user limit per room.

• No Persistent Identity No accounts, emails, or personal data are stored. Everything is session-based and ephemeral.

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🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Feel free to open issues or submit pull requests to improve features, performance, or documentation.

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📄 License

This project is open-source and available under the MIT License.