Today's Deep-Dive: Tailchat

Welcome to the Deep Dive, the place where we cut through the noise, take a stack of

complex sources, and basically hand you the crucial knowledge you need.

Now, if you're anything like us, you probably spend a lot of time in communication

apps, you know, Slack, Discord, maybe Rocket, chat, if you're self-hosting.

Oh, yeah, definitely. Where work happens or, well, where we talk about work

happening.

Exactly. We chat, share links, try to manage projects. But what if your chat app

wasn't just like a container for all that stuff?

What if it was more like the operating system for your entire digital workspace?

Hmm. Interesting idea.

That's kind of the premise today. We're diving deep into tail chat. It's an

application with a, frankly, pretty bold claim.

It calls itself the next generation, no I am application in your own workspace.

No. Okay. That's the key bit we need to unpack, I guess.

All right. Is it just clever marketing? Or is this open source tool really doing

something fundamentally different for team collaboration?

So our mission today, unpack the tech, the philosophy behind tail chat, and see how

it aims to turn group chat into, well, a customized application platform.

Okay. Let's unpack this then. That no I am concept. It's really the core motivation

driving the whole project.

So what's the problem they're trying to solve?

Well, the creators looked at the current instant messaging landscape. Slack,

Discord, Teams, and SAR limitation. These apps mostly just focus on the chat itself.

Sending messages, maybe a gif, a file link.

Standard stuff.

Yeah, standard stuff. But tail chat's philosophy is that I am is inherently about

multi-person collaboration.

Yeah.

Right. So if collaboration is happening there anyway, the application itself should

shoulder more responsibility.

Gaining.

Meaning it should be able to like forward external applications, manage complex

workflows, all directly through that chat interface you're already using.

Ah, okay. So it's not just where you talk about the project, it could be the hub

where you actually do the project stuff too.

Precisely. And that's why Noam stands for not only I am, it's designed as this

highly customized application platform, but centered around that familiar I am

interface.

Like a mini OS for your team.

Kind of. Imagine your chat screen isn't just messages, but more like a custom

desktop for your team's work. Third party apps become enhanced functions.

And the key thing holding it all together is this powerful plug-in system. That's

the glue connection layer they talk about.

That distinction platform versus just a messaging client that really feels like the

core difference.

It is.

And for those of you listening who value transparency, our research shows tail chat

is very much a modern open source application. It's all up on GitHub.

Yep. Apache 2.0 license.

Yeah.

Pretty permissive.

And it's got some traction, too, like 3.4K stars, hundreds of forks. So there's a

real community building around this idea.

They even have, like, nightly builds if you want the absolute latest, though maybe

not the most stable code.

Right, the usual trade off with nightly builds.

OK, before we get into the how they pull this off, we really want to thank the

supporter of this deep dive, SafeServer.

SafeServer really gets the power of owning your own software ecosystem.

They handle the hosting for exactly this kind of powerful, self-managed software

like TailChat.

And they support you in your whole digital transformation journey.

So if you're thinking about running something like this yourself.

Yeah, check them out. You can find more info at www.SafeServer.de.

All right, so we've got the philosophy down. Not only I am, but philosophy is one

thing.

What's the actual user experience like? If I fire up TailChat, what does this

vision look like day to day?

Well, the core messenger functions are all there, as you'd expect.

Basic messages, text, links, mentioning people, images, files, and you can add

reactions.

You know, the usual thumbs up or emoji stuff.

OK, familiar ground.

Familiar ground. But the difference really comes in the organizational structure

around those messages.

They use this two level group space concept.

Two levels.

Yeah, so you can divide different topics or projects using panels within a larger

group space.

And the customization here is apparently pretty deep.

You can create your own unique group space layouts just by dragging and dropping

panels around.

Hmm, that sounds flexible.

If it's meant to be your platform, it needs to adapt, right, to whatever your team

actually does.

Exactly. Whether you're a big enterprise or just a small team or even using it

personally.

And think about it, if this becomes your central hub, the communication volume

could explode.

Yeah, finding anything could become a nightmare.

Right. Which is likely why they've built in an AI assistant.

It's not just a gimmick.

Using things like ChatGPT, I assume.

Yeah, it agrees with large language models.

So the assistant can help improve your wording, maybe simplify things.

But crucially, it can summarize long conversation histories.

Oh, that's huge. If all your decisions end up in chat, summaries are essential.

Absolutely. And managing all that, plus potentially sensitive project data,

especially if you're self-hosting for privacy, requires some serious control

mechanisms.

Good point. What about security and permissions?

They seem to emphasize that the docs highlight privacy, like only invited members

can join a group.

Seems basic, but important for locking down a workspace.

Keeps randoms out.

Yep. And adding friends requires not just their nickname, but also this random

string of numbers.

Just another layer to prevent unwanted contact or accidental ads.

Makes sense, especially if an enterprise is aiming for that digital sovereignty

goal.

You need control.

Absolutely. Which brings us neatly to group roles.

Tailchat includes a built-in RBAC system.

RBAC. Role-based access control.

Exactly. So instead of just giving everyone broad admin or user permissions, you

get much more granular.

Think of it like digital key cards for specific rooms or tools within your custom

workspace.

So you could say only the QA team gets access to the deployment plugin, maybe.

Precisely that kind of thing.

Or maybe only certain people can see the panel where sensitive financial

discussions happen.

Permissions are matched based on the role you assign someone and specific

permission points.

And importantly, plugins can easily integrate with this system.

Ah. So plugins can define their own permissions too.

Yes. This flexibility means you can set up tail chat to be really rigorous, like

for regulated enterprise.

Or keep it more open and fun for, say, a creative team or just personal use.

Okay. This is starting to sound less like just a chat app and more like, well, a

platform.

And that's where the underlying design becomes really fascinating.

That's what enables the whole know-I-am vision and lets it scale.

Let's get technical for a second then. What's under the hood?

Okay. So the tech stack is pretty modern, built on React and TypeScript.

But the architecture is the real story here. It uses a front-end microkernel

architecture.

Microkernel on the front end. Interesting.

And on the back end, it uses a microservice architecture.

Whoa, okay. Microservices. That sounds potentially complicated to manage,

especially for someone maybe just spinning this up using one of those quick

deployment tools you mentioned.

That's a really fair question. It definitely sounds more complex than a single monolithic

application.

Is there a trade-off there? Are they sacrificing ease of setup for this platform

flexibility?

There's always a trade-off, right? Yeah.

But the argument for microservices here is that this structure actually makes the

platform inherently more resilient and scalable.

Which you need if it's going to potentially replace several other tools.

How so? Can you break that down a bit? Sure.

Think of a traditional monolithic app like one big machine doing everything.

If one part breaks or gets overloaded, the whole machine might slow down or stop.

Right.

Microservices are more like a collection of smaller specialized machines, each

doing one job really well.

User authentication, message processing, managing plugins, whatever.

If one machine, say the one handling file uploads, gets overloaded,

you can just add more power to that specific machine without messing with the

others.

Ah, I see. Scale, just the parts that need it.

Exactly. So for you, the user, the takeaway is that this architecture makes TailChat

ready

for potentially large-scale use and handles growth much more gracefully from the

get-go,

even if it might seem more complex initially. Okay, that makes sense.

It's building for the platform vision from the ground up. So the architecture

supports

the platform idea, and the plugins are how users actually experience that not-only-I-am

functionality.

Precisely. The plugin system is designed to let developers integrate other

applications

much more deeply and naturally than just, say, embedding a web page using an iframe,

which is often how older TAP platforms handle integrations.

Right. Let's get concrete, then. What kind of things can these plugins actually do?

Because this is where the real value seems to be.

Totally. So you're not just messaging about a task anymore. Instead of, you know,

stopping

your chat, opening Zoom in another tab, starting a call, copying the link, pasting

it back.

The usual awkward dance.

Yeah. The plugins might allow you to just start that video call right inside the

tail chat channel.

Okay, that cuts down friction. What else?

Collaboration tools. Instead of linking out to Miro or Google Docs,

imagine having a collaborative online drawing board plugin or a rich text editor

running

inside the chat channel itself. Everyone can see and edit in real time, right there.

That drastically reduces context twitching, which, let's be honest,

is a huge productivity killer these days.

It really is.

Yeah.

And this platform approach extends to how you connect third-party apps, too.

They offer different integration methods, simple URL requests using an open API app

standard,

or even building a full backend plugin for deeper integration.

So lots of options for developers.

Yeah. You could have plugins for end-to-end encryption if you need that extra

security layer,

or plugins that receive custom push notifications from your other tools,

like your CI-CD pipeline or project management system,

directly into your tail chat interface.

Keeps everything in one place.

Now, we should probably mention a quick caveat we found in the source material.

Yes. The developer interface.

Right. While the core app is stable,

the interface exposed for third-party developers is still evolving.

They say it's generally backward compatible,

but there's still a possibility of breaking changes as they refine things.

Which is pretty standard for an active open source project,

especially one moving this fast.

But definitely something for potential plugin developers to keep in mind.

Good note. Okay, so practically speaking, how do people use tail chat? What

platforms?

Well, it's fundamentally built on HTML,

so the core experience should work on any modern browser, any OS.

Web-first.

Web-first, yeah. But they do offer dedicated clients for mobile and desktop.

These likely provide better integration with the operating system.

Things like native notifications, maybe better screenshot tools,

stuff you can't always do perfectly just in a browser tab.

Right, OS specific features. And you mentioned quick deployment options earlier.

Yeah, the docs mentioned things like deploying easily on CLOs or Cloud Run.

These newer platform as a service options that simplify running containerized apps.

Okay, interesting. Makes it potentially less daunting to get started than

managing a full microservice setup manually.

Hopefully, yeah. So if we try and connect this all back to the bigger picture,

tail chat isn't really just aiming to be a slightly better Discord or Slack clone.

Seems like it's trying to solve a bigger problem.

I think so. It feels like it's trying to tackle tool fatigue.

You know, that feeling of constantly jumping between your chat app, your project

manager,

your video call tool, your document editor.

Oh, I know that feeling well.

By abstracting functions into plugins from the start and using that scalable

microservice architecture, it really becomes this potential single hub,

a highly customizable application platform that you control potentially on your own

infrastructure.

Giving you maximum control and customization,

ideally reducing that need to switch apps constantly.

That seems to be the goal. It's a different philosophy,

emphasizing expansion and integration right from the core,

rather than just being a linear messaging tool with some bots tacked on.

It's genuinely impressive that they've built this potentially complex, self-managed

platform.

But that does bring us to the big question we kind of want to leave you, the

listener, with.

The trade-off question again.

Yeah. Given the potential complexity, even with easier deployment options,

of owning and managing this entire collaboration ecosystem, this whole Noyan

platform,

does that level of digital sovereignty and deep customization

truly outweigh the sheer convenience of just using the big centralized

hosted platforms we're all used to?

It's a fundamental question, isn't it?

Ease of use versus control and ownership.

Exactly. It forces us to ask, what's the real value proposition for you?

Where do you draw the line between convenience and digital control?

Something to definitely mull over.

Well, that's certainly food for thought.

Thank you for joining us on this deep dive into TailChat and its norm approach to

collaboration.

Getting interesting to explore.

And one more huge thanks to our supporter, Safe Server.

If you're considering taking control and hosting powerful open source software like

TailChat and need help accelerating your digital transformation, they are the

people to check

out.

Find out more at www.safeserver.de.

Thanks again for listening and we'll catch you on the next Deep Dive!

Thanks again for listening and we'll catch you on the next Deep Dive!