Welcome to the deep dive the place where we cut through complexity to give you the
essential knowledge you need fast today
We're doing exactly that we're opening up the hood of a really unique piece of
software called now
Now if you're thinking high-cost proprietary tools, well, this isn't it now is open
source
It's a powerful multi-room persistent chat server
You can find right on github our mission today pretty simple give you a clear
beginner friendly way into understanding what makes this platform special
You know both for someone just using it and maybe for a developer looking for a
cool project
But before we really dive in we want to give a shout out to the supporter of this
deep dive
Thinking about hosting something like mal might seem like well a bit much safe
server actually handles exactly this kind of innovative software hosting
They support your digital transformation find out more at
www.safeserver.de and that's a good starting point because we're not just looking
at a simple messenger app here
This is more like a whole communication ecosystem. It's open source. Yeah, but it
offers features you'd usually expect from
Enterprise software things like persistence ways to extend it rich media stuff that
often costs a lot and licensing fees
But here it's all community driven and you get total control over your own data
Okay, let's start with the basics then for someone just looking for a better chat
platform if meow is a chat server
What are the ground rules? Well, fundamentally it's built for flexibility for
communities. It's free to use
Anyone can set up rooms public or private and it's really designed for long-term
use
But there's one really key security rule. You have to be logged into chat
This isn't just some anonymous forum, right that immediately tackles a huge issue
online impersonation accountability
And to make sure identities are verified the sources say it uses oeth to
authentication
Okay, for those of us not living in the server room. What so apt to end like plain
English. Oh, yeah
It's basically the standard way systems delegate identity verification
Think of it like a digital bouncer at a club
Instead of meow itself handling your password. It asks a trusted service like github
or google
Hey, is this person really who they say they are? Hmm. So when you sign in it's
verified and that identity gets linked to that
Persistent history we need to talk about okay
So verified identities that security layer lets us trust the chat history more
Right, which brings us to maybe the core idea persistent and searchable history.
Hmm
Why should someone new to this care about chat being persistent versus you know,
just disappearing?
Oh, it's a huge difference think about standard messengers that knowledge those
discussions poof gone off the screen lost forever
You lose that collective memory meow treats every single conversation every link
shared every decision made as a permanent searchable entry in a database
So you can actually find stuff from months ago. Exactly information shared six
months back is still there still accessible still useful today
that's vital for any team or project that actually values retaining knowledge and
importantly data sovereignty
Knowing your history is yours. It's available not locked away behind some corporate
paywall or subscription fee
Okay, we've got trust. We've got longevity. That's the foundation. But what about
the now?
How does meow make the actual conversation experience better? Let's get into that
feature set. What makes it more than just typing, right?
This is where it really pulls away from basic chat apps
It starts with things like rich markdown formatting good for making text clear
But what really stands out is how it handles content. It doesn't just show links
It like boxes them up nicely. It supports audio and video directly audio and video.
How does it do that?
That's thanks to WebRTC. We can maybe unpack that a bit later
Okay, and crucially for some groups, it's brilliant at handling complex stuff like
code snippets and tables right there in the chat window
Oh, yeah, I've tried pasting code into normal chat. It's a disaster scrambled mess
loss formatting. Exactly
So having proper rendering is a lifesaver for say development teams makes sense
And it's not all serious business either. You've got features like
Starring messages voting on things highlighting important conversations even
embedded games. Hold on embedded games
Really? It's not a much for a serious chat server. I get the persistence and code
stuff, but games
Who's the audience for that mix? That's a fair question. Yeah, it does suggest the
target isn't just you know, buttoned up corporate teams
It might be more for open communities
Maybe dev teams again or special interest groups where there's both intense work
and a strong social side
But the really clever part is how a lot of this stuff is delivered many features
the games
Yeah, but also things like persistent notifications those powerful github hooks for
integrating with code repositories
Let me guess plugins. You got it. They're implemented as plugins
Ah, so the core system stays stable, but people can add whatever functionality they
need precisely that plug-in architecture makes it
Incredibly flexible and customizable those github hooks and bots for instance
They let the chat server become a central hub for tracking development progress
issues code changes
That's serious enterprise level stuff delivered in an open way. Okay. Let's switch
gears a bit
Let's unpack this for the tech folks or people curious about how it works. We've
got all these real-time persistent features
What's actually running the show? What's the tech stack? All right, if you peek
under the hood, it's overwhelmingly JavaScript
The language stats are pretty clear. JavaScript is about
75.7 percent then you've got
SCSS for the styling that's around 16.9 percent. So if you know JavaScript you
basically hold the keys
Okay, let's slow down here though. This technical part can lose people. What's the
absolute core starting with that real-time feel?
Sure, the the core engine is built on Node.js
That's the server-side JavaScript environment handling all the backend logic and to
make the chat instantaneous
Which it absolutely has to be it uses socket.io socket.io
Okay
Yeah, think of socket.io is setting up this like permanent fast lane between the
server and everyone connected it pushes updates out instantly
No need to keep refreshing your browser right handles the speed but persistence you
said history lives forever
Where is that digital archive stored? Good question that involves two main players
the main permanent storage
The heavy-duty database holding all the chat history user settings room data. That's
Postgres goal Postgres
Reliable choice very known for being robust, but Redis is mentioned too for someone
new to this
Why have both Postgres and Redis? What's the difference? Ah, yeah, that's a key
architectural point
Yeah, Postgres will is the long-term archive Redis is all about speed Redis keeps
certain things like maybe who's currently online or
Temporary session information and really fast memory not on the slower disk drive
like Postgres. So it acts as a high-speed cache
The server can grab common info super fast from Redis without having to query the
big Postgres database every single time
Okay, that makes sense speed layer on top of the permanent store
Yeah, and just circling back quickly security and multimedia
We mentioned OAuth 2 is passport.js the tool doing that. Yes, exactly passport.js
is a
Very common trusted piece of middleware for Node.js
It handles that verified sign-in process securely and the video audio right the
last key tech piece there is web RTC web real-time communication
That's the browser technology that lets you set up secure direct connections peer-to-peer
for live audio and video streams
Essential for calls Wow. Okay. So that's a pretty modern and powerful stack gives a
clear roadmap for any developer wanting to maybe contribute
Mm-hmm, which brings us neatly to contributing section for the open source
ecosystem looking at the github repo
It's got what 549 stars 73 forks 22 contributors that feels pretty healthy active.
It's definitely a respectable level of community engagement
Yeah, and getting involved seems fairly straightforward partly because it's mostly
under the MIT license. This means generally it's very permissive
It gives contributors a lot of freedom with what they build and how it can be used
low barrier to entry legally speaking and
For anyone actually thinking about contributing code the developers have laid out
some clear rules
Sort of a how-to guide for contributing responsibly. Okay. What are the must-do
rules if someone wants to submit say a
poll request with a new feature rule number one is basically
Talk first you must go discuss what you plan to do with the team beforehand
They even give active hours like 8 a.m. To 7 p.m. GMT when you can usually find
them in the chat rooms
This avoids people coding something that won't fit or is already being done smart
avoids wasted effort. What's rule two quality control?
You must test your own code thoroughly and run the project's automated test suite
before you even think about submitting it
Discuss first test always makes total sense for something needs to be reliable
Exactly, and remember the plugins we talked about yeah the extensibility, right?
The contribution guidelines even point out. There's a specific channel just for
developing plugins
So if you want to add a significant new capability
Chances are they'll want you to build it as a plug-in. That's actually a great
maybe safer
Way for newer job script is to get involved without potentially breaking the main
platform
Good entry point and if coding isn't your thing right now, but you just want to try
me out
The installation docs are available so you can set up your own server for your own
team or community and get the full experience
Okay, so let's try and wrap this up summing up our deep dive meow isn't just
another chat app. It's way more
It's persistent. It handles rich media. Well, it's built on a solid tech stack like
node Postgres Redis
And that plug-in system makes it super customizable puts control back with the
users
It really is a comprehensive hub designed for you to own your communication data
Which actually leads to a final thought maybe a provocative question for you the
listener
Considering everything we've touched on the sheer range of features from dedicated
web RTC video calls and deep github integration for devs
All the way down to embedded games and voting systems
What kind of really unique maybe complex community or perhaps some non traditional
organization?
Could genuinely leverage every single aspect of a platform as feature-rich as meow
something to think about a great question to ponder as you explore the sources
yourself and
thanks again to safe server for supporting this deep dive if you're looking for
powerful reliable hosting for software like this or need support with
Your digital transformation check them out at
www.safeserver.de
That's all for this deep dive. Keep learning. Keep digging until next time