51 lines
2.1 KiB
Markdown
51 lines
2.1 KiB
Markdown
# User to Support Chat
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Real-time support chat in Rust. Users start conversations, supporters reply from a dashboard. Everything lives in RAM, nothing persists, and it all resets every 20 minutes. Like a café where everyone gets kicked out when the clock strikes. Lovely.
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Anonymous by default, ephemeral by design.
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## What It Does
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- Users create sessions anonymously (UUIDs, not usernames)
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- Supporters browse active chats and reply in real time
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- WebSockets for typing indicators and live message pushes
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- Rate limiting: 60 messages per IP per 20-minute window
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- Auto-reset: clears all sessions, messages, and rate limits every 20 minutes
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## Tech Stack
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| Thing | Choice | Why |
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| Language | Rust 1.96 | Single binary. No runtime. Panic = abort. |
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| Framework | Axum | WebSocket support, typed routes, tokio-powered. |
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| State | DashMap | Concurrent, lock-free, perfect for in-memory sessions. |
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| Frontend | HTMX + vanilla JS | Less JavaScript, more HTML swaps. No bundlers. |
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| Deployment | Bare metal + systemd | No Docker. No Podman. Just a binary and a `.service` file. |
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## Running It
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The `justfile` handles everything, but you'll need to [install](https://just.systems/man/en/installation.html) it on your machine.
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```bash
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just build # clippy + fmt + release
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just run # dev mode with hot reload
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just deploy # rsync to server + restart systemd
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just logs # tail remote journalctl
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```
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Server binds on `0.0.0.0:3111`. Landing page at `/`, user view at `/user`, supporter dashboard at `/supporter`.
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## Key Behaviors
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- Sessions are created via POST to `/api/session/create` — returns JSON with UUID
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- Messages sent via HTMX forms to `/send/:session_id` or `/supporter/send/:session_id`
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- WebSocket connects to `/ws/user/:session_id` (user) or `/ws/supporter/:supporter_id`
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- Reset countdown shown in navbar, auto-refreshes every second
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- Typing indicators broadcast via WebSocket using prefixes like `typing:user:start:<session_id>`
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---
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**For production use, you'd want a database, auth, TLS, and probably less drama.**
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