VNOX — Server

Self-hosted voice and chat server. No cloud. No tracking. Your hardware, your rules.

Not Discord. Not TeamSpeak. Not someone else's cloud.

---

What is VNOX?

VNOX is a self-hosted, real-time voice and text communication platform built entirely in Rust. It runs on your own server, uses a custom low-latency protocol (LNEx), and has no dependency on any third-party infrastructure.

The architecture is deliberately split into two components:

• Gateway — TCP server: authentication, channels, text chat, guilds, roles, permissions, DMs, invites, audit log
• Voice Node — UDP relay: Opus audio, jitter buffer, per-channel packet routing

Both are written in Rust on top of Tokio. The client is a separate native application at VNOX-Client/.

---

Why Rust?

• Tokio async runtime handles thousands of concurrent connections with minimal overhead
• No GC pauses during active voice sessions
• Memory safety without a garbage collector
• Single cross-platform binary — Windows, macOS, Linux

---

Architecture

┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                    VNOX Client                       │
│              (Rust + Slint UI)                       │
└──────────────────────┬───────────────────────────────┘
                       │ LNEx v1
            ┌──────────┴──────────┐
            │ TCP                 │ UDP
            ▼                     ▼
┌─────────────────────┐   ┌──────────────────────┐
│      Gateway        │   │     Voice Node        │
│   (Rust / Tokio)    │   │      (Rust)           │
│                     │   │                        │
│  auth (Ed25519)     │   │  Opus relay           │
│  channels           │   │  jitter buffer        │
│  sessions           │   │  packet routing       │
│  guilds, roles      │   │  member tracking      │
│  permissions        │   └──────────────────────┘
│  DMs, invites       │
│  audit log          │
│  rate limiting      │
│  Prometheus metrics │
└──────────┬──────────┘
           │ SQLite
           ▼
      ┌──────────┐
      │ Storage  │
      └──────────┘

Full architecture details: docs/01-architecture.md

---

Features

Implemented

• Auth: Ed25519 challenge-response, session tokens, reconnect with backoff
• Encryption: ChaCha20-Poly1305 AEAD + X25519 ECDH key exchange + HKDF key derivation
• Channels: Create, delete, list; text and voice channel types
• Text chat: Persistent history via SQLite, reactions, replies, edit, delete, typing indicators, read receipts
• Direct Messages: 1:1 DMs with persistent history, unread badges, search
• Guilds: Create, list, delete, settings
• Roles: u64 permission bits, channel overrides, owner bypass
• Invites: Permanent and temporary, accept/decline
• Friends: Requests, accept/decline, Online/All/Pending/Blocked tabs
• Presence: Online/Idle/DND/Invisible, custom status text, activity display
• Rate limiting: Per-session token bucket on chat + DMs
• Metrics: Prometheus (messages, DMs, voice packets, connections, auth failures, guilds, sessions)
• Admin HTTP: GET /health, GET /version, GET /metrics
• Audit log: All guild mutations logged
• Identity vault: Optional Argon2id + ChaCha20-Poly1305 keyfile encryption at rest
• Keyfile export/import: Encrypted or plain JSON keyfile with passphrase

Planned

• TLS 1.3 on TCP (Phase 2)
• Protobuf wire format (Phase 2)
• PostgreSQL backend (Phase 2)
• Federation protocol (Phase 3)
• Plugin runtime (Phase 3)

---

Status

Phase 1 is implemented. Not production ready.

Component	Status
Gateway	TCP listener, LNEx handshake, channels, chat, SQLite
Voice node	UDP relay, voice packet routing, jitter buffer
Desktop client	Slint UI, net layer, audio pipeline (partial)
LNEx protocol	Specified and implemented (JSON in Phase 1)
Encryption	ChaCha20-Poly1305 AEAD + X25519 ECDH — DONE
Federation	Planned (Phase 3)
Mobile client	Planned (Phase 3)

See docs/00-status.md for a full breakdown.

---

Quick start

Requirements: Rust 1.85+, a running VNOX Client

# Terminal 1 — gateway
cargo run -p vnox-gateway -- --config dev/config.toml

# Terminal 2 — voice node
cargo run -p vnox-voice-node -- --config dev/config.toml

The client connects to 127.0.0.1:7600 by default. Config reference: dev/README.md.

Docker

docker-compose up

Opus on Windows

audiopus_sys builds libopus from source via CMake. CMake 4.x policy flag is already set in .cargo/config.toml — no manual steps needed.

---

Protocol: LNEx

LNEx is a custom application-layer protocol for low-latency federated communication. Sits above TCP and UDP, defines packet framing, encryption, and routing.

Phase 1 uses JSON framing; Phase 2 will migrate to Protobuf.

The specification is CC0 (public domain) — anyone can implement a compatible client or server.

Details: docs/02-protocol/README.md

---

Project structure

gateway/          # TCP gateway (auth, channels, chat, guilds)
  ├── src/
  │   ├── proto/      # LNEx protocol: packets, crypto, framing
  │   ├── net/        # I/O, handshake, session state
  │   ├── handler/    # Packet handlers (chat, channel, guild, etc.)
  │   ├── domain/     # Business logic: auth, storage, rate limiting
  │   ├── admin/      # HTTP admin server (health, metrics)
  │   └── bootstrap/  # Startup, config, server identity
  └── Cargo.toml

voice-node/       # UDP voice relay
  ├── src/
  │   ├── jitter/    # Jitter buffer (adaptive + fixed modes)
  │   ├── relay.rs   # Per-channel relay, member tracking
  │   └── runner.rs  # UDP listener loop
  └── Cargo.toml

serverd/          # Unified server daemon (bundles gateway + voice)
docs/             # Documentation
dev/              # Local development config

---

Links

• Architecture
• Protocol
• Current status and limitations
• Server setup
• Local dev config
• Contributing
• Changelog

---

License

Server code: GPL-3.0 — see LICENSE
LNEx protocol specification: CC0 (public domain)