Self-hosted voice and text chat

Many stones. One picture.

Tessera is voice and text chat for communities that run their own server: end-to-end encrypted voice, low latency and no telemetry.

Download Tessera Host your own server

Early release for Windows and Linux, free and open source.

The story in motion

What Tessera does

Everything a group needs to talk and write, on a server that belongs to you.

Voice without detours

Opus, noise suppression and a jitter buffer for clear voices. Push-to-talk or voice activation, whichever you prefer.

End-to-end encrypted

Voice is encrypted on your device with MLS and SFrame. The server only forwards packets and cannot listen in.

Your server

A single binary. The install script sets up the service, the HTTPS certificate and the firewall on a Linux server.

Roles and permissions

Roles with colours, permissions down to single channels. Joining by invite only, with a server password, or open.

Many servers, one client

The desktop client stays signed in to several instances at once and shows them all in one overview.

Bots as equals

Bots use the same interface as the client, with events, voice and a Rust SDK. The protocol is openly documented.

Online in a few minutes

Upload the package, start the script, answer a few questions. The install script does the rest: a systemd service, Caddy with a Let’s Encrypt certificate and matching firewall rules.

  1. Point your domain at your server via DNS
  2. Upload the package and start the script
  3. Add the instance in the client and become owner with the setup token
Guide in the handbook 
$ scp tessera-server-0.1.0-linux-x86_64.tar.gz root@chat.example.org:
$ ssh root@chat.example.org
# tar xzf tessera-server-0.1.0-linux-x86_64.tar.gz
# cd tessera-server-0.1.0-linux-x86_64
# ./install.sh
Hostname [chat.example.org]:
Name der Community [Tessera]: Meine Gilde
…
==> Fertig
    Prüfen:  curl https://chat.example.org/health

No telemetry. Unless you want it.

Tessera collects nothing by default. Sharing usage data needs explicit consent, and the published packages do not even contain the telemetry code.

  • Opt-in instead of opt-out, the default is always no
  • No access log in the bundled web server
  • Messages, audio and names never leave your server
  • This website sets no cookies and loads nothing from third-party servers either

Place your stone.

Download the client, join an instance or start your own.

Download Tessera Host your own server