Codester demo · Business software

TopicChat — Team Chat With Threads

Team chat on your own server, where every conversation sits under a topic line so you can find it again later.

$79 on CodesterBoot test: passed — full stack, real organization created4 starter streams included

First screen of a new install

The packaged stack, installed locally during packaging: database, cache, and mail services up, first-time setup complete, and the web app answering over HTTPS. The first screen asks you to create your organization — name it, and the chat is yours.

Create-organization screen from the real test install (local test address, self-signed certificate). An organization named TopicChat was created through this form and signed into during the test.

How it was tested — and what this page can't show you

The full five-container stack was installed from the pinned images on the build machine, with the same settings file and generated secrets the install kit produces.

First-time setup ran to completion (its log ends at "End Initial Configuration Phase"), the web app answered over HTTPS with the real pre-organization page, and the organization was created through the actual browser form in a headless browser and signed into. Three problems found on the way were faults of this sandbox (file permissions for generated secrets, a process limit the VM won't raise, a container-exec quirk) — each was worked around for the test and none of the workarounds are in the buyer kit, because a normal server doesn't need them.

Two honest gaps: the in-app view of the starter streams was never screenshotted before the test instance was torn down, and the captured terminal logs were lost in a machine restart — so this page describes the passed boot test in words instead of attaching output that no longer exists. Also, the included stream-setup script was checked for correctness but not run against the live instance; the same starter structure is documented step by step in the package for setting up by hand.

What it does

Every conversation under a topic — open a stream, pick the topic, read just that thread, months later, without digging through mixed chat
Four starter streams ready to create — Announcements, Sales, Support, General — with starter topics, set up by hand in about 10 minutes or with the included setup script
Search across all message history, plus direct messages, mentions, and per-stream notification settings
Runs on your own Linux server with Docker — five containers started together, one settings file, secrets generated for you by the install script
Free official phone and desktop apps connect to your server
Backups are one file you can carry to a new machine and restore