Macaroni – a single HTML file messenger

ventana

It just looks like a funny slop project if you read the English readme, but reading the Russian PHILOSOPHY.md [1] (auto-translated [2] if you don't read Russian) makes you realize that there's probably something more than "let's implement a messenger using git remote as a storage", knowing how popular messenger apps are getting blocked in Russia. [1]: https://github.com/vanyapr/makaroshki/blob/main/PHILOSOPHY.m... [2]: https://github-com.translate.goog/vanyapr/makaroshki/blob/ma... (Google Translate)

BrenBarn

"Single file" is a bit misleading when it requires Github to do anything.

kristopolous

I made an interesting chat system as well: A way to sneak messages in through images for places where they otherwise wouldn't exist... pretty different. https://github.com/kristopolous/image-chat

torginus

I wonder why this type of deployment is not more popular - pushing all resources inside a single HTML file, with a script tag, and inline resources as blobs.

andai

I'm a fan of the license. https://www.wtfpl.net/about/

triyambakam

> so the first screen does not burn unauthenticated GitHub API rate limit. Claude loves this dumb word "burn". Recently it even said "burn a TOTP" as if they are finite.

boomlinde

"Sending a message to your mother should not require infrastructure comparable to a small bank." To that end, requiring the use of GitHub for your application to work is a dead end. "Macaroni Messenger is a distributed messaging system" No. "The backend does not exist." Unless by "backend" you mean the underlying infrastructure and server logic you've made the clients depend on for the exchange of messages to happen.

msyea

Nice idea. I recently published an article with a different twist. Static Vite+React site but all the backends are via OAuth PKCE and your customers bring their own. https://type2fun.net/infinitely-scalable-personal-apps I like the idea of building apps but skipping the infra burden/costs.

utilize1808

So, browser = Java Runtime; uber HTML = applet?

littlecranky67

Nice idea. I would have expected it would use WebRTC for p2p client-to-client connection. A noted related project is Trystero [0] that uses all sort of external services to allow client-to-client discovery (such as Nostr, BitTorrent, Supabase etc.) - maybe a future project to combine the two. [0]: https://github.com/dmotz/trystero?tab=readme-ov-file#how-it-...

vincnetas

When docs say "no backend", but git (GitHub) is actually your backend :/

_def

Reminds me of a time when it was possible to "deploy" single HTML files via shorturl services by using base64 URI scheme

antran22

<critique> OP keep saying the backend implementation doesn't matter, it can be trivially switched to something other than Github. It's not. The whole app you write revolves around Github's HTTP endpoints. There's no actual provider-agnostic Git operation in the code (for that you need to use isomorphic-git [1]). So a much more apt title for this should be: "Macaroni - a chat UI in a single HTML file that stores messages data in a Github repo" </critique> I'm sorry to say this, but this whole thing reeks of vibeslop, and not just the code. The docs, the readme, even the replies of OP are at least Claude-assisted, if not fully Claude-generated. And I'm trying not to be derisive about LLM generated output anyway. LLM generated output can be sane and meaningful and to the point. This is just a questionably-cool tech demo dressed up under a sensationalistic title.

rcfox

Seems kind of similar (at least in purpose) to giscus, a commenting system powered by GitHub Discussions. https://github.com/giscus/giscus

fibo

please do not propagate errors ... it is "Maccheroni"

Hugsbox

That README got a few solid chuckles out of me. :) Really cool project imo

filup

Yes! Now we need to build a messenger that uses pastebin exclusively as the backend.

sbinnee

I laughed at the 1000% vibecoded badge

phcreery

This is not a bad idea ... for public team communication. This pretty much solves the "Discord is not documentation" and the dataloss in forum problems. If the communication was stored in the same place as the repostory, you are guaranteed to have saved and searchable messages. As a side-effect, AI can read all the past discussions for better "1000% vibecoding"