✳ ChatSpark

A Stranger Today. A Story Tomorrow.

An animated, text-only stranger chat with real-time games, built for surprising conversations.

Website · Get started · How it works · Privacy

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✨ Meet someone new, without the noise

🔮 A little look at the experience

The live interface includes hover responses, floating light elements, animated messages, and a reduced-motion mode for accessibility. Images above are visual assets—not fake live-user counts or screenshots.

📁 Source layout

ChatSpark/
├── web/                 # Next.js website, translations, UI, animation and art
│   ├── app/             # Localized pages and safety policies
│   ├── components/      # Chat UI, Movie Rush and animated homepage
│   ├── lib/             # Locale strings, metadata and UI helpers
│   └── public/art/      # Optimized, prebuilt visual assets
├── server/              # Socket.IO relay, matchmaking, game rules, moderation
│   ├── src/             # Event handlers and security rules
│   ├── data/            # Movie question bank and local SQLite database
│   ├── railway.json     # Railway build/runtime config (service Root Directory: /server)
│   └── test/            # Unit/integration tests
├── e2e/                 # Browser-level test scripts
├── scripts/             # Development proxy helpers
└── docs/                # Architecture and deployment guides

⚡ Quick start

Node.js 22.16+ is required; 24+ is recommended for the SQLite backend.

git clone https://github.com/vishsena864-collab/RC.git
cd RC

# In terminal 1
cd server
npm ci
cp .env.example .env
npm run dev

# In terminal 2
cd web
npm ci
cp .env.example .env.local
npm run dev

Open http://localhost:3000. For local use, set NEXT_PUBLIC_SERVER_URL=http://localhost:4000 in web/.env.local. For production, configure the Railway HTTPS URL and matching CORS origins. Never commit actual .env files or secrets.

Checks

cd server && npm test
cd ../web && npm run build

🏗️ Architecture

flowchart LR
  U[Browser A] <-->|TLS · Socket.IO| B[Railway · ChatSpark relay]
  V[Browser B] <-->|TLS · Socket.IO| B
  U -->|HTTPS| W[Vercel · Next.js]
  V -->|HTTPS| W
  B -->|server-only| D[(Movie questions / optional Supabase)]
  B -->|Server-authoritative scoring| G[Movie Rush]

No WebRTC / STUN / peer-to-peer IP exchange is used in this text-only release. Additional design and runtime notes: docs/ARCHITECTURE.md.

🔐 Safety & privacy

• No raw peer IPs exchanged: server-mediated text chat; location, camera and microphone access are not needed.
• No promise of total anonymity: hosting companies, ISPs and security systems still process network metadata; recipients can copy shared text.
• Report and skip: moderation, rate limits, abuse-report retention rules, and matching cooldowns are built into the server.
• 18+ self-attestation isn't identity verification. Adult content remains disabled until effective age assurance and moderation are added.
• Secrets remain server-side: configure the HMAC secret and server CORS origins through the host, not browser variables.
• Trivia integrity: answers are checked on the server. This public source repo includes a sample/editable question bank; do not assume the game is cheat-proof against someone reading the repo.

For a vulnerability or security report, see SECURITY.md. For deployment caveats, see docs/DEPLOYMENT.md.

🎯 Movie Rush

• 345 famous movies, each with four clues, packaged in server/data/movie_questions.json and the SQLite database.
• A challenge starts only after the other player accepts.
• The first valid, correct answer received by the server wins.
• 60-second countdown, 12 guesses maximum per player; no answer leaked to the browser before resolution.
• Winner cards omit personally identifying data.

🤝 Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for local setup, testing and PR guidance.

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