🤫 whisperlan

v1.5.2, one file, zero dependencies, MIT

Same wifi.
No server.
Just type.

whisperlan turns every laptop on your local network into a chatroom, plus encrypted 1‑on‑1s. No accounts, no cloud, nothing written to disk. Quit and the session is gone.

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Works on macOS and Linux · Python 3.8 or newer, nothing to pip install

Install in about thirty seconds

brew tap Tarraf2020/whisperlan https://github.com/Tarraf2020/whisperlan && brew install Tarraf2020/whisperlan/whisperlan

Then open a new terminal and run whisper --name ali. A friend on the same wifi runs whisper --name bob. You find each other in about five seconds.

How private is private

Room, encrypted mesh

Group chat goes out as one TLS-encrypted unicast per peer. Never broadcast, so a passive sniffer sees connection metadata at most, never content. Needs v1.5.0 or newer on both ends.

1-on-1, direct TLS

Type /p @bob and every keystroke travels encrypted to exactly one machine. If bob is unreachable the message is not sent anywhere — it never falls back to broadcast, and the room never learns the chat exists.

Presence stays public

Hellos, heartbeats and typing indicators are plaintext broadcast: nicknames and addresses, never chat content. A sniffer sees who is online, not what they say. Self-signed certificates mean a skilled active attacker on your LAN could still interfere, so don't send bank passwords.

The whole manual fits here

just type + Enter
talk to everyone in the room
/p @bob
open an encrypted private chat, prompt turns into 🔒→bob
/dm @bob yo
one private message without switching views
/room
back to the group
/me dances
action message, works in private too
/shrug /flip /party
ascii classics, work in private too
/panic yes
nuke your session history. Memory only, nothing was ever on disk
/quit
slip away quietly

Made for LAN parties, classrooms, hackathons and dorm rooms.

If it made your table laugh, leave a star.

Tarraf2020 / whisperlan