Gryt 1.5.0

Two things changed in this release and they point the same way. Gryt no longer asks you to sign up before you can use it, and the desktop app will host as many servers as you want without a terminal. Download it, start a server, tell your friends the address. That was the whole idea.

You don't need an account

Opening Gryt used to mean making an account first. It doesn't now. You get an identity the moment the app starts — a keypair on your own machine that signs for you, with no sign-up, no email address, and no way for us or anyone else to attach it to a person.

It isn't a limited mode. A guest identity signs the same challenge as an account, gets the same roles, and can own a server. What differs is who vouches for the key: an account is vouched for by id.gryt.chat, and a guest identity vouches for itself.

Each server you join gets its own key, so two servers can't work out that they are talking to the same person.

Signing in still does something, and it's worth knowing what: an account is the same identity on every Gryt server, it survives losing the device, and it's what a ban can hold on to. If you make one later, the membership you already have comes with you — your roles and history aren't left behind on the old identity.

Servers decide which they accept, and say so before you try. The add-server dialog reads No account needed or Gryt account required as soon as it has looked the server up, so nobody finds out by being refused.

The client is a server

The desktop app has always had a server inside it. It will now run several, and getting one going is three fields and a button.

Name it, take the port it offers or set your own, and press Create. It starts and puts you in it — there's no second step where you go and connect to the thing you just made. The port it offers is one that's actually free. It's checked against every interface the server will bind to, not just loopback. And if you type your own, the field tells you whether anything else is on it.

Hosting a second server is cheap on purpose. They share one SFU, because voice rooms are namespaced per server, so server number two costs a server process and an image worker rather than another stack.

Settings → My servers is where they live: start, stop, both addresses, logs, whether each one starts with the app, and delete. Delete asks you to type the server's name, because it destroys the only copy of that server's database and its identity key.

Somebody has to let you in

A server can now be set to let people ask. Instead of an invite code or an open door, a would-be member sends a request with a line about who they're, and somebody with the right role approves or refuses it.

Alongside that: an invite can only bring in so many people per hour, banning somebody offers to close the invite they came through, and a server no longer believes an address a client made up about itself.

Adding a server, rearranged

The add-server dialog was doing two unrelated jobs in one column. It's three steps now: create your own, or paste an invite. The join step leads with the invite link, fetches the server on paste, and shows a one-line preview rather than a full screen confirming what the name already told you.

Servers on your network moved out into their own Discovery destination in the rail, with a dot when something has turned up since you last looked. Not a count: on a machine that hosts a few, a count sits at six forever and stops meaning anything.

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The short version

Identity

• You no longer need an account. A guest identity is a real identity, generated on your machine, with no sign-up
• A separate key per server, so two servers can't tell they're talking to the same person
• Making an account later keeps the membership you already had, rather than starting over
• Authorise a second device from the first, instead of copying your key around by hand
• One key can now speak for several devices
• Servers say whether they need an account before you try to join
• Signed-out users have somewhere to keep their settings
• The menu offers guests Sign in, which is the thing they can actually do

Hosting from the app

• Host more than one server. They share an SFU, so the second costs a process and a worker
• Settings → My servers: start, stop, logs, autostart and delete, per server
• Pick the port, or take the free one it offers — checked on every interface the server binds, not just loopback
• Delete a server, behind a typed confirmation, because it destroys the only copy
• Creating a server now starts it and puts you in it, instead of leaving a Connect button behind

Joining

• Ask to join a server, and have a moderator answer
• Servers can require an invite, allow requests, or stand open
• Invites are capped at a number of joins per hour
• Banning somebody offers to revoke the invite they came in through
• The add-server dialog is three steps, leading with the invite link
• Servers on your network have their own Discovery destination, with a badge that means "new since you last looked"

Interface

• The welcome is a message from a person rather than a feature list
• The tour plays once, can be skipped properly, and opens what it points at
• The titlebar stays usable while a dialog is open
• Update failures say what failed instead of blaming your connection or a rate limit that didn't exist
• Report a bug opens a GitHub issue carrying your version and platform
• Sign-in shows your name rather than printing your email as "Username"

Under the hood

• The client is on React 19 and Tailwind 4
• The client compiles in CI, so a type error can't reach a release
• Server identity certificates that vouch for themselves, and the built-in CA that never worked is gone
• Renames are counted, so a sudden one is visible in the member list