DS Chat frontend
React 19 + TypeScript + Vite PWA. The full client for DS Chat: auth and
invite-based signup, room CRUD with roles/invites, direct messages,
real-time WebSocket chat (Markdown, @mentions, reactions, built-in and
custom emoji, image/video/file attachments with previews, message editing
and deletion), unread indicators and presence, per-user theming (presets
plus a custom theme builder), Web Push/email notifications and a desktop-
notification bridge, an active-sessions view for managing where you're
logged in, offline caching and an auto-update banner via a custom service
worker, and a site-admin portal — wired to the backend's REST API and
/ws/chat WebSocket endpoint. See ../README.md and
../backend/README.md for full local setup.
Dev
npm install
npm run dev
The dev server proxies /api and /ws to http://localhost:8000 (see
vite.config.ts), so the backend must be running for anything beyond the
login page to work.
Build
npm run build
vite-plugin-pwa runs in injectManifest mode: instead of generating a
service worker, it precaches the build output (src/sw.ts's
precacheAndRoute) and injects that manifest into the hand-written worker at
src/sw.ts. injectManifest mode was needed over the default generateSW
because push/notificationclick listeners have to be hand-written into the
worker.
Layout
src/
main.tsx, App.tsx routes: /login, /signup, /forgot-password, /reset-password,
/rooms, /rooms/:roomId, /admin (AdminRoute-gated), /help;
mounts UpdateBanner globally, ChatSocketProvider and
CustomEmojiProvider once authed
types.ts shared request/response/WS-envelope types, mirroring the
backend's Pydantic schemas
api/ fetch wrappers, one file per backend resource: client
(base fetch/error handling), auth (incl. active sessions),
signup, rooms (incl. DMs), users, bots, webhooks, push,
admin, customThemes, customEmoji, uploads
ws/useChatSocket.ts the WebSocket hook: connect/reconnect with backoff,
join/leave rooms, send/edit/delete/react, visibility-gated
presence, triggers an SW update check on reconnect
context/
AuthContext.tsx current-user state, hydrated via GET /api/auth/me
ChatSocketContext.tsx shares one useChatSocket instance across the app
CustomEmojiContext.tsx fetches the site's custom emoji once, exposes a
shortcode lookup + a refresh() called after upload/delete
lib/
avatar.ts deterministic accent-color cycling for avatars
emoji.ts, emojiNames.ts,
emojiShortcodes.ts, recentEmoji.ts emoji picker data + recency tracking
fileSize.ts human-readable byte formatting
lastUser.ts cached "who was I last logged in as" for offline shell render
messageGrouping.ts groups consecutive messages by sender/time, presence lookup
push.ts PushManager subscribe/unsubscribe, VAPID key conversion,
timeout-guarded so a browser that never settles the
permission prompt can't leave the UI stuck forever
swUpdate.ts bridges the SW registration to useChatSocket's reconnect hook
theme.ts applies preset/custom themes as CSS custom properties
hooks/
useEscapeKey.ts Escape-to-close for modals/popovers
useOnlineStatus.ts navigator.onLine, for the OfflineBanner
useResizableWidth.ts drag-to-resize (sidebar/panel widths)
useWindowWidth.ts viewport width, for responsive sidebar/pane layout
components/
ProtectedRoute.tsx, AdminRoute.tsx auth/site-admin route guards
TopBar.tsx, Sidebar.tsx, RoomRow.tsx room list chrome (DMs and Rooms as
independently collapsible sections)
ChatPane.tsx, MessageList.tsx, Composer.tsx chat view: history+live merge,
message rendering (incl. deleted-message
tombstones), composer/attach/send
MessageContent.tsx, MentionAutocomplete.tsx Markdown rendering (mentions, room
links, custom emoji `:shortcode:`,
heading ids, sub/superscript) +
@mention highlighting/autocomplete
ImageLightbox.tsx, VideoLightbox.tsx,
FilePreviewModal.tsx attachment viewers (image/video/PDF/
text/Markdown)
EmojiPicker.tsx, CustomEmojiUploadModal.tsx reaction/composer emoji picker
(built-in + site's custom emoji) and
its upload dialog
RoomInfoPanel.tsx room details/members/roles/email-
notification-toggle panel
NewRoomModal.tsx, BrowseRoomsModal.tsx, UserPicker.tsx room creation/discovery, member
picking (also how a DM starts)
ProfileModal.tsx, ThemeBuilderModal.tsx, CustomThemePreview.tsx
profile settings (incl. active-sessions
list) + the custom theme editor (opened
in its own wide dialog) with a live,
hoverable mockup of the real UI
RoomAvatar.tsx, UserAvatar.tsx avatar rendering (incl. presence dot)
OfflineBanner.tsx, UpdateBanner.tsx connectivity state / new-version-available prompt
pages/
LoginPage.tsx, SignupPage.tsx, ForgotPasswordPage.tsx, ResetPasswordPage.tsx
ChatShellPage.tsx, AdminPage.tsx, HelpPage.tsx
styles/tokens.css design tokens (default theme: colors, spacing, etc.)
sw.ts custom service worker (injectManifest): app-shell
precache + NetworkFirst runtime caching, push/notificationclick
handlers, SKIP_WAITING messaging for the update-prompt flow
License
AGPL-3.0-or-later — see ../LICENSE.