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Welcome to Hoot

Hoot is a native desktop email/messaging client built on the Nostr protocol using Rust and egui. It provides familiar email functionality over a decentralized protocol, featuring a modern interface for private communication.
Hoot uses NIP-59 (gift wrap) for all private messages, ensuring end-to-end encryption for your communications.

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Why Hoot?

Hoot combines the familiar experience of traditional email clients with the benefits of the Nostr protocol:
  • Decentralized: No central authority controls your messages
  • Private: End-to-end encryption using NIP-59 gift wrapping
  • Secure: Platform-specific secure key storage (Keychain on macOS, Credential Manager on Windows, Secret Service on Linux)
  • Native: Fast, lightweight desktop application built with Rust
  • Open Protocol: Built on Nostr, an open protocol with multiple relay options

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Get started

Quickstart

Get up and running with Hoot in minutes

Features

Explore what Hoot can do for you

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Core architecture

Hoot is built with a modular architecture:
  • Relay system: Manages WebSocket connections to multiple Nostr relays with automatic reconnection (5s intervals) and keepalive pings (30s)
  • Encrypted database: SQLite with SQLCipher for local storage of messages and metadata
  • Account manager: Handles Nostr keypairs with platform-specific secure storage
  • Mail events: Custom kind 2024 events with to/cc/bcc, subject, and threading support
Hoot stores your data locally in a SQLite database with SQLCipher encryption, giving you full control over your messages.

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Technical specifications

  • Language: Rust (edition 2021)
  • GUI Framework: egui (immediate-mode GUI)
  • Protocol: Nostr protocol v0.37.0
  • Database: SQLite with bundled SQLCipher
  • Supported Platforms: Linux, macOS, Windows

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Open source

Hoot is open source software created by Jack Chakany. Contributions are welcome!

Build from source

git clone <repository-url>
cd hoot
cargo build --release
cargo run --release

Development build

cargo build
cargo run

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