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Introduction

The Osmium Chat Protocol messaging system provides a comprehensive set of features for sending, editing, searching, and managing messages across different chat types. Messages can be sent to users, groups, channels, or yourself (saved messages).

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Message Structure

Messages in Osmium follow a well-defined structure that supports rich content, media attachments, and formatting: 
message Message {
  refs.ChatRef chat_ref = 1;
  fixed64 message_id = 2;        // @snowflake<Message>
  fixed64 author_id = 3;         // @snowflake<User>
  string message = 4;
  optional fixed64 reply_to = 5; // @snowflake<Message>
  repeated media.MessageMedia media = 6;
  repeated MessageEntity entities = 7;
  optional uint64 edited_at = 8;
  optional MessageType type = 9;
  optional MessageForwardInfo forward = 10;
}

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Message Types

Messages can have different types to represent various events:
  • UNKNOWN (0) - Default message type for text messages
  • CALL (1) - Voice or video call message
  • JOIN (2) - User joined the chat
  • LEAVE (3) - User left the chat

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Chat References

All messaging operations require a ChatRef to specify the target chat. A ChatRef can point to: 
message ChatRef {
  oneof ref {
    UserRef user = 1;           // Direct message to a user
    ChannelRef channel = 2;     // Message in a community channel
    GroupRef group = 3;         // Message in a group chat
    RefSelf self = 4;           // Saved messages (message to yourself)
  }
}

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UserRef

For direct messages to a specific user: 
message UserRef {
  fixed64 user_id = 1;  // @snowflake<User>
}

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ChannelRef

For messages in a community channel: 
message ChannelRef {
  fixed64 community_id = 1;  // @snowflake<Community>
  fixed64 channel_id = 2;    // @snowflake<Channel>
}

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GroupRef

For messages in a group chat: 
message GroupRef {
  fixed64 group_id = 1;  // @snowflake<Chat>
}

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RefSelf

For saved messages (messages to yourself): 
message RefSelf {}

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Message Operations

The messaging system supports the following operations:

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Snowflake IDs

All message IDs, user IDs, and chat IDs use snowflake identifiers (fixed64). Snowflakes are 64-bit integers that encode timestamp information and are sortable by creation time.

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