rift chat

a real-time discord-style chat app. built with Node.js + Socket.io on the backend, plain HTML/CSS/JS on the frontend.

structure

rift-chat/
├── server/        → Node.js backend (deploy to Railway)
│   ├── index.js
│   ├── package.json
│   └── railway.toml
└── client/        → Static frontend (deploy to Vercel)
    ├── public/
    │   └── index.html
    ├── package.json
    └── vercel.json

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deploy in ~5 minutes

step 1 — push to github

create two repos (or one monorepo) and push:

# from rift-chat/
git init
git add .
git commit -m "initial commit"
git remote add origin https://github.com/YOUR_USERNAME/rift-chat.git
git push -u origin main

step 2 — deploy server to Railway

1. go to railway.app and sign in with GitHub
2. click New Project → Deploy from GitHub repo
3. select your repo, set the root directory to server
4. Railway auto-detects Node.js and runs node index.js
5. go to Settings → Networking → Generate Domain
6. copy your Railway domain (e.g. https://rift-chat-server.up.railway.app)

step 3 — deploy frontend to Vercel

1. go to vercel.com and sign in with GitHub
2. click Add New → Project, import your repo
3. set the root directory to client
4. deploy — Vercel gives you a live URL instantly

step 4 — use it

1. open your Vercel URL
2. paste your Railway server URL into the server url field
3. pick a username and join!
4. share the Vercel URL with friends — they just need to use the same server URL

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features

• real-time messaging via WebSockets
• 5 channels: #general, #gaming, #random, #memes, #music
• emoji reactions (toggle on/off)
• online users list
• messages persist in memory (resets on server restart)
• works across different devices and networks

optional upgrades

• add a database (MongoDB Atlas or PlanetScale) for persistent message history
• add user authentication
• add message history on load
• add typing indicators
• add direct messages