NovaTalk

NovaTalk is a lightweight, self-hosted chat platform built with Flask, SQLAlchemy, and Flask-SocketIO.

It’s designed to feel familiar yet modern — offering a clean Material Design 3 interface, smooth animations, and full support for group chats (with roles and permissions), direct messaging, friends and contacts management, themes, customizable profiles, message editing, deletion, and more.

Features

• Material Design 3 interface with light/dark themes that adapt smoothly
• Real-time messaging using Socket.IO (works for DMs and group chats)
• Avatar uploads with live crop preview + image attachments in chat
• Friend system — requests, blocking, and public profile pages
• CSRF-safe everywhere (forms + AJAX included)
• Message forwarding to share messages (and attachments) across chats
• Command-line admin tools for creating and managing users directly

Getting Started

Docker

You can pull the latest image directly from Docker Hub:

docker pull edwardhsing/novatalk:latest

Docker Hub

Quick Start with Docker Compose

Deploy NovaTalk together with a MySQL database using the following docker-compose.yml:

services:
  db:
    image: mysql:8.0
    restart: always
    environment:
      MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: root              # Change this in production
      MYSQL_DATABASE: novatalk
      MYSQL_USER: novatalk
      MYSQL_PASSWORD: novatalk
    volumes:
      - db_data:/var/lib/mysql               # Persist MySQL data

  web:
    image: edwardhsing/novatalk:latest
    restart: always
    depends_on:
      - db
    ports:
      - "5000:5000"                          # Expose port 5000
    environment:
      DATABASE_URL: mysql+pymysql://novatalk:novatalk@db:3306/novatalk
      ADMIN_USERNAME: admin                  # Initial admin username
      ADMIN_EMAIL: [email protected]         # Initial admin email
      ADMIN_PASSWORD: admin123               # Initial admin password
      ADMIN_DISPLAY_NAME: "Administrator"    # Admin User Display name
      SECRET_KEY: supersecret                # Replace with a secure random string
      UPLOAD_FOLDER: /uploads
    volumes:
      - ./uploads:/uploads                   # Mount local uploads directory

volumes:
  db_data:

💡 Tip: Update all credentials (MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD, ADMIN_PASSWORD, SECRET_KEY, etc.) before deployment. For production, consider using environment files (.env) and secrets management.

Start the stack in detached mode:

docker compose up -d

Once the containers are running, open your browser at: 👉 http://0.0.0.0:5000

Production Server

1. Install dependencies

python -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt

2. Run the setup wizard

python setup.py

Provide your MySQL connection details, an uploads directory, and the credentials for the first administrator account. The wizard creates a .env file and initialises the database schema.

3. Start Production Server

gunicorn -k eventlet -w 1 "app:create_app()" -b 0.0.0.0:5000

The application defaults to http://localhost:5000.

(Only works on Linux)

Development Server

1. Launch Development Server

python app.py

The application defaults to http://localhost:5000.

(Works on both Windows & Linux)

Administrative CLI

NovaTalk ships with a Click-based management tool for user administration.

Create a user:

python cli.py add-user --username alice --email [email protected] --password S3cureP@ss --display-name "Alice Johnson"

Reset a password:

python cli.py set-password --username alice --password N3wSecret!

All commands run inside the Flask application context and persist changes via SQLAlchemy with Werkzeug-secured hashes.

For more CLI usages, please refer to CLI Documents.

Environment variables

• SECRET_KEY – Flask secret key (generated during setup)

• DATABASE_URL – SQLAlchemy connection string, e.g. mysql+pymysql://user:password@localhost:3306/novatalk

• UPLOAD_FOLDER – Absolute path where avatars and message images will be stored

  (Check .env file)

Development Notes

• Uses Material Web typography, elevation, and ripple effects, customized with NovaTalk’s own CSS.

• File uploads are validated for type and size before being saved under UPLOAD_FOLDER.

• Run database migrations with:

  export FLASK_APP=app:create_app
  flask db init
  flask db migrate
  flask db upgrade
  

License

This project is licensed under the AGPL-V3 License. See LICENSE for details.