An introduction to Polycentric

Polycentric is an Open-source distributed social network. Checkout our documentation here, or tryout the app here.

Project layout

Polycentric is split into a variety of Typescript packages, and a Rust backend. Aspects like persistence are abstracted away allowing browsers to use IndexedDB while desktop or bots use LevelDB.

• Browser client ./packages/polycentric-web which depends on polycentric-react
• Desktop client ./packages/polycentric-desktop which depends on polycentric-react
• React UI ./packages/polycentric-react which depends on polycentric-core
• Bot client ./packages/polycentric-bot which depends on polycentric-core
• Core logic ./packages/polycentric-core
• Server implementation ./server

Development quickstart

Development requires docker, and docker-compose.

# open a shell
# setup the Docker development sandbox
make build-sandbox
# start the Docker development sandbox
make start-sandbox
# join the sandbox with your current shell
make join-sandbox

# create a production build of each package
make build-production
# start the web ui
cd packages/polycentric-web
npm run dev

# open another shell
# join the existing sandbox with your new shell
make join-sandbox
# start the backend
cd server
cargo run

# Connect to the web UI at https://localhost:8081

# When done destroy the sandbox environment
make stop-sandbox