TermCall

TermCall is an experimental terminal video-call client. It uses WebRTC for peer-to-peer media and renders video as ANSI/half-block art in the terminal. The companion termcall-server process provides signaling and TURN relay services for self-hosted deployments.

Warning

TermCall is pre-release software. It is not suitable for emergency, production, or confidential communication. The first planned GitHub prerelease is v0.1.0-rc.1; this repository does not claim a stable release.

Status and support

• macOS Apple Silicon is the native client release target, including camera and microphone support.
• Linux client artifacts are receive-only (CGO_ENABLED=0); they do not provide native camera or microphone capture.
• Windows builds are not verified or published.
• Local voice-activity display is not a measurement yet and remains inactive.
• Rooms are small full-mesh calls (five peers by default), not a conferencing service.

Please read SECURITY.md before reporting a vulnerability, and SUPPORT.md for non-security help.

Build from source

The client needs Go 1.26.5, CGO, and a native media toolchain.

macOS Apple Silicon

Install Xcode Command Line Tools, then build with the provided helper. It selects Apple's SDK and compiler even when a Nix compiler is first on PATH.

git clone https://github.com/msk1039/termcall.git
cd termcall
./scripts/build_macos.sh termcall
./termcall

Join a call

Start the interactive join form:

./termcall

Or provide a generated room UUID and username directly:

# First participant creates a room and receives its UUID in the title bar.
./termcall -username alice -room new

# Other participants join that exact UUID.
./termcall -username bob -room YOUR_ROOM_UUID

The camera and microphone are off by default. Press v to request camera access, m to request microphone access, s for stats, n to change the renderer, and q to quit.

Self-host the server

The supported deployment is a Linux host with Docker Engine, a public IPv4 address, and a TLS reverse proxy for signaling. Copy the environment template, set a high-entropy TURN secret, and start the hardened non-root container:

cp .env.example .env
# Edit TERMCALL_PUBLIC_IP and TERMCALL_TURN_SECRET in .env.
docker compose up -d --build

Open the WebSocket/TURN ports and relay range configured in .env in both the host firewall and cloud firewall. The provided server binds signaling to loopback by default, so place a TLS reverse proxy in front of it and give clients a wss:// URL:

./termcall -username alice -room new \
  -server wss://call.example.com/ws

For a trusted short-lived development or LAN deployment only, clients may use plaintext WebSockets with explicit opt-in:

./termcall -username alice -room new \
  -server ws://SERVER_IP:8080/ws \
  -allow-insecure-ws

Plaintext WebSockets expose signaling metadata and must not be used on an untrusted network. TURN authentication and firewall policy still need proper configuration.

Releases and verification

Tagged prereleases build these assets in GitHub Actions:

• macOS ARM64 native client archive;
• Linux AMD64 receive-only client archive;
• Linux AMD64 server archive;
• SHA-256 checksums, SPDX SBOM, and generated third-party notice inventory.

The release workflow produces GitHub artifact attestations for the checksum manifest and publishes ghcr.io/msk1039/termcall-server with a digest recorded in the release assets. Prefer the immutable @sha256:... image reference over a mutable tag.

To verify a downloaded archive, compare it with CHECKSUMS.txt; where GitHub CLI is available, also verify the build attestation:

gh attestation verify termcall_*.tar.gz \
  --repo msk1039/termcall

Contributing

Contributions are welcome once you have read CONTRIBUTING.md and CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md. By contributing, you agree that your contribution is licensed under Apache-2.0.

License

Copyright 2026 TermCall contributors. Licensed under Apache-2.0; see LICENSE, NOTICE, and THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md.