# VoiceCat

Self-hosted, native voice & text chat in the spirit of classic TeamSpeak / Mumble —
channel-based voice, channel + private text, one server you run yourself. Plain **TCP**
(control) and **UDP** (media), no WebRTC. Encrypted by default. A shared **C++ core**
(`libvoicecat`) drives native clients (Swift on macOS/iOS, C# on Windows) and the server.

> **Status: pre-implementation.** The design is complete in [`docs/`](docs/). The code is an
> M0 **skeleton** — it compiles and links, but every subsystem is a stub. See
> [`AGENTS.md`](AGENTS.md) to start building, and [`docs/roadmap.md`](docs/roadmap.md) for the
> milestones.

## Read the design first

The [`docs/`](docs/) folder is the source of truth. Start at [`docs/README.md`](docs/README.md),
then `architecture` → `protocol` → `voice` → `security` → `tech-stack` → `deployment` →
`roadmap`.

## Build the skeleton (no dependencies needed yet)

The M0 skeleton builds with just a C++20 compiler + CMake + Ninja — **no vcpkg, no
third-party libraries**, because every subsystem is currently a stub.

```bash
cmake --preset dev
cmake --build --preset dev
ctest --preset dev            # runs the smoke test (links the core, calls the C ABI)
```

Artifacts land in `build/dev/bin/` (`voicecat-server`, `vccli`).

When you start implementing a subsystem that needs real libraries, build with vcpkg deps:

```bash
# one-time: git clone https://github.com/microsoft/vcpkg && ./vcpkg/bootstrap-vcpkg.sh
export VCPKG_ROOT=/path/to/vcpkg            # set VCPKG_ROOT (works on Linux/macOS/Windows)
cmake --preset server-release               # auto-installs deps from vcpkg.json
cmake --build --preset server-release
```

## Layout

```
docs/         design spec (read this)
core/         libvoicecat — the shared C++ core
  include/    voicecat.h  (the C ABI all clients call)
  proto/      voicecat.proto  (control-plane wire format, source of truth)
  src/        net/ crypto/ codec/ protocol/ session/ audio/  (stubs today)
server/       voicecat-server (headless; links the core)
tools/vccli/  headless test client — drives the protocol from M1 on
clients/      apple/ (Swift, M4)   windows/ (C#, M4)   — placeholders for now
tests/        CTest targets
```

## License

Permissive-only dependencies (no GPL/LGPL) so the project can be redistributed freely,
including closed-source. Project license: TBD (see [`docs/tech-stack.md`](docs/tech-stack.md) §5).