User Guide

Getting Started

Warpnet is a fully peer-to-peer social network. There are no central servers and no company in the middle — each user runs their own autonomous node. You do create an account, but it lives only on your own machine: nothing is registered anywhere, and nothing is held for you.

To get started:

1. Install Warpnet (see "Install" below).

2. Run it. On first launch you choose a network and create a username and a password.

That's it — you're online and in control!

Install

Linux — Snap (recommended, no compiler needed):

sudo snap install warpnet warpnet

Direct downloads — go to the download page and pick your platform:

Platform File Windows (x64) warpnet_windows_amd64.zip Linux (amd64) warpnet_linux_amd64.tar.gz Linux (arm64) warpnet_linux_arm64.tar.gz macOS warpnet_darwin.tar.gz

Unpack the archive and run the file inside it: warpnet.exe on Windows, warpnet everywhere else. Every download has a matching *_checksums.txt file — verify it if you care about supply chain, and you should.

A note on macOS: the macOS build is not signed, so Gatekeeper will block it. The code compiles and is tested on macOS, but there is no distributable build yet. Treat macOS as unsupported for now.

Android: the Warpnet Android app is a companion for your desktop node, not a standalone one — it pairs with your node over a QR code. It is currently under F-Droid inclusion review, so there is no public download yet. See "Your phone" below.

Choosing a network

Warpnet runs two separate, isolated networks:

• Warpnet (main) — the live network, and the default

• Testnet — a safe playground for experimenting

On first launch the sign-in screen has a Network selector. Picking one restarts the app on that network. From the command line:

warpnet --node.network testnet warpnet --node.network mainnet

Each network keeps its own database, so your testnet account and your mainnet account are separate identities even with the same username and password. Nodes only talk to other nodes on the same network and a compatible version.

Sign up

Creating an account takes four steps in the app. Click Sign up on the welcome screen.

Step 1 of 4 — Username. Pick the name you will log in with. This is your permanent login name; the display name on your profile can be changed later.

Step 2 of 4 — Important information. Three statements, and you must tick all three to continue:

• you are solely responsible for the content you upload;

• all your data is stored locally on your device, and if you lose access to the device your data is gone;

• Warpnet may introduce sponsored content or advertisements in the future.

Step 3 of 4 — Password. Type your password twice. A live checklist shows the rules; the "Next" button stays disabled until every rule is green and both fields match. Your password must:

• be 8 to 32 characters long

• contain one uppercase letter (A–Z)

• contain one lowercase letter (a–z)

• contain one digit (0–9)

• contain one special character

An empty password is not allowed. Use the eye icon to reveal what you typed.

Step 4 of 4 — Terms. Read the Terms and the Privacy Policy, then click the final Sign up.

After your first sign-up the app offers to show you the phone pairing screen. You can skip it and open it later from the side menu.

Your password is your identity

This is the most important section on this page, so read it twice.

Your password does two jobs at the same time:

1. It decrypts your local database — your profile, timeline, chats, drafts and follows.

2. It regenerates your private key. Your key is derived deterministically from your username, your password and the network name. It is never written to disk; it does not exist until you log in.

Three consequences:

• There is no password reset, and nobody to ask for one.

• Changing your password is not a login change — it derives a different key, which means a different identity. Choose it once, deliberately.

• The flip side is good news: type the same username, password and network on another machine and you become the same node, with the same ID. Your identity is portable. What is not recoverable is your data — the encrypted database on the machine you lost.

Back up your data folder if it matters to you:

• Linux, macOS — ~/.warpdata/<network>/storage

• Windows — %LOCALAPPDATA%\warpdata\<network>\storage

What you can do

A Twitter-style social network, running with no server anywhere: profiles, posts, replies, quotes and retweets, emoji reactions, polls, images and video with alt text, bookmarks, pinned posts, hashtags and search, direct messages, notifications (with optional e-mail delivery), follows with follow-request approval for private accounts, mutes, blocks, keyword filters, post editing, and import of your Twitter archive.

Public content propagates peer-to-peer. Private data — your timeline, your chats, your drafts — never leaves your node.

Your phone

The Warpnet Android app does not sign in to anything. It pairs with the node you already run:

1. On the desktop app, open Pair your phone from the side menu. It shows a QR code.

2. Open the Warpnet app on the phone — it starts on the scanner screen — and point it at the code.

3. Pairing is automatic. The phone remembers this node; keep the desktop node running for the phone to connect.

The QR code never contains your private key. The phone generates its own identity and is a separate, revocable device: lose the phone and the node simply forgets it. Your master key was never exposed.

The Android app is under F-Droid inclusion review and is not yet published. This page will link it as soon as it is.

Running Warpnet on a server

Two options for people who want an always-on node.

Remote node — the same web interface, served over the wire. It runs headless and serves the Vue app over HTTP with a WebSocket bridge, so you can use Warpnet from any browser. The traffic between browser and node is encrypted with AES-256-GCM, keyed by the password you launch it with:

NODE_SERVER_PORT=4999 NODE_SERVER_PASSWORD=<your secret>

--node.server.password is required — the node refuses to start without it, because it is the key to that channel. A ready docker-compose.yaml is in the repository.

Relay node — stable, stateless entry points that help new nodes find peers over the DHT. They hold no user data. If you have a publicly reachable machine, running one is the single most useful thing you can donate to the network. Download relay_linux_amd64.tar.gz from the releases page, or build the Docker image from Dockerfile.relay.

Configuration

Settings can be given as a command-line flag or as an environment variable. A flag beats an environment variable, which beats the default. Env names are the flag uppercased with dots turned into underscores: --node.port becomes NODE_PORT.

Flag Environment variable Default --node.network NODE_NETWORK warpnet --node.port NODE_PORT 4001 --node.host.v4 NODE_HOST_V4 0.0.0.0 --node.host.v6 NODE_HOST_V6 :: --node.seed NODE_SEED derived --node.bootstrap NODE_BOOTSTRAP empty --node.print-psk NODE_PRINT_PSK false --node.server.port NODE_SERVER_PORT 4999 --node.server.password NODE_SERVER_PASSWORD empty --logging.level LOGGING_LEVEL info --logging.format LOGGING_FORMAT text --database.dir DATABASE_DIR storage

Reporting content

You can report a post or a whole profile. Pick "Report", say in one sentence what is wrong, and send. That is the end of your involvement — there is no queue, no appeal form, no ticket number. Reports go to moderator nodes on the network; the reported user is not notified.

Two things to know before you press the button:

• Direct messages are never moderated. Nothing in your private chats is ever read, judged or reported. There is no mechanism for it at all.

• Your report is not anonymous to the moderators. It carries your user ID, because that is how the answer finds its way back to you. The person you reported does not learn who reported them.

See the Moderation page for how verdicts are reached.

Fediverse

Warpnet can reach Mastodon and the wider Fediverse through an ActivityPub gateway. Bridged accounts show up in "Who to follow" and in your timeline, marked with a Mastodon icon. You can follow them, reply and react. You cannot send them direct messages — Warpnet's private chats do not exist on the other side.

The gateway is only a resolver, and it is stateless. If you run your own, change its node id under Settings → Fediverse gateway.

Important notes

• Your data is stored only on your machine, encrypted with your password.

• There is no password reset, and no way to recover your data if the device and your backups are gone.

• No internet signup is required. Your node connects to relay (bootstrap) nodes for peer discovery only; your data does not pass through them.

• Warpnet is pre-1.0 and actively developed. Use testnet to explore, expect rough edges, and please report what you find.

Need help?

• Telegram (fastest): https://t.me/warpnetdev

• Bug reports: https://github.com/Warp-net/warpnet/issues

• Source mirror: https://codeberg.org/Warpnet/warpnet

• Snap Store: https://snapcraft.io/warpnet

Contact: contact@warpnet.site