RetiBoard (v3.6.4)

Sovereign, Ephemeral, Decentralized Imageboard over Reticulum.

RetiBoard is a censorship-resistant anonymous imageboard built on the Reticulum Network Stack (RNS). It recreates the classic imageboard experience—catalog views, thread bumping, and media sharing—without any centralized storage or infrastructure.

Core Pillars

1. Sovereign & Ephemeral — All data lives on end-user machines. Threads are short-lived (12h default TTL) and aggressively pruned.
2. Infrastructure Neutrality — Reticulum nodes only route; they do not store or index.
3. Strict Content Opacity — The backend is 100% content-blind. It handles encrypted blobs but never holds decryption keys or inspects payloads.
4. Client-Side Governance — Moderation, filtering, and fetch policies are 100% local decisions.

Features

• P2P Sync: Gossip-based synchronization via LXMF.
• Chunked Transfers: Multi-peer payload transfer with resume-safe fetching.
• Privacy: AES-GCM encryption with HKDF key derivation (client-side).
• Anti-Spam: Per-board Proof-of-Work (PoW) difficulty.
• Network Resilience: Optimized for both high-bandwidth and LoRa/low-speed links.

Privacy

RetiBoard is designed for strong practical privacy when used correctly.

• Encrypted Content: Post content is encrypted before storage or transfer.
• Local Decryption: Content is decrypted locally in the browser, not on the backend.
• Infrastructure Neutrality: Routing nodes forward traffic but do not need your decryption keys.
• User-Controlled Identity: Reticulum identities are local, portable, and disposable.

The main privacy rule is simple: your first-hop connection matters. If you connect to a TCP node directly, that node can see your IP address. For better privacy, use Tor, a VPN, or another privacy-preserving first hop, and treat identities as compartmentalized personas when needed.

For practical privacy guidance, see: docs/privacy.md

Prerequisites

• Python: 3.10+
• Node.js: 18+ (for frontend build)

Developer Setup

RetiBoard is currently in active development. Binary releases are not yet provided, and building from source is the recommended path for enthusiasts. See docs/compile-nutka-binary.md.

1. Backend Installation

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/user/retiboard.git
cd retiboard

# Install in editable mode
pip install -e .
# — or with uv —
uv sync

2. Frontend Build

cd frontend
npm install
npm run build
cd ..

3. Running RetiBoard

# Start as a full client (Web UI + Node)
python -m retiboard

# Start in Relay Mode (Headless, no UI, purely for network participation)
python -m retiboard --relay

Access the Web UI at http://127.0.0.1:8787 (default).

Known Issues & Notes

• Linux Binary Build: Compiling a standalone binary (e.g., via Nuitka) is currently non-trivial and may require manual patches to the rns library's Identity initialization. It is recommended to run via the Python interpreter for now.
• Identity: RetiBoard uses native Reticulum identities. Ensure your ~/.retiboard/identity is backed up if you wish to preserve your node's identity.

Specification

For detailed protocol, synchronization, and data model information, see: docs/RetiBoard_v3_6_4_spec.md

License

RetiBoard is released under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 (AGPL-3.0). See the LICENSE file for details.