Episkopos Community

Sovereign tools for communities that own their future

episkopos.community

A suite of sovereign, self-hosted tools for online communities. Episkopos puts ownership back in the hands of the people who use it — no platform lock-in, no data extraction, no compromises.

Based on Stoat, an open-source chat platform.

Part of the Episkopos suite — sovereign tools for communities.

This repository is the development hub and source of truth for:

• Bug Reports
• Feature Requests
• UX Feedback
• Security Reports

Products

Censer The Sacred Vessel of Communication Real-time chat platform built for communities that refuse to rent their conversations from corporations. Self-hosted, federated-ready, and fully open source.

Unveil Draw Back the Veil Community knowledge browser that surfaces collective wisdom. Browse, search, and preserve the conversations and decisions that define your community.

Postern The Quiet Side Gate Migration and synchronisation tool that lets communities leave legacy platforms on their own terms. Export, transform, and import — no data left behind.

Quick Links

Landing site	episkopos.community
GitLab	work.episkopos.community/episkopos
GitHub mirror	github.com/episk-pos
Contact	contact@episkopos.community

Repositories

Repository	Product	Description
censer-web	Censer	Web client (SolidJS + Vite)
censer-backend	Censer	API server (Rust)
censer-flutter	Censer	Mobile client (Flutter)
censer-sdk-dart	Censer	Dart SDK
unveil	Unveil	Knowledge archive (Elixir + Phoenix)
postern	Postern	Migration tool (TypeScript)

Service Status

Check real-time service health at status.episkopos.community.

Where To File Issues

Use GitHub Issues in this repository.

1. Open New issue
2. Choose a template
3. Fill all required sections

Available templates:

• Bug Report
• Feature Request
• UX Feedback
• Security Issue

Before Opening A New Issue

1. Search existing issues to avoid duplicates.
2. Confirm behavior on the latest available build.
3. Collect evidence:
   • Reproduction steps
   • Screenshots or video
   • Environment details (OS, client, version)
   • Logs or error messages

Bug Reports

Good bug reports include:

1. Clear summary of the problem
2. Exact reproduction steps
3. Expected vs actual behavior
4. Frequency, severity, and workaround
5. Environment + evidence

Use the Bug Report template.

Feature Requests

Strong feature requests include:

1. User problem being solved
2. Desired outcome
3. Proposed solution
4. Alternatives considered
5. Scope and impact
6. Acceptance criteria

Use the Feature Request template.

UX Feedback

Use UX Feedback when reporting friction, confusion, or usability issues that may not be strict bugs.

Helpful UX submissions include:

• Current experience and pain points
• Suggested improvement
• Why it matters to users
• Supporting examples and references

Security Reports

Use Security Issue for vulnerabilities.

If the report includes sensitive exploit details, do not post proof-of-concept details publicly. Provide impact and reproduction at a safe level so maintainers can coordinate remediation.

Triage Flow

Maintainers will generally:

1. Validate scope and request missing information
2. Apply labels (type, priority, severity, area, status)
3. Deduplicate and link related issues
4. Move accepted issues into planning/in progress

Higher-quality issue submissions reduce triage turnaround time.

Dev Stack

A full local development environment lives in dev/. It runs the entire Censer backend (powered by Stoat: Delta, Bonfire, Autumn, January) and infrastructure (MongoDB, Redis, MinIO, RabbitMQ, Maildev) locally, with the frontend Vite dev server running natively for fast HMR.

Two modes are available:

• Kind/K8s (default) — Full Kubernetes cluster via Kind + Tilt. Best for production-parity testing.
• Docker Compose — Lighter alternative, no Kind cluster needed. Good for quick iteration and CI.

Both modes use the same ports, same images, and same Tilt UI.

Prerequisites

All modes:

• Docker
• just
• Rust / Cargo (or use --prebuilt to skip)

Kind/K8s mode (adds):

• Kind
• Tilt
• kubectl

Compose via Tilt (adds):

• Tilt

Plain Compose mode: Docker only (no Tilt, Kind, or kubectl needed).

Quick Start

cd dev/

# --- Kind/K8s mode (default) ---
just setup    # Check prerequisites, create Kind cluster
just up       # Start everything (Tilt UI opens)

# --- Docker Compose via Tilt ---
just up-compose          # Same Tilt UI, Docker Compose backend

# --- Plain Docker Compose (no Tilt) ---
just compose-up          # Start all services
just compose-seed        # Seed test data
just compose-down        # Stop everything

If the backend (censer-backend/) or frontend (censer-web/) directories aren't cloned as siblings, the Tilt UI will show clone buttons to set them up automatically.

Commands

Command	Description
Kind/K8s mode
just setup	Check prerequisites, create Kind cluster
just up	Start the full dev stack via Tilt + Kind
just up-prebuilt	Start with pre-built images (no Rust needed)
just down	Stop Tilt (cluster stays intact)
just nuke	Delete the Kind cluster entirely
Docker Compose mode
just up-compose	Start dev stack via Tilt + Compose
just up-compose-prebuilt	Compose + pre-built images
just compose-up	Plain docker compose up (no Tilt)
just compose-down	Stop Compose services
just compose-seed	Seed test data (Compose mode)
Shared
just test	Run frontend E2E tests against the stack
just status	Show cluster, pods, and Tilt resources
just logs <service>	Tail logs for a service (e.g., delta)

Ports

All services use the 14xxx range to avoid conflicts with other dev stacks (Fray.run, execos, etc.) that may run concurrently.

Port	Service
5173	Frontend (Vite dev server, local)
5174	Flutter frontend (web, local)
14702	Delta (API)
14703	Bonfire (WebSocket)
14704	Autumn (file server)
14705	January (embed proxy)
14717	MongoDB (debug)
14672	RabbitMQ management UI (debug)
14080	Maildev web UI (debug)
14009	MinIO API (debug)
14001	MinIO console (Compose only)

Architecture

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Host                                           │
│  ┌───────────────┐  ┌──────────────────┐        │
│  │ Vite dev :5173│  │ Flutter dev :5174│        │
│  └───────────────┘  └──────────────────┘        │
│                                                 │
│  ┌─ Kind cluster (kind-censer) ──────────────┐  │
│  │  namespace: censer                        │  │
│  │                                           │  │    Kind/K8s
│  │  delta:14702  bonfire:14703               │  │      mode
│  │  autumn:14704  january:14705              │  │
│  │                                           │  │
│  │  redis  mongodb  minio  rabbitmq  maildev │  │
│  └───────────────────────────────────────────┘  │
│                  — or —                         │
│  ┌─ Docker Compose ──────────────────────────┐  │
│  │                                           │  │
│  │  delta:14702  bonfire:14703               │  │    Compose
│  │  autumn:14704  january:14705              │  │      mode
│  │                                           │  │
│  │  redis  mongodb  minio  rabbitmq  maildev │  │
│  └───────────────────────────────────────────┘  │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Backend binaries are built on the host with cargo build --release, then packaged into thin Docker images. In Kind mode, images are loaded into the cluster via kind load. In Compose mode, images are built directly by docker compose build.