Note: Currently you will need the Go toolchain installed as we don’t publish binaries yet.

Client-side

Option A: Go client

1. Run go install go.salty.im/saltyim/cmd/salty-chat@v2
2. Add $GOPATH/bin to your $PATH with:

1# This is most likely already set by the toolchain itself
2export $GOPATH="$HOME/go"
3
4# This is what you should actually do
5export PATH="$PATH:$GOPATH/bin"

Option B: Shell client

1. Install the required tools:

1go install go.salty.im/ratchet/cmd/ratchet@latest
2go install go.mills.io/salty/cmd/salty-keygen@latest

2. Install jq, dig, and sha256sum from your distribution’s or OS’s package manager.

3. Optionally install inotify-tools for efficient inbox watching (the client will fall back to polling without it).

4. Fetch the salty-chat.sh script and place it somewhere accessible in your $PATH with the proper execution bit set (mode 0755).

5. Initialize your identity:

1salty-chat.sh init alice@example.com

This generates your key pair, a .well-known discovery document, and a CGI script for receiving messages. Follow the printed setup instructions to configure your web server.

Server-side

Deployment of a saltyd broker may vary between platforms, the following being listed below:

• FreeBSD
• Linux with Docker
• Linux without Docker
• OpenBSD

How to request SSL/TLS certificates and such won’t be covered by this guide.