README

StreetMesh Server

Design and deploy multiplayer experiences on a server you control — where people sign in with an identity that belongs to them, not you.

StreetMesh Servers are Laravel applications supported by Node processes. Set one up and you will have created somewhere people can visit through multiple modalities — mobile, XR, and IRL — and do things together: game, shop, learn, and generally be entertained.

What is StreetMesh?

StreetMesh is a collection of MIT-licensed open source software projects aimed squarely at an important problem: How do we keep the Internet open, federated, and decentralized as it transitions (slowly but surely) from hyperlinks to the metaverse?

What's does a StreetMesh Server do?

Hosts portable identities. StreetMesh users rent or own domiciles in other StreetMesh servers; the address of their domicile, like username.stme.sh or even me.mydomain.com, functions as their username, like in AT Protocol, and their server stores their data
Hosts multiplayer venues. StreetMesh servers can be domiciles or they can host experiences, or they can do both; when a server hosts experiences, it is called a venue
Orchestrates modular experiences. StreetMesh experiences are distributed as Composer packages: create your own, mix and match others', curate the perfect venue for your audience
Syncs and adjudicates experience state. Powered by Colyseus, running on Node: your server's Hub enforces the rules of the experiences you host, and syncs the data the players share
Coordinates text, audio, and video chat. Your server can facilitate peer-to-peer connections for up to four players in parties; experiences host spatialized audio chat using LiveKit

Requirements

To run a server, you need PHP 8.3, Node 22, and a web server, usually nginx running php-fpm. Running the Laravel server app locally for dev work, we like Herd. In the cloud, we like Laravel Cloud. For the Node processes, you'll just run a node script locally. In the cloud, you can use Colyseus Cloud. We'll be adding features to this project soon that allow you to start a Colyseus server in Laravel Forge on your preferred hosting platform (AWS, DigitalOcean, etc.).

Getting Started

composer create-project streetmesh/server my-server

It asks one question — whether this is somewhere people live, somewhere they gather, or both — and writes the answers, along with a name for the server and a secret for its hub.

? What is this server?
  › A domicile — people live here, and their records are yours to keep
    A venue — people arrive from elsewhere and do things together
    Both — one server, two halves

The name matters more than the rest and is the one thing to get right first. It is this server's identifier, every signature is checked against it, and it is read when the first identity is minted — so changing it afterwards renames nothing that already exists. Use the real one, not a local alias.

Then run it:

php artisan serve  # or Herd, or whatever you use
npm run dev        # watch the assets
./hub-serve        # the Node half, if this is a venue

Test the stack:

> php artisan streetmesh:check
  ✓ the name resolves to this identity
  ✓ the document is reachable and claims the name
  ✓ a stranger finds the key we signed with
  ✓ and can verify what we signed

Ready to put one on the internet? DEPLOYING.md covers the venue, the hub, and the order they have to be released in.

Build something people can do here

An experience is a Composer package: a game, a shop, a gallery. It ships its own screens, its own rules, and decides what is worth writing down afterwards.

php artisan streetmesh:experience acme/laravel-bingo

That writes one that installs, registers, appears on the menu and passes its own tests — and does nothing, which is where you start. Chess2D is the worked example of where it goes next.

EXPERIENCES.md is the guide, and it leads with the traps, because every one of them cost this project hours.

Learning StreetMesh

The Protocol repository is the authority on what StreetMesh is: guides, decisions, and the conformance vectors.

The glossary defines every term in plain language and says which are ours and which we borrowed. The Dream is where the whole idea starts.

Contributing

This repository is the application — the part you own after composer create-project. Everything that makes it a StreetMesh server is installed, and is developed elsewhere.


`StreetMesh/Laravel`	`streetmesh/laravel` — what turns this into a StreetMesh server, and where the Node hub lives
`StreetMesh/Protocol-PHP`	`streetmesh/protocol` — the protocol in framework-free PHP
`StreetMesh/Chess2D`	`streetmesh/chess-2d` — an experience, and the example of one
`StreetMesh/Protocol`	What StreetMesh is: guides, decisions, conformance vectors

Working on the library alongside this application is one line:

composer config repositories.laravel path ../Laravel

License

The application is MIT, and so is every package. StreetMesh prose and documentation at the organization level are CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.

streetmesh / server

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