# kognise/arpchat

Answering the question nobody asked: what if you wanted to text your friends using only ARP?

Repository: https://github.com/kognise/arpchat
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/arpchat
Language: Rust
License: NOASSERTION
License Family: other
Topics: arp, chat
Last push: 2023-08-15T15:25:08+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 23/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-02T17:46:02.011165+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 1626, "days_push": 1114, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: no_license
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 2545, forks 53 (observed 2026-08-28T04:07:00.205897+00:00)

## What it is
A Rust-based chat application that sends text messages between computers on the same local network using ARP packets instead of standard networking protocols. It implements a custom transport protocol with compression, presence discovery, and heartbeat notifications on top of ARP.

## Use cases
- chat with friends on a client-isolated network without internet or standard ports
- send messages between machines on the same LAN using only ARP
- see who else is online on the local network via presence discovery
- experiment with a transport protocol built on top of ARP
- communicate on a network where UDP/TCP traffic is blocked

## When to choose
- you need to message people on the same local network where normal chat traffic is blocked or isolated
- you want a fun, hacky networking experiment or educational tool
- you're on a client-isolated network and want a zero-server chat

## When to avoid
- you need reliable, secure, or production-grade messaging
- you need to chat across different networks or over the internet
- you can't get raw network privileges (e.g., Npcap on Windows, CAP_NET_RAW on Linux)
- you want a polished, supported chat product

## Facets
- artifact type: application
- maturity: experimental
- function: chat-interface, networking, gui
- domain: networking, messaging-platforms, developer-tools
- platform: windows, cross-platform, rust
- tags: arp, chat, local-network, messaging, novelty, rust, linux

## Member repositories
- kognise/arpchat (main) score 23

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:07:00.205897+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T02:24:36.898498+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/kognise/arpchat (fetched 2026-08-28T04:07:00.205897+00:00, sha a903d7ec85a1)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.